Category: Resources

40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.

BATMAN v SUPERMAN vs GOOD WRITING

Gerry Conway, TV and film writer and producer, award-winning novelist and comic book writer, raconteur extraordinaire, and, as he says about himself on his Tumblr blog, Conway’s Corner, “minor pop culture icon'”, is, as far as we at TVWriter™ are concerned a very major creator with a soaring imagination.

He’s also been the very good friend of our Beloved Leader, Larry Brody, for about half a century, which makes us even more pleased – if that’s possible – to present Gerry’s insightful analysis of a film sorely in need of his magic touch:

Yeppers, this logo is hideous. The film's even uglier.
Yeppers, this logo is hideous. The film’s even uglier.

by Gerry Conway

Rather than continue to lay fuel on the fire of whether or not “Batman vs Superman” is a good movie, I thought it might be useful to use the interest stirred up by the film to offer a few brief observations about narrative, story structure, and characterization for the would be writers among you. I’ll use the film and its characterization of Bruce Wayne/Batman to illustrate my points. read article

What to Expect if You Move to LA

la-hollywood-sign

by Kathryn Graham

If you’re looking to be a television writer, you’ve probably thought about moving to Los Angeles. With its sunshine and its promise of a better tomorrow, it is still the world’s major hub for television and movies. The City of Angels is home to Hollywood, but also hosts a wide range of culture and taste. Space-age glass and metal skyscrapers rise beside adobe homes and modern castles. World famous landmarks stare at graffitied storefronts. It’s like Los Angeles has a perpetual identity crisis, and maybe it should. Its primary export is dreams, after all.

Here’s a few major points about LA that you may find helpful to know. read article

A Conversation with TV Writer Benjamin Cory Jones

One of the writers of Amazon Prime’s original series HAND OF GOD talks about how he got his career going. A must-read for newbs:

hand-of-god-meetby Chavonny Tillotson

If you were a fly on the wall watching Benjamin Cory Jones work, it might seem like he’s got a pretty easy job.

A noted television writer with a slew of credits under his belt- the Amazon Prime original series Hand of God, starring Ron Perlman- being his most recent gig, Jones spends his days typing away at his computer. And that’s all you would typically see. “Nothing too laborious,” you might say. But what you’d be missing, and what you wouldn’t see is the enormous accountability that Jones takes on every time he bares his soul on the page, and the huge amount of power he yields.

Yes, with his team, consisting of director Anthony Hemingway (Red Tails), Anthony’s producing partner Mark Taylor and producer Lena Waithe (Dear White People), Jones is committed to changing the prevailing conversation taking place in the mainstream as well as behind closed doors about what it really is like to be an African American man in the United States. read article

Peggy Bechko’s World: Constructive or Destructive Criticism?

destructionby Peggy Bechko

All right readers and writers, gather around. This isn’t going to be a whiny rant about how people are mean to writers and how their criticism is the pits (though at times it can be), but a bit of a quick analysis of the situation and how everyone, readers and writers alike can deal with it.

Look, constructive criticism is a good thing and writers should get over their ire at having anything they create criticized by anybody. Hey, that’s life. And, constructive criticism can point out flaws or maybe a bit of a slip in editing that would, when corrected, make the book, short story or article much better. Really.

Oh, and readers who post criticism, think about how you couch it. You’re entitled to your opinions and of course if there are glaring editing or grammatical errors in a work you might want to point out that’s happening so other readers will be aware, but it can be put in language that isn’t a personal attack. read article

How to Write a Bestseller like Stephen King

If there’s one surefire way to get a writer to read an article on writing it’s to quote Stephen King, a writer of whom you may have heard. (Or not…but only if you don’t hail from this planet.) Here’s the latest gold mining expedition into Sr. King’s Volcano of Wisdom:

stephenking
by Aditya Bhushan Dwivedi

Most of us often dream of authoring a great book. While some of us lie in the realm of fiction and want to pen down bestsellers, others look forward to write books that can establish themselves as an authority on a subject. Very few are able to actually finish and achieve our dreams. Stephen King is one of the best-selling writers of all time, and his books have sold over 350 million copies. His autobiography –On writing – is considered a gospel among writers. In his autobiography, Stephen King lists 20 rules that help us write better and more expressively. So read and follow them. But remember to use these rules as a guideline instead of a religion.

First write for yourself, and then worry about the audience.“When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.” read article