Category: Resources

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

8 Ways Studying Improv Will Make You a Better Comedy Writer

Probably not genuine improv, but, hey, we're playing it by ear here.
Probably not genuine improv, but, hey, we’re playing it by ear here.

by Erica Lies

Recently, it’s become a common adage — almost to the point of cliché — that if you want to be in entertainment, you should take improv classes. They’re recommended for a variety of benefits like networking or how they’ll teach you to think fast on your feet and be flexible. And improvising has become increasingly popular even for the regular folk, whether it’s for better communication or just feeling comfortable in front of a crowd.

But for writers who aren’t interested in performing, there’s more direct and obvious upside to studying improv: it’ll make you a better comedy writer. Yeah yeah, big shock that practicing comedy makes you better at it, but improv is often overlooked in favor of sketch precisely for those seeking writing skills.

I’ve been improvising for the last ten years, and busting my chops with various teams in front of both large and tiny audiences certainly helped me get up to speed with television writing fromBroad City to You’re the Worst. But learning to do it well will give you secret ninja comedy prowess. Here’s a few of the skills you’ll pick up that are valuable to a comedy writer: read article

Peggy Bechko Recommends….

by Peggy Bechko

bbc-co-uk-scienceI don’t recommend too many websites in my column here on TVWriter™ (although I’ve been known to post Writers Websites Wednesday on my own blog) but this time around here I’m offering up one that really rocks: The BBC Science web page.

BBC’s Science page is a great resource for idle perusing and even more so for anyone looking for an interesting idea to develop for a script or trying to further research an idea that’s already occurred.

Why do I like the site so much? Well, it’s clear, concise, and offers even more links to more sites. Right now, BBC Science is offering such topics as “Are Beards Good For Your Health?” And “Nine Science Ideas to Make You Look Smart,” “How Do You Pee in Space?” And a whole bunch of other topics including a fascinating “iWonder” section. read article

Peggy Bechko on Writing “Experts”

by Peggy Bechko

Writing, screenwriting, copywriting – just plain writing….

There are experts everywhere. There are articles coming out of our ears. There’s so damn much! And I’m writing one right now – see the little letters skipping across the page?

So, who do we, as writer, listen to? Well me, of course. Seriously, listen to everyone and no one. That’s helpful right? read article

Dennis O’Neil: The Pitch

a pitch you can't refuseby Dennis O’Neil

Long time ago, as I was coming out of one of those anonymous buildings that house the motion picture business, a lovely young woman smiled as though she recognized me. I didn’t recognize her, or almost anyone else in southern Califormia, so I had to assume that she had mistaken me for someone else: Director? Naw. Producer? Naw. Guy who changes the light bulbs? Maybe. Or did she perhaps think I was a writer? Well, as a matter of fact, that’s what I was. I had just been talking to an editor and a studio executive and been informed that a check would soon be forthcoming.

What I’d been doing there, that summer’s day in Hollywood, was pitching a story. My words were my pitch. Next part of the process would be a return to New York and the execution of a script. Now, I’d never before sold fiction to television, but the procedure I was involved in was pretty familiar. It was the procedure I’d followed in selling dozens of scripts to DC, Marvel, and Charlton, which were all comic book companies. Yep, the rituals for the initial contacts in the two businesses, comics and teevee, were virtually identical. (The monetary rewards, alas, were not, but that’s a lament for another occasion.)

That was then. This isn’t. My recent professional contacts with the funnybook dodge, over the last decade-plus, have been spotty, but all of them, with a single possible exception have involved my delivering a written pitch to an editor before beginning a script. The talking part of the editor-writer encounter seems to have vanished. Let us pause while we gnash our teeth, rub ashes into our sackcloth tunics, tear our hair (and good luck doing this to me) and then shrug and get on with our day. So the rules have changed. So what hasn’t? read article

John Ostrander: Back to the Beginning

by John Ostrander

Warp-Play-PosterWhen I get asked by earnest neophytes how to break into comics, my pat answer is “With a pick and a crowbar through the roof in the middle of a moonless night.”

Somewhat less than helpful, I know.

The truth is that I don’t know how to break into comics. I don’t think most of you can go the path I took. I had an old friend – Mike Gold, who you may have seen hereabouts – and he knew I loved comics and he had liked something I had written for the stage and offered me a chance. When Mike had first gone to NYC to work for DC Comics, I pressed on him a sample script I had written for Green Lantern. He dutifully did but the script didn’t go anywhere and it shouldn’t have. I was very keen but very raw in those days (although I did use elements of it eventually; writers are forever cannibalizing themselves). read article