Category: Resources

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

THE HERO’S JOURNEY: A Primer

Premium Beat does us all a great service by taking a long-needed new look at how mythologist Joseph Campell and his #1 acolyte, a guy named George Lucas, changed the showbiz story template:

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The Recurring Myth Behind Your Favorite Films
by Scott Porter

American thinker and writer Joseph Campbell spent considerable time exploring the facets of myth and religion. But he is perhaps best known for two concepts that have permeated modern culture. The first is the idea that you should “follow your bliss.” You’ve surely seen the phrase written on chalkboards in coffeeshops. In an interview with journalist Bill Moyers, Campbell (referring to Sinclair Lewis’s satiric novel, Babbitt) asks:

Remember the last line? ‘I have never done a thing that I wanted to do in all my life.’ That is a man who never followed his bliss. read article

Peggy Bechko Wants Writers to Raise the Stakes & “Make It Kick!”

by Peggy Bechko

BuffyStake
See what we’re doing here? “Raise the stakes…?” Sure ya do.

You heard me and you know what I mean. To make a story really jump, to grab the viewer’s or reader’s attention, you, the writer, have to get in there and raise the stakes. Make it really personal for the ‘hero’ or ‘heroine.” There’s no better way to really rope ‘em in.

So how, you ask, to you raise the stakes like that?

Ask yourself the question, what are the most personal things, things that affect the everyday lives of the people who’ll be watching that movie or reading that book, that can happen if the character fails at whatever his task is? read article

How Interweb Criticism Reinvented ‘The Leftovers’

The days of the couch potato audience are over. Even major TV series creator-showrunners like LOST’s Damon Lindelof understand that audience interaction is now the name of the game. And all we here at TVWriter™ can say is, “About time:

maxresdefault2by Moze Halperin

Imagine if you could have blogged, “Let’s not determine Laura Palmer’s murderer right now” or “Patrick should give up on Spongebob, it’s never going to happen” or “He really needed to get eaten alive” — and had your opinion-dumps be taken for gospel, changing TV history in service of the greater good? 

Generally, before a new season, we can assume that producers and networks band together to assess critical and audience reactions to the former season. Rarely have these assessments seemed so visible, and so loyal to specific critiques, as the second season of The Leftovers. Watching Season 2, it seems less like creators Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta reimagined their show than that every critical blog post conjoined in a communal, idealized fan fictional doppelgänger of the original. read article

Stereotyping: Lazy Writing or Necessary Evil?

THE GRINDER: THE GRINDER premieres this Fall on FOX. Pictured L-R: Rob Lowe and Fred Savage. ©2015 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Ray Mickshaw/FOX

by Diana Black

Stereotyping – Laziness or Necessity?

You’ve written ‘the great’ teleplay – an ensemble cast that’s sure to please everybody, a tight, compelling narrative arc, characters put through hell, the ‘flavor of the month’ genre – sounds great – more power to you, but how many of those beloved characters you’ve slaved over are stereotypes?  And if so, why do you deem them necessary – what purpose do they serve? read article

11 Laws of Great Storytelling

The Adelaide (that’s in Australia, kids) Screenwriter Blog is layin’ down the law, amigos. It behooves us to obey or face the consequences:

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Writers are special people in some ways, and just like the rest of humanity in others. We like tips, and tricks, and formulas that promise us insight. Sometimes these things help, sometimes they distract, and sometimes they mislead us, but just offer us another batch and we’ll be there, sniffing hungrily. read article