Category: Resources

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

Peggy Bechko: More Online Writing Resources

solar-energy

by Peggy Bechko

Okay writers – you’re on the web, you’re working, so now’s the time to share a few more links that might well be very helpful to writers of a variety of stripes.

First and foremost for screenwriters. I know you’ve been there, or I hope you have, but if you’re just starting out and haven’t focused in yet, check out Writer’s Guild of America, West. You don’t have to be a member, and it’s packed with lots of helpful materials. There’s contract info, screenwriting credit info, lots of writing tools and you can register your script there if you want. You can learn the lingo as well, screenwriting terms, etc. Head on over and root around. And if you need it, their  script registry is here.

And if you write scripts you just gotta read ‘em. So Simply Scripts is good at  and Drew’s Script-o-rama was still out there last time I checked. read article

Does TV Still Have a Place for the Not-So-Getalong Guy?

Know how we’re always talking about the need for writers to be able to get along with everybody, especially suits and stars, not necessarily in that order? Well, it wasn’t always that way. Here’s a unique remembrance of a unique and very, very talented writer, as volatile as he was creative. We think it’s safe to say that Sam Simon never went down without a fight, right to the very end:

Sam Simon New Republic CaptureSam Simon’s Fractious Four Years With THE SIMPSONS Changed TV History
by Jeet Heer

ollaborating on a masterpiece might be heaven, but arguing over credits can be hell. The television writer and producer Sam Simon, who died March 8, was best known as a co-creator of “The Simpsons.” Working with cartoonist Matt Groening, producer James L. Brooks, and a boatful of others, Simon was as responsible as anyone for the unique “Simpsons” sensibility, that combination of gleeful impudence and populist courtesy, which has made the show a pillar of global pop culture. Yet Simon’s tenure at the show lasted only its first four seasons, from 1989 to 1993. A tumultuous battle with Groening over the show’s direction and its acclaim marked his brief but groundbreaking stint. Without that rocky marriage, “The Simpsons” as we know it might never have been. The final product grew out of their competing designs, as well as their very wrangling.

“Brilliantly funny,” Groening said of Simon in 2001, “and one of the smartest writers I’ve ever worked with, although unpleasant and mentally unbalanced.” The dismissal was mutual, going back to the earliest days of the show. In a 1990 interview, Simon curtly defined Groening’s role as “the show’s ambassador” rather than a hands-on creator.  “That’s a little bit condescending,” Groening responded in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, adding, “There’s definitely a power struggle here. There’s a scramble to claim credit for the show now that it’s become successful.” read article

Pilot Season Torture

Careful, kids. It’s hell out there. (But if you can be talked out of leaping full body into the TV pilot writing and producing fray, well, you never would’ve made it anyway.)

Or, as a producer friend of TVWriter™ recently said, “They aren’t paying all that money for you to write. They’re paying it for you to wait and be tortured.”

Meanwhile, back in the Big Time: read article

Jorge c Perez: Not a Violent Man

by Jorge c Perez

Jorge-c-Perez
Not a violent man. And yet…

Joan Didion once wrote “ Writing is an act of violence, a way to impose your will on a world.” I’ll use that as a framework to write about my (almost) military approach to landing a TV staff writing position, which is the goal of the NHMC TV Writing Program (and all of the TV writing programs). I’m hoping to commit acts of violence for 12-16 hours a day. For pay. Which would make me a writing mercenary;)

Since my last post during the November 2014 fellowship – sponsored by ABC/NBC – I’ve been hunkered in my bunker. I’ve procrastinat – uh, researched – by watching a lot of the sponsoring networks’ shows to prepare for staffing meetings.

I was hired to rewrite & polish a feature film script starring Michael Madsen entitled TWO CRANES. So I’ve officially gone pro as a writer. I submitted two original projects to the Sundance ShowRunner lab, and am preparing materials for the HBO TV Writing program. read article

Peggy Bechko: Writers Beware – Scams Abound

 predator

 by Peggy Bechko

Hey writers, have you ever played whack-a-mole?

Well, that’s a little sample of what the writing life can be like when dealing with scammers, con artists and all sorts of other low-life characters who have no respect for your abilities or dreams and only want to turn that to their own monetary benefit.

If you aren’t very careful you can spend thousands of dollars being lured on by empty promises, false representations and their fabulous expert (I use the term sarcastically) recommendations for which they in fact have no expertise at all. read article