40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
It isn’t easy becoming a TV writer, and guess what? It isn’t easy to stay one either. The following post by a distinguished “old pro” is among the best advice I’ve ever heard or read for anyone thinking of going into – or already in – showbiz.
Especially, yeah, writers:
“I don’t think screenplay writing is the same as writing — I mean, I think it’s blueprinting.” -Robert Altman
“A screenplay is really an instruction manual, and it can be interpreted in any number of ways. The casting, the choice of location, the costumes and make-up, the actors’ reading of a line or emphasis of a word, the choice of lens and the pace of the cutting – these are all part of the translation.” -David Nicholls
Great quotes on screenwriting and some agreement. Blueprint, instruction manual, that’s what many view the screenplay as. And it strikes a familiar chord with me. While screenwriting is, indeed, writing, it’s also blueprinting. The story is taking shape in your head, the characters coming alive and at the same time what you put down on paper must be an engaging blueprint that many others will follow. It must be clear and it must be gripping.
…by one of TV’s all-time great advisors. We mean this. No snark here, folks. Read on, read on:
This is in addition to the standard — just keep writing – the more scripts you write; the better they will be – advice (which, by the way, is still sound.)
But beyond that..
NOTE FROM LB: Back in the day, Robert Gregory Browne was my writing partner on over a dozen scripts for the animated series DIABOLIK, which was a major show on, of all things, French TV, and which eventually made its way to the U.S. Since then, has been writing best-selling novel after best-selling novel, giving us hits like Kiss Her Goodbye, Whisper in the Dark, Kill Her Again, and many more, all of which you can find on good ole Amazon.Com.
For old times sake, or maybe as an early Christmas gift (you never know with writers who are as unpredictable as the plots of their books), Rob has kindly given us permission to publish…hehehe…this:
Imagine, if you will, The Fugitive with Ace Ventura as the lead.
More practical advice about a most impractical business:
Let me begin by saying I’ve never met an author who was an overnight success. It just sounds sexier when you put it that way and makes for good press.
So if you should happen to Google my name and come across an old article about my “meteoric” rise from welfare mom to millionaire, take it with a grain of salt. Yes, I was on welfare, years ago, at an especially low point in my life. And yes, I wrote my way out. But it didn’t happen overnight.