Category: Resources

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

“Good writers are hard to find”

So sayeth the television industry. No, not the U.S. industry but worldwide. Everybody in power says they’re looking for good writers but just can’t find them. Over here at TVWriter™ we think it’s all about definitions, as in “What are those so eagerly seeking “good writers” really looking for?

Sparing no expense, we’ve scoured the globe for more info on this situation. Here’s what we think is the most interesting take, direct from…Mumbai:

film-tv-production-manager-job-in-mumbai-123962457-1402411456by Ritwika Gupta

MUMBAI: The heartbeat of any television programme lies in its story and content. Developing good content through various ideas and imagination is a significant priority for television channels and producers. Story-telling, as they say, is an art and the small screen is constantly looking for compelling scripts that tell stories which entertain, engage and enrich the audience. Over the past few years, the Indian television industry has been exploring new formats and series of programmes in order to give the viewers an excellent TV viewing experience. read article

JOHN OSTRANDER: BELIEF SUSPENDED

by John Ostrander

There’s the concept in fantastic literature known as the “willing suspension of disbelief” by which the reader/audience accepts fantastic elements in a story that are not found in reality, suspension-of-disbeliefsemi-believing them for the moment for the sake of the story. If the creator is invoking it, he or she must be careful not to jar that suspension of disbelief.

It’s an important concept for those of us who labor in the fields of SF, fantasy, horror, and comics. Two things I find crucial to make the concept work – an internal consistency within the story and a consistency within the continuity. By an internal consistency I mean that something that was given as true on page five remains true on page thirty. If the character knows something they can’t suddenly un-know it just for the convenience of the plot. Likewise, if something has been established as part of the continuity, you can’t just disregard it willy-nilly. It doesn’t mean that continuity can never change but there needs to be reasons that it changes unless you’re going to do what DC does and just throw the baby out with the bathwater and start continuity over.

Something else that confounds my suspension of disbelief is when something in the story just ignores reality. I went to Independence Day and I wasn’t expecting much, just a good mindless action film. Unfortunately, there was incident after incident of things that were just patently impossible that it threw me right out of the story. To wit: Air Force One is taking off despite explosions going on all around. In fact, one explosion almost engulfs it. It comes up the tail of the plane before the aircraft manages to speed away. Never mind that the shock waves would have torn the plane apart – it was a Cool Visual. read article

One Writer’s Diary for Television Pitch Season

That writer is Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, and her experience definitely has inspired the TVWriter™ minions. Read and learn, gang. Read and learn:

TV-PILOT1

Hatching a Pilot
by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

You with your feet up, remote in one hand and beverage in the other, being all judge-y about this fall’s new network dramas and sitcoms. Just take a moment, will you, and think of us writers gutting ourselves trying to create them. Think of us lumbering from lot to Hollywood lot, fingernails in our teeth and oil in our bowels, pitching what we hope you’ll be criticizing next fall.

The Big Four — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — have recently wrapped two months of listening to about 350 series pitches each. (I know what you’re thinking: Someone out there has to sit through five or six television pitch meetings a day, and there is no Nobel Prize in that category.) Each broadcast network will buy up to 60 pitches. Hallelujah for those lucky pitchers, who will then write their scripts for the pilots. At year’s end, each network will pick a dozen or so to produce. Those pilots will shoot in the spring. Next May in New York, in the ad-buying extravaganza called the upfronts, the networks will announce the precious few that will become full series. read article

Fall 2014 TV Ratings Scorecard

As creators, future creators, or even past creators, of television series, it behooves all of us to keep in mind the basic rule of TV success:

“It isn’t about creating a series that’s good. It’s about creating a series that works.”
Larry Brody

And by “works,” we mean, “gets high ratings.” read article

EVERY WORD YOU WRITE

Time now for the kind of English lesson nobody ever gave us in high school – but should have:

by Rita Karnopp

02 too many wordsEvery word you write is important.  That doesn’t mean you have to write every word possible.  Writing ‘tight’ is as important as pacing and freshness.  A short sentence is more effective than a paragraph saying the same thing.  Get to the point!

I know that when we naturally talk with others we have a tendency to wander here and there in conversation.  But, don’t write your book that way.  Let your characters talk – just don’t let them ramble on-and-on. read article