40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
You’re a writer. Maybe of scripts, perhaps of novels or even non-fiction.
Maybe you have a couple of unfinished scripts laying around. A novel half done. A memoir or non-fiction expose roughed out. No doubt you have a stream of ideas, probably some really good ones.
BUT, you know what? If you don’t finish it you can’t get it out there. Others can’t read it, you can’t sell it, you career is stuck in the mire.
Tiffany Shlain, creator of the Webby Awards, tells us all the mistakes she made with her own film making so that we can avoid them. And, since we all want to do things right, we’re all going to watch this, right? And tell our friends? And family? But not our enemies or rivals, oh no, not them. Cuz this advice is spot on:
Writers and readers have a symbiotic relationship. Each needs the other.
So why, really, do people read? Personally I think most people read to escape, to experience things they might not (or plainly could not) experience in everyday life. They can explore new worlds if science fiction or fantasy, they can feel the adrenaline rush of a car chase, or a race from an exploding volcano or maybe experience a jungle trek astride an elephant in India without actually going there. Fiction offers the opportunity to live another life while remaining safe on the couch.
And that’s just for starters. Readers can also experience the wide range of human emotion and deeply moving experience from the safety of a comfortable chair. Or they can relive an event in their lives via the book in their hands. They can do all this while skipping the boring parts, and they have they opportunity to learn from all this without actually suffering through those experiences first hand.
This week I had planned to attend two YouTube workshops and ended up blowing both of them off. Why? Instead, I took a 3 day, 21 hour online course with Ryan Connolly called Guerilla Filmmaking held by Creative Live. It was intense. And GREAT!
Ryan, for those who don’t know, is the guy behind the wildly successful web show Film Riot. He gives indie filmmakers tips, tools, strategies and opinions. It’s been going on since 2007 and it’s terrific.
The class covered everything from scripts, to coverage, cameras, motion, lighting, direction, SFX, tips, tricks and more. Hands down, it was the best camera/directing class I’ve taken and I bought it after so I could watch it over and over when I finally get my camera.
If you’re honest . . . you’ll agree . . . writing is hard work. If it was easy – everyone would be doing it. Actually lately it seems everyone is. The problem I’m seeing with that is those new authors think all there is to writing is to write. For them writing is going to be a breeze.
There’s a lot more to writing than one would think. There is plotting, dialog that’s exciting, pacing, internal and external conflict, character development, a beginning, middle, and an end? Really? Yep!
Wait ‘till you’ve been dragged down the bumpy road toward finding a publisher a few times. It’s not easy at all. You can’t get into the door – unless you write a good book. They don’t expect it to be perfect, but they do expect you to know ‘basic writing skills.’