40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
Lots of writers are. Lots of people are.
For example, if you’re a writer and you get a rejection from agent, publisher or script reader you immediately drop into the depths of despair and sigh those famous words, “I’ll never be a writer.”
True this. Every discouraging word. But we look at it like this: Obstacles you know about are easier to overcome, and after reading this, hey, you’ll know:
[Recently] the writer Cathy Day linked to an article on Forbes by Jason Nazar titled 20 Things 20 Year Olds Don’t Get, giving grumpy advice to the new generation of workers. With the autumn semester set to start in about two weeks (I know, right? First: two weeks?! Second: nothing labeled “autumn” begins in August, yeah?) I thought that twenty bits of advice, given from someone who isn’t nearly as grumpy, might be a good way to prime emerging writers for their upcoming workshops and lit classes. And if you’re out of academia, and working on the Next Big Thing, perhaps some of this is helpful too.
However, twenty pieces of advice was a tall order. As with most advice, as I get older, I find there are fewer things that I’m certain of in the first place, and so my advice tends to be grandfatherly and broad, so we’re going with ten items, not twenty, and Imma aim to be a bit more specific. That’s okay, right? Right.
Martin Scorsese and I share a few things in common.
He’s Italian; I’m Italian.
He’s a genius; I’m Italian.
Yes, it is important. This blog is focused greatly on writers and to a certain extent readers. So it’s not surprising I repeat quotes such as the one from Stephen King, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
Reading, though, is much more than that. By reading we can learn things, we can learn about places, we can jump into fantasy worlds, interface with intense drama or laugh ourselves silly or submerge in any part of the human (or sometimes even not so human) experience.
But look back at the key words I used in the last paragraph; interface, submerge, dive into, jump into – all of them are indicative of active interaction, not simply the scanning of words. Don’t you find even if it’s text from which you wish to learn something that it needs to grab your attention? That you have a difficult time learning from something that is dry and pedantic?
Ken Levine strikes gold yet again! Woohoo!
by Ken LevinePitching is an art. When you walk into that room you’re not a writer, you’re a salesman. You’re Don Draper.
Your goal is to get the person you’re pitching it – be it an agent, network, studio, investor, whoever – excited. It’s way more than just about spelling out the synopsis.