40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
These hit way too close to home:
by Isaac Fitzgerald1. Checking Your Email Instead of Writing
2. Checking Tumblr Instead of Writing
3. Checking Twitter Instead of Writing
4. Checking Facebook Instead of Writing
5. Checking Your Phone Instead of Writing
6. Watching TV Instead of Writing
by Peggy BechkoWriters write, right?
Sounds easy. But not so fast.
It takes dedication, discipline and some good habits to see any writer thorough. From writer to writer they differ, but there are many writers have in common.
Something for all you little Hemingways (Whedons?) out there.
And please don’t bitch about the condescending sentence above. We adapted it from the Best Screenplay acceptance speech of one of our literary heroes, a certain Sly Stallone (yeah, he really got an Oscar for the first ROCKY; so tell us again what’re we busting our butts for?):
Nathan Bransford gives the advice that way-too-many of us need to hear:
by Nathan BransfordOn last week’s episode of Girls, Hannah got a temporary day job in GQ’s advertorial department, where she had a taste of success (as well as free snacks).
Her fellow co-workers were fellow aspiring writers, and during a slightly fraught break room chat, they revealed that all of their writing successes came before they had a day job. Hannah quits, not wanting to wake up in ten years having failed to pursue her real writing, but later decides to try to have it both ways and vows to write three hours every night.
by John OstranderI was shocked to learn of the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, one of the bright lights of his acting generation. I then learned he died of a heroin overdose with a needle stuck in his arm, surrounded by 50 packets of heroin, and I’m afraid my first reaction was, “What a stupid way to die.” Ungenerous, I know, but that was my honest first reaction.
I had the same reaction to the death of Paul Walker, of the Fast and Furious franchise, in a fiery crash while drag-racing. Coroner’s report says that Walker was alive, at least briefly, after the car caught fire. What a stupid way to die. I feel sorry for his friends and family who loved him but I also wonder at who Walker and the guy driving him could have killed as well.
I was more bothered by Heath Ledger’s death, also by overdose although this was more prescription medication, than I was by Hoffman’s or Walker’s deaths. A common connection in all three cases is to wonder what else they might have done, what work might they have accomplished. They all left behind family, children, friends who grieve and wonder why the ones they loved died in this fashion.