40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
by Peggy BechkoAs a writer you hear all sorts of advice about outlines and formulas, how to do it, how not to do it. Oh, and above all, don’t follow those rabbit trails, stick to your story. Cling to your outline, don’t deviate!
What?
All right, come on. Isn’t following rabbit trails, getting off the path, the very essence of creativity? That which will help create an exciting, twisting tale. That which makes the storytelling, the exploration fun and exciting.
Repeat after us:
“We don’t pay to be produced. The producers pay us.”
Again. Again…
EDITOR’S NOTE: We love Angelo Bell not only for his talent but for his intensity. These powerful feelings are what the biz should always be about:
The Countdown has begun.
I’m putting the finishing touches on my “Massively Big Project,” you know, the project I’ve been secretly working on in-between pitching TV series and MOW’s to NBCUniversal. It’s do-or-die time; the moment when you realize you can tweak from now until doomsday but nothing is guaranteed, so you might as well go for broke now.
Ken Levine, of M*A*S*H and CHEERS fame (among other great shows) knows just about everything there is to know about writing comedy. And if he doesn’t know it he can make it up…and be funny about that too. He’s giving a seminar called the SITCOM ROOM in L.A. the weekend of October 26-27. Here’s the kind of thing you’ll learn:
The Comedy Rule-of-Threes
by Ken LevineThis has been one of the staple of comedy for years. (It’s also been called the Comic Triple, which is different from when Prince Fielder gets a three-base-hit, like he miraculously did in the All-Star Game).
But how does it work?
Other sources have carried all or parts of this interview with George R.R. Martin, AKA the FKB AKA the Fantasy Kingdom Butcher, but this article from The Mary Sue gets to the writing heart of things:
As a writer, I think I can safely say a lot of us put our favorite authors on a pedestal. We somehow manage to convince ourselves that just because they’re successful and prolific means they never suffer with self-doubt or writer’s block. That’s usually not the case. And now we know A Song of Ice and Fire writer George R.R. Martin is not except from the usual trials and tribulations.