Category: Resources

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

Enduring the Feast and Famine of Writing

Renea Winchester knows what she’s talking about, and if you don’t, don’t worry: You will.

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by Renea Winchester

I write this during what I call a feast time. The feast time in the life of an author happens many times. It is a moment, perhaps only an hour long, where words come faster than mortal hands can type, or in my case, write. All reasoning escapes authors during this moment. We become excited, yet emotionally unstable. We embrace this time all while knowing deep in our soul that the feast-moment is fleeting. We fear the feast time almost as much as the famine. What if we can’t capture the words as they tumble through our brain? What if the characters hide and leave us with few words and even less hope. read article

Angelo Bell: For Filmmaking Pros – JOBS ACT Info

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by Angelo Bell

Michael Barnard has written a document on the  JOBS ACT that every filmmaking professional (producer, director, writer) — that is, anyone who hopes to have a career making films — should read.

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act or JOBS Act, is a law intended to encourage funding of United States small businesses by easing various securities regulations. It passed with bipartisan support, and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on April 5, 2012. read article

John Ostrander on Writing Fight Scenes

Yo, action writers!

Read this!

Do it! read article

Dammit, We Missed IndieReCon!

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Indie ReCon, an interweb conference for self-publishing writers and their support groups, ended yesterday, and from all reports was a worthwhile event chock full of info for what are now called – and rightly so – indie writers and publishers.

We meant to write about this last week, when you could have, you know, actually attended the event. But what with one thing and another, the post got lost in the scheduling shuffle. (Maybe cuz it wasn’t about TV writing per se, but hell, writing’s writing, no?) read article

LB: A Few Words from the Man Who Taught Me How to Write for TV

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I moved to L.A. in the spring of 1968. I was 23 years old, had had half a dozen short stories published in various science fiction and fantasy magazines, a deal with Ace Books for a science fiction novel, and so many hopes and dreams that my heart pounded excitedly all day and all night, no matter what my body was – or wasn’t – doing.

My first deal in L.A. was with a production company headquartered at MGM. The late and legendary Sam Katzman (he may not have been great, but he sure as hell was fascinating), read the only spec script I’ve ever written in my life and promptly optioned a TV series idea I’d written up. Even better, the same deal made me the co-writer of a feature film he was planning. I would be working with the writer-director,  Arthur Dreifuss, on the script. read article