40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
The next time you think about asking somebody – you know, like your favorite writer – to read your work and give you an honest evaluation, keep in mind that this is the kind of result you might get:
November 9, 1938
Dear Frances:
Do you know who Jack Reacher is? We mean the real, hulking, shit-kicking giant of a hero of 17 novels, not the miniature wimp played last year by Tom Cruise.
Lee Child, author of the following article, is the creator of the real Jack Reacher. And now that we’ve read this we’re going to forgive him for the film and pop over to Amazon.Com for at least one of the books.
How do you create suspense? I’m asked that question often, and it seems that every writers’ symposium has a class with that title. It’s an important technical issue, and not just for so-called suspense novels. Every novel needs a narrative engine, a reason for people to keep reading to the end, whatever the subject, style, genre or approach.
DailyWritingTips.Com strikes again. We discovered that TVWriter™ writers regularly make 15 out of these 30 errors. How about you?
by Mark Nicol
Is Ken Levine comedy writing’s Larry Brody? What would either of them think if they were asked?
Oh dear. If we had to ask that second question, that means we’re worried that the answer wouldn’t go down well. And if we’re worried about it, then it probably won’t. So forget we said anything. No comparisons from here, no sir. Just, you know, read:
by Ken Levine
Here’s a question I get (and am happy to answer) every year.
In his best-selling how-to-write book, Television Writing from the Inside Out, our Fearsome Leader, LB, makes the argument that all books, movies, and television episodes are story-driven because writers, consciously or unconsciously, always end up creating characters whose personalities will work most effectively within their preconceived story structure. Even the best-written of those characters only seems be be pushing the story forward; s/he is actually capable of only choosing, or, rather, seeming to choose, moves that the story already wants to make.
Over the years, TVWriter™ ‘s boss has caught a lot of flak for this, which made it particularly interesting for those of us who work for him and want to suck up a bit to encounter this particular post on AdvicetoWriters.Com last Christmas weekend: