Category: Resources

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

PJ McIlvaine: The Summer from Hell

We like this image because it’s about searching, see, but not via Google, and this post is also about searching about something very, very, very important, and…we like this image. There.

by PJ McIlvaine

It’s a warm late summer night on the cusp of the fall season, and I for one will not be sad to see summer go.

May-July was busy. Heck, every month was busy. But I put my nose to the grindstone and burned through a revise and resubmit on a project very dear to my soul. I had a self-imposed deadline and was determined to beat it. Now no one was pushing me to work so hard except me.

But once I got started, I went into that wonderful writing zone and when you’re in it, you just have to ride the wave like a surfer. And once it was done, I breathed a sigh of relief and put my faith in the Universe. read article

Peggy Bechko: What Every Writer Needs To Know About Rejection

NOTE FROM LB: One thing I’ve learned during my long (Yikes! Sooo long indeed!) career is that unlike other so-called verities, artistic truth is for all practical purposes eternal.

In this article from 2013, one of TVWriter™’s favorite writers and even more favorite human beings, Peggy Bechko, gives us a thoughtful lesson  we all need, in practical and creative truth.

Writers Dealing With Rejection
by Peggy Bechko

battle angelOkay, the truth hurts. The fact is no matter how good a writer you are, no matter how persistent and devoted to your writing, you’re going to receive rejections. read article

How My First Novel Became a Movie

Yeppers, kids, it happens. Sometimes first novels turn into very big scores. And/or big stories.

Or not such big scores and/or stories. As the old saying goes, “You don’t need to be smart if you’re lucky. But even if you’re smart you still need lots of luck.”

No, this TVWriter™ minion isn’t all that certain of what she’s saying, but Caren Lissner, author of Carrie Pilby sure is, and it makes good as well as very helpful reading. read article

We’re Not Boring! The “Reality” Side of a Writer’s Life

EDITOR’S NOTE: If there’s one showbiz group the minions at TVWriter™ are familiar with, it’s reality show producers. No, we aren’t sure why, but it may have to do with there are so many of them…and they seem to be much more amenable to taking meetings with unknowns than, um, “unreality show” producers, if you catch our drift.

Almost to a man or a woman, every reality producer we talk to has told us that the most commonly pitched reality show idea is “Let’s show the reality of a writer’s life!” As it turns out, that’s also the most commonly rejected idea, which we know because, well, it’s certainly been rejected every time we’ve brought it up.

We have to admit, however, that the following could well be the best pitch evah on the subject. Take it away, Wilnona and Jade! read article

Stephanie Bourbon Answers Your Novel Writing Career Questions

In this installment of her web series writing tips, Stephanie Bourbon answers all our novel writing career questions.

How does this help us as TV writers? Well, besides the personal satisfaction writing a novel can give (because there’s nobody hovering over you with second-guessing notes), there’s the little matter of how much money you can make if your book becomes a TV series or film. Not to mention what good little career launchers well-written novels can be. read article