Category: Resources

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

Why Writers Should Take Acting Lessons and Actors Should Write

Actors and writers share a common purpose, do we not, that of communications?

Specifically, it’s up to the writers to communicate character and story via text and subtext, and it’s up to the actors to bring the text and subtext alive for the audience.

And yet – there are so many conflicts between the two subdivisions (for lack of a better name) throughout pre-production, production, and post-production of every TV episode and film that sometimes it seems impossible for both writers and actors to share the same goal… read article

22 Common Nouns & What You Can Use Instead

Time now for another cool writing infographic. (You know, those cartoony charts that prove that pictures communicate ever so much better than words.)

Big thanks to Grammarcheck.Net for once again creating something we wish we had the talent to do ourselves!

The 5 Worst Screenwriting Habits

Reporter’s Q.: What’s the worst habit a screen (or TV) writer can have?

Producer’s A.: Wanting to be paid.

And, with that lame old joke out of the way, let’s look at five more screenwriting habits that really do make our work suck. And, yeppers, we mean “look,” because video rulez the interwebs, yeah? read article

5 Steps for Editing Your Own Writing

Like every other profession, writing has its own set of basic tenets. Most of them have to do with editing because when you get down to it most of the writing we do is editing/revising anyway.

Here, then, is a very handy guide to self-editing that we found recently on a site called The Muse. which we hadn’t been to before but will definitely be keeping an eye on now.

Even if you think you know all about editing your own work you probably should take a look-see here. It might jog your memory a bit, just as it did ours: read article

Peggy Bechko on Subtext

by Peggy Bechko

Do you always say what you mean to say? No?

Neiither does maybe 90% of the rest of the human race. It’s kind of weird, this word play. Almost like we’re constantly playing games with each other’s emotions and thoughts.

It’s also the beauty of making interaction between humans fascinating. And if you’re not taking advantage of subtext in your writing as you do in your life, then you as a writer are missing out on a big chunk of how to make your script or novel worth reading. read article