Category: television writing

Larry Brody: Make Your Scenes Flow

Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #2
by Larry Brody

Over my years running various TV series I’ve been amazed at how many professional writers don’t understand the basics of good storytelling. In a nutshell, the trick to working out your plot is to always remember that the scenes must flow from and to each other in a progression that takes into account three different elements. That is, it must be logical, surprising, and climactic.

What this means is that everything that happens must grow out of what happened before. On one level, given the personalities of the characters and the situation they are in, each plot point must be inevitable. And on another level, these inevitable twists and turns must be such that the reader or viewer could never have predicted them. read article

Writers Roundtable: Jordan Peele, Darren Aronofsky, Emily V. Gordon et.al.

The writers of Get Out, Darkest Hour, Molly’s Game, In the Fade, The Big Sick and ‘mother! get together to educated, entertain, and dish for The Hollywood Reporter.

Hie thyself to THR’s YouTube Channel for more edification and shooting of the shit!

Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #1

Outlining & Writer’s Block
by Larry Brody

One of the big differences between beginning writers and “old pros” is that beginning writers are always telling me how much they love sitting down at the keyboard and “winging” their scripts, while the pros invariably stress the importance of having a good outline before they start writing.

As an “elder statesman” myself, I’ve tried both methods, and outlining your story is the way to go. In television we spend as much time on the outline as we do on all drafts of the script combined. read article

How To Do A Plot Twist – “Knives Out”

Plot twists can make or break a film or TV episode. Which means it behooves us all to learn how to do them. This video is a big straightforward step in the right direction.

From The Closer Look YouTube Channel

Writing the Perfect Ending

The perfect script writing tip, found right here on the interwebs, accidentally, no less. Seeing this blog post, first published in 2012, makes this TVWriter™ minion believe in destiny. (Which in itself is a kind of perfect ending, yeah?)

by Dan Bronzite

Yep, they can make it – and they can break it!  In one fell swoop you have to tie-up any loose ends and satisfy an audience’s expectation.  Not an easy task, right?  Absolutely not.  In fact, as a working screenwriter I have found writing a satisfying ending to be one of the hardest parts of the creative writing process. read article