Angry Book Review: The Unoriginal Writer’s Daughter Revisited

Yes, the writer of this review is, well, let’s say “uncharitable” and let it go at that. But we gotta tell you: Where she’s coming from is a golden place. Read and absorb, Young Jedi Writers, for your own sakes:

madmans-daughterby Shana Mlawski

This week, the YA world is abuzz about The Madman’s Daughter, a new piece of historical fiction about the teenage daughter of Dr. Moreau. (Yes, that one.) (Yes, there is a love triangle in it.)

When I first got wind of the title, my mind immediately went back to one of the very first articles I ever wrote for OverthinkingIt.com. (Don’t read it. It’s meh.) In that piece, “The Unoriginal Writer’s Daughter,” I took writers – mainly women writers – to task for continually naming their booksThe Such-and-Such’s Wife and The Such-and-Such’s Daughter. A quick jaunt over to Amazon will show you that this trend is still very much in play today. read article

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

LB: How Much Did You Love the FLIGHT Sock Puppets on Sunday’s Oscar Show?

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Don’t click this one…

I loved ’em a lot, so it was an especially proud moment for me to learn that the brilliant and multi-talented Robin Walsh, who’s been hanging with us at TVWriter™ for about 2 and a half million years (that’s right, since before the religious right says the planet was “created”) was one of the puppeteers, playing the co-pilot and Hospital Denzel.

Where but TVWriter™  would you possibly get a scoop like this?

If you missed the Oscarcast, or that part of it, don’t fret. We gotcha covered right here: 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

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 2/25/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
  •  James Yoshimura (HOMICIDE, TREME) is joining HOMELAND as a writer and consulting producer. (The “consulting producer” thing probably means some other writer’s deal on the show kept the studio from giving him Exec Prod. credit, but he needed the gig and took it this way instead.)
  • Billy Ray (THE HUNGER GAMES) has a deal with Universal to write the script for its MUMMY remake. (Nope, this isn’t a TV deal, but we do want y’all to know how showbiz in general works. The MUMMY project already has a screenwriter, Jon Spaithts (PROMETHEUS), but the studio is putting a competing screenplay into work because they’re such treacherous bastards you never know how well anyone’s script will come out.)
  • If  you know Zooey Deschanel and haven’t yet hit on her for a gig, now’s the time – especially if you’re a writer. Ms. D and her company just signed a development deal with 20th Century Fox TV, which means they’ll be looking for projects. (This has been a public service announcement. But don’t be shy. We’ll be glad to take 10% if you make a deal.)
  • Chris & Paul Weitz (AMERICAN PIE, ABOUT A BOY) are writing and producing the pilot for REAMDE as a TV series for Fox, based on Neal Stephenson’s book of the same name. (Because God forbid that a television writer should get the television writing gig on a property that probably cost so much to buy. Those TV guys can’t be trusted, y’know. Especially with, um, TV.)