Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/30/12

Latest News About Writers Doing Better Than We Are

  • Rumors abound that Kevin Costner’s 1995 feature film fiasco, WATERWORLD, is headed for Syfy as a series. No writers have been mentioned, so, hey, now’s the time to put your hat in the ring. (In other words, how long will it take you to write a complete spec science fiction script to prove your genius expertise adequacy?)
  • Chris Cantwell & Chris Rodgers (SHADOW RUNNERS, feature film) are writing HALT & CATCH FIRE, a drama about the PC boom in the early ’80s intended as a series on AMC. (In other words, nerds are in, for which we at TVWriter™ give heartfelt thanks.)
  • Alexander Rose’s book, Washington’s Spies) is the basis for Craig Silverstein’s (NIKITA) AMC pilot, TURN. (In other words, why let a good, descriptive name get in the way of confusing TV viewers, right?)
  • It’s official. DOWNTON ABBEY creator Julian Fellowes will write and produce NBC’s THE GILDED AGE, described by the network as “a sweeping epic in the style of DOWNTON ABBEY. (In other words, the U.S. finally gets its own overly-manipulative soap opera about rich people nobody in the audience will be able to stand. Awesome.)

3 Ways to Get Your Story Unstuck

Believe it or not, even LB, our boss, agrees with what follows, even if it is from Writers Digest:

 by Brian Klems (Writers Digest)

It will happen eventually—that moment when you realize you’re bogged down in the muck of your story. You don’t know where to go next or what the character should do. The seed of doubt sprouts then, unless you’re careful, will take root and bloom into full-on writer’s block. Here are suggestions on how to stop it—and make your story even stronger in the process.

1. Give your readers what they want, but not what they expect. read article

ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE

Is this a real trailer for a real film? Cuz we’re dying to see it if that’s so:

See, that’s a pun. “All Superheroes Must Die,” “We’re dying to see it…” Okay, nevermind: read article

Simon & Schuster Opens Self-Publishing Service

Is this really what we think it is? Cuz no matter how you spin it, this looks to us like a big-time Old Media company working like mad to take the “self” out of self-publishing:

 by Jason Boog (GalleyCat)

Simon & Schuster has created  Archway Publishing to help writers self-publish fiction, nonfiction, business and children’s books.

They will run the new service with help from Author Solutions, the self-publishing company acquired by Pearson for $116 million in July. read article

What People Mean When They Say “Bad Writing”

There’s a difference between “good writing” and a “good book” or “good script.” Nathan Bransford gets it:

by Nathan Bransford

One thing about my Fifty Shades of Grey  post that inspired some mild controversy was my insistence that it’s not that badly written. read article