Tag: Larry Brody

In Their Own Writ: Hermann Hesse on Writing

hesse

“Gaze into the fire, into the clouds, and as soon as the inner voices begin to speak…surrender to them. Don’t ask first whether it’s permitted, or would please your teachers or father or some god. You will ruin yourself if you do that.”

Hermann Hesse

(We’re thinking of this post as two for the “price” of one. And that maybe we should start a new Department: Writer as Visionary. What say you?)

What’s The Difference Between Story And Plot?

If Charlie Jane Anders doesn’t have a Phd.D. in How to Teach Creative Writing it’s only because no one on this planet is qualified to test her.

We mean it. See for yourself:

famousfantasticmysteriesby Charlie Jane Anders

People always say the story is the most important thing in good science fiction. But excessively “plot-driven” science fiction is dismissed as mindless or worse. What’s the difference between story and plot anyway? read article

Is Dan Harmon Coming Back to COMMUNITY?

harmon
Oh God, yet another picture of Dan Harmon? What’s wrong with us?

Let’s be frank here. We don’t know Dan Harmon, and we never really watched COMMUNITY all that much (the sight of Chevy Chase makes us gag), but Harmon’s our hero because:

  1. He ran the show his way, and seemed to exult in freaking out the suits regardless of the consequences. (Which, if you don’t know, were that he got fired.)
  2. He’s back in the news again today, kicking the butts of those who fired him and now, he says, want him back.

According to HollywoodWookie.Com, which judging from this report is a far cooler website than its name would imply, in a recent podcast Harmon told the audience that he’s been asked to return to the show he created and ran for 3 seasons on NBC. The article goes on to add that “He jokingly said that he would only return if they brought Chevy Chase back too but even he couldn’t stop laughing at that idea.”

We might have written all this off, but guess what? The Showbiz Bible AKA HollywoodReporter.Com said yesterday that it had confirmed the news, but “Details on just what role the former showrunner would have remain unclear.” read article

Are All TV Writers Nerds? Or Do We Just Look That Way?

goodnerdsAre you cool Enough for the Writers Room?

Recently, HollywoodReporter.Com put together a photo gallery of the staffs of what the site called, “TV’s Greatest Writers Rooms of All Time.”

We aren’t sure we agree with that (actually we’re pretty damn sure we don’t), but what struck us about the gallery wasn’t the talent involved (and there was a lot of it!) but the look. It was like peering into the Extra-Curricular Activities section of a high school yearbook in a school where all the kids were in their 40s. read article

Peter Conquers Showbiz, Episode 4

Outside-Looking-In

Television Writing from the Outside In
This week: What deals have you got?

Last week: Do you have an agent or manager yet?

This week: What deals have you got on your own, and how?

Let me describe six anonymous deals. In each of these cases, the deals came through a friend of a friend (of a friend). Here they are: read article