Tag: online TV writing workshop

Cartoon: ‘Conversation’

Because a good conversation can be the best story of all. Especially as “reported” by the awesome Grant Snider:

TVWriter™ favorite Grant Snider’s new book, The Shape of Things, An Illustrated Exploration of Creativity will be out April 9th. BUY IT!

How to Make Great TV or, You Know, Die Trying (Yikes!)

Finding a fascinating primer on TV writing and production while skimming through the interwebs made our week. There’s a lot of meat in this stew, so without further ado:

We meant to run this pic last Monday – on “Loyalty Day” – but it fits better here…or does it?

“We’re creating a world that feels true”
by Caroline Framke

To truly understand the phrase “controlled chaos,” you should consider crashing the set of a television show.

It’s my first day on the set of The Americans, FX’s stellar Cold War spy drama. On this frigid November morning, I step into a nondescript Brooklyn warehouse and am immediately whisked through a labyrinth of endless hallways, half-assembled sets, crowds of crew members jostling around a catered lunch. I grab some food, turn around, and immediately run into series star Matthew Rhys. He’s laughing with the crew, so fresh off filming that he still has wig clips embedded in his curly hair. read article

No Strike! WGA & AMPTP Reach Agreement in Nick of Time

Could be better…but it also could have been much, much worse:

Whew! (Of course, now we’ve still got to vote on it, but….)

Dennis O’Neil: The Perils of Captain Mighty

Mr. O’Neil is too modest to say this, so we will: “Buy this book!” Because if ever a guy knew how to write the #$@! out of anything, it’s LB’s favorite collaborator whom he has never met:

by Dennis O’Neil

Okay, let’s get this out of the way at the beginning: Yesterday I published a novel. The title is The Perils of Captain Mighty and the Redemption of Danny the Kid. I’ll add one more fact: The original title was The Perils of Captain Power and the Redemption of Danny the Kid, but there were a couple of still active copyrights for “Captain Power” and although these copyrights weren’t likely to cause any problems, they could, and so Power becomes Mighty and we proceed to the next paragraph.

Are you expecting a little chest-beating here? Not happening. Not that I have anything against some self-congratulation and some of the writers I most admire were not above it. To cite three, a trio of my favorite Nineteenth Century scribblers: Charles Dickens (who, according to one source “thrived in the spotlight”); Mark Twain (who, according to another, had a “flair self-promotion”); and Walt Whitman, who sought praise from Ralph Waldo Emerson and got it (“I greet you at the beginning of a great career,” the sage of Concord wrote in a five-page letter Whitman later used to promote his Leaves of Grass.) In my own time, I might cite Ernest Hemingway and Norman Mailer as writers unburdened by crippling modesty. (Anyone with absolutely nothing better to do might list a few more, but let’s hope you’re not that desperate for amusement.) read article

Confessions of a paid Amazon review writer

The title of this article certainly got our attention. Is this your future career move? (Do you want it to be?) We’re not making any judgements. As the sign on LB’s monitor sez, “Beats workin’. Beats not workin’ too:”

from Digiday

Many marketing jobs are far from glamorous. Take those toiling in the black market for positive reviews on Amazon. read article