More than once over the years I’ve been approached by someone who says that they have a great idea for a story and that I should write it and then we split any money evenly. The problem with this (aside from the fact that the work is not even) is that I have plenty of ideas of my own that, for one reason or another, never get written. Having ideas isn’t the problem; executing them is.
Here are a few ideas I’ve had in my journal that haven’t seen the light of day.
And who better to teach you than Second City itself? In their own words:
Learn to write sketches for TV shows like Saturday Night Live. Explore satire, character based sketches, commercial and television parodies, monologue/Weekend Update jokes, create scripts for digital shorts to promote your writing samples online and more. Collaborate with classmates and teacher to heighten and punch up ideas in this creative Writer’s Room experience. Please bring a laptop or phone for script sharing and Internet access.
Dunno about you, but this particular TVWriter™ minion is a sucker for the memories, anecdotes, and advice put out by just about any experienced writer of any medium. My interest increases considerably, however, when it’s from one of the all-time great TV writers.
One of those all time greats is Earl Pomerantz, “a regular person [who] thinks about things and then writes about them.” I was especially smitten by what he wrote last December:
I just watched a terrific episode of Death Valley Days.
As the TV landscape continues to diversify, it’s nice to know there’s still room for an old-fashioned show like Longmire — even though it’s survival has included a number of last-minute reprieves.
Based on the novels by best-selling author Craig Johnson, Longmire is best described as a modern-day Western. It’s protagonist, Sheriff Walt Longmire (Australian actor Robert Taylor), upholds the law in Absaroka County, Wyoming. Walt is a widower who lives in a small secluded cabin on the edge of the Big Horn Mountains.
What will it be? Peaceful negotiation or war? What will our champions at the Writers Guild of America (both West and East versions) be negotiating – or battling – for?
Find out where things stand via this open letter from the EGA:
