Speaking of articles originally posted elsewhere, this look into how to become a TV showrunner is one of the best:
One of the most coveted jobs in television is that of the showrunner, but the career path to that gig isn’t always clear-cut.
In short, a showrunner is the top dog on a TV show. He or she is responsible for approving everything from casting to scripts, from budgets to set designs. All the while, the showrunner has to protect the creative vision for the show.
This week’s collection of recent articles from other websites about TV, TV writing, etc., etc., etc. The plan here is for you to click on their headlines and visit the sites and read the posts in full…and is anybody asks, tell ’em TVWriter™ sentcha, okay?
Want to write a great television drama series? Simple: there are just 13 rules. Start with an anti-hero (usually a man, could be a woman). Give him a family. Set your show at the end of an era. Give your hero a mentor or protege. Add a nemesis with a problem of his own.
Write a bottle episode (between just two people). Put a drug at the centre. Include sex. Parcel out the violence. Include one of the following: health scare, corpse disposal, party scene, huge explosion, demonstration of hero’s superpower. Hit the books (literary references). Let nobody be safe. And don’t forget the comedy….
When the creator/showrunner of a series as highly regarded as “Fargo” speaks, we TVWriter™ minions are eager to listen. And now, thanks to the miracle of interweb video, we can gaze upon his super successful countenance in awe and delight as well.
(What? No, that wasn’t irony or sarcasm at all. This particular minion remembers the days before YouTube became the Font of All Knowledge and appreciates its most excellent existence.)
EDITOR’S NOTE: TVWriter™ is continually barraged by with requests from people asking us to recommend a solid, reliable editorial service to help writers prepare their teleplays, screenplays, literary manuscripts as such. We’ve never stepped into that trap because such recommendations are fraught with peril.
Now, though, we’ve found a service we’re happy to step up to the plate for. It’s called ManuFixed. Here’s what its creators have to say:
Sometimes your family won’t read an eighteenth draft of your script, even though it has a stunning, epic love story and a vivid WWII backdrop. (Some of us may know this from experience.) Perhaps you realize that your current circle of readers doesn’t have the expertise to offer you useful feedback anyway.
An intriguing idea, this writers’ room in publishing thing, but also dismaying to all the writers who are trying to leave the TV writers’ room environs and proudly and solitarily produce work that’s all theirs.
Sigh…
MATTHEW CODY BEGAN his new book ReMade with a premise sure to be a hit with fans of dystopian YA fiction: In a post-apocalyptic future, 23 teenagers wake up to look for answers in the wreckage of human civilization, all while being hunted by machines. But beyond its initial chapter, he didn’t write the details of the rest of the book. He didn’t have to—he’s just the showrunner.