Tag: Spec Scriptacular Contest

When you need inspiration, figure out what you really need to know

Nathan Bransford has a few words for us now, about how to handle something he doesn’t believe in. Ah, life’s little secrets – sometimes they seem so overwhelming, and then they turn out to be nothing at all:

need to know

by Nathan Bransford

I’m on record saying writer’s block doesn’t exist.

When I say that, I’m not saying that you won’t experience a feeling of idea-lessness or that life circumstances will never get in the way of your writing. Lots of people go through stretches where it is legitimately impossible to write. read article

Interview with MYSTIC PIZZA Writer Amy Jones

This article teaches so many lessons it makes our head spin. But the most important may be: “Be careful out there. Those showbiz streets can be treacherous.” You’ll see what we mean:

by Jameson Brown

amy-jonesThe art of storytelling, screenwriting specifically, is like a golf swing, it can get rusty fast if you do not practice every day. To have a canon of work (especially in today’s industry) in screenwriting and for it to be an actual career is one of the hardest feats to accomplish. Cue Amy Jones.

Her work includes some of our favorite films: Mystic Pizza, Indecent Proposal, The Relic, Beethoven, The Rich Man’s Wife and the list goes on. But what’s most important is that she has mastered this field with damn good storytelling. That’s a near impossible task to achieve. She did. This is her story. read article

Favorite TVWriter™ Posts During the Week Ending Sept. 25, 2015

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The most clicked-on posts by TVWriter™ visitors during the last week were:

Peggy Bechko on “Human Needs & Story Conflict” read article

Dennis O’Neil Celebrates 50 Years as a Pro (Writer, of course)

by Dennis O’Neil

Kirby-Thing-HannukahThere’s probably a lot going on just up the road, at the Temple Beth Torah. As I write this, it is the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and, apart from whatever community and religious value it has, it’s a pretty big personal marker for me. Just 50 years ago, on this holiday, I arrived in Manhattan after three days on the road to begin what would prove to be a new life – and, my friend, I’m talking a seriously new life.

In those 72 hours, give or take, I went from being a small town reporter, and something of a local pariah, and a bachelor, and a Missourian, to being a comic book writer in New York City who hung around with peaceniks with an eighty dollar a month apartment in what was then a slum. Pretty soon, I added husband and father to the list, and then freelancer and then a dude with “detox” on his resume and then…

What a long, strange journey it has been. read article

Meet the Writers Behind Broadcast’s Biggest Hit

EMPIRE rulez. Which means that if you’re interested in writing for TV you should be interested in how the show’s writers became almost instant Hollywood Royalty. Therefore:

thr_empire_writers_roomby Lacey Rose

The writers room responsible for Fox’s hip-hop soap opera Empire is every bit as diverse as the juggernaut itself.

“We’ve got African Americans, Latinos, white writers — it’s this really cool blend of America,” says co-creatorDanny Strong, who spends his days in the Beverly Hills writers room with showrunner Ilene Chaiken and a newly expanded writing staff of 12 crafting the hit series’ melodramatic plot twists and tight, delicious dialogue. read article