by Larry BrodyTime now to answer a question because now’s when I’ve got the time:
CB wants to know:
Hi Larry. Do you have any bibles for recent one-hour drama series? I actually have a producer interested in a contest winning series pilot…but she wants a ‘traditional series bible’ as opposed to the 9-page summary I’ve done. I have the bible for Lost, which is really a guide for staff writers, and she says that should not be used.
This just in from ABC 13 Eyewitness News in comfortable, wonderful-place-to-live Houston, Texas.
Okay, so we’re lying about the comfortable part. Still, if you want to stretch your wings and write your great big heart out, and maybe even earn a hell of a living at it like several full-time news writers we know, why not give this a try?
Hey, we gotta tellya – all of us minions here at TVWriter™ are pissed off as hell at you, CBS. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?
Oh, yeah, we know what they’re doing. They’re screwing writers by pressuring them into giving up their own contractual rights and taking pay cuts.
Solidarity, bros:
As writers of fiction, whether on the page or for film or stage, we all know we need conflict in a story. Simply put, no conflict, no story. We’ve all heard that, right?
And it’s true, I’m not going to start to be all original and tell you it isn’t. But the question arises then, what is at the heart of conflict? Your hero or heroine must have a goal. And that goal has to be an integral part of the plot.
So how does that work? Well us humans have some very basic needs and desires. For example. The very most basic need is food to eat, air to breathe, clothes to cover us, warmth (i.e a roof over our heads) to keep us from freezing and so on. That’s the very nitty gritty.
Film and video thrive on truth. The more truthful the work we create, the more powerful.
Even if we don’t know what the truth is.
While scrolling around the interwebs the other day, minding my own business, I came across this stunning example.