Writing Craft & Showbiz Career Info
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Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS: How To Unlock Your Story One Question At A Time - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 Adam Argot has worked in film, TV, games, and publishing as a director, writer, author, story and concept artist for over 15 years for both major and independent studios. Along with in-depth podcasts and interviews like Film Courage, Story Kinetics, and a YouTube...
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Published 18 hours ago
Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS is currently 10% off! - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 John Vorhaus is best known for his comedy-writing classic, The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not. He has taught and trained writers in 37 countries on five continents at last count, and created TV shows of his own in Nicaragua, Romania and elsewhere. His writing...
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Published 2 days ago
This week, your friendly neighborhood Lit Hub staff is feasting on a narrative diet—but not in the stacks you’d expect. October brings fresh appreciation for the time-bound object. I’m talking about the kind of art you can imbibe on your...
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Published 3 days ago
I set the opening weekend forecast the trades printed for 1,184 American wide releases against what each film took, to see what makes a film hard to call....
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Published 3 days ago
“Repairman,” the fourth episode of Land of the Lost’s third season, shows many signs of creative growing pains, though perhaps not as many as the previous two (dreadful) entries, “Survival Kit” and “The Orb.”In “Repairman,” the Sleestak once again hatch a strategy to eradicate the Marshalls, and once again seize upon the notion of tampering with the Sun. Using another heretofore unknown...
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Published 3 days ago
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. The novel has always been obsessed with technology. You can trace realist fiction’s evolution along advances in religion, banking, engines, and cities, because all of these technologies changed how we...
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Published 3 days ago
The Coral Coast Highway, considered one of the world’s greatest road trips, starts in Perth, Australia, and follows the coastline north to Exmouth. Halfway along this epic tour of red sand meeting azure water, there is a W-shaped set of...
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Published 3 days ago
If your agent is suddenly fired, what happens next depends on your agent contract. Learn what steps to take and which resources, including the AALA and Authors Guild, can help....
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Published 4 days ago
Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS is currently 10% off! - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 Michael Weiss is a Writers Guild of America screenwriter with an extensive career selling original material and writing on assignment for a wide range of Hollywood studios. He has over a dozen produced films to his credit, including the big-budget feature Journey to the Center of the Earth starring...
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Published 4 days ago
The Guild says lack of clarity over rights reversion is the most common problem for claims due to lack of publisher records....
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Published 5 days ago
Publishers report increased AI usage internally for marketing, metadata and title optimization, and admin work....
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Published 5 days ago
CYOA Unbound is a fiction imprint for adults that offers nonlinear storytelling in its signature multiple-ending style....
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Published 5 days ago
What if writing isn’t central to thinking, AI-assisted material is appearing throughout op-ed pages, and other recent news....
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Published 5 days ago
Sources I spoke with say readers still have interest in serials, but the pay-per-chapter token system doesn’t work well for the Western market like it does in Asia....
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Published 5 days ago
I traced the histories of 4,593 distributors across 92 countries to find out how long a distributor typically survives, which year is most dangerous, and what happens to the films upon bankruptcy....
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Published 5 days ago
If you love or have ever loved a literary magazine, I bring glad tidings. This week heralds a new appreciation rite for the discerning reader. Happy #LitMagWeek, everyone! #LitMagWeek is the brainchild of Brett Van Emst, editor and publisher of...
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Published 5 days ago
Jenan Matari and Nora Lester Murad are award-winning authors with children’s books featuring Palestinians. They have filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles after their invited author talk for teen patrons at Los Angeles Public Library was cancelled...
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Published 5 days ago
Stardate 1704.2: The U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701) orbits distant Psi 2000, an ancient world on the verge of breaking up. The crew's mission: to recover the planet-bound science team, and monitor the disintegration of the planet.Unfortunately, the landing party (consisting of half-Vulcan science officer Spock [Leonard Nimoy] and Joe Tormolen) discovers that the entirety of the science team is dead...and dead under very...
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Published 6 days ago
Iconic Monster Moments The best monster moments don’t always involve blood, screaming or a full reveal. Sometimes it’s a face behind someone who hasn’t seen it yet. Sometimes it’s a still image that moves when it bloody shouldn’t. These five scenes got under my skin and stayed there. Here’s why they work, and what horror… Read More »Top 5 Monster Moments...
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Published 6 days ago
Hello, readers. I hope you will join my friend and frequent collaborator, Tony Mercer, and me, on our new Youtube show, "Deep Focus," a wide-ranging (and lengthy!) discussion about all things film and television. Our first episode, here, is Star Trek focused, and looks at "Balance of Terror" and the Strange New Worlds episode "A Quality of Mercy."...
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Published 6 days ago
Specific context about your characters helps readers understand them within the backdrop of their lives, bringing your stories fully to life....
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Published 6 days ago
Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS: How To Unlock Your Story One Question At A Time - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 Stuart Acher is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, writer, director and editor whose career spans scripted features, television, documentaries and emerging forms of AI-assisted filmmaking. His work includes the award-winning feature #Stuck, Mantervention, His Fatal Fixation, and directing for the Syfy/Netflix series Z Nation. His...
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Published 6 days ago
Twelve US states have just ordered the new Paramount / Warner studio to release 30 films a year. I crunched the data on 170,279 films to see what happened to the middle they are trying to bring back...
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Published 7 days ago
Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS: How To Unlock Your Story One Question At A Time - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 0:00 - Are You A Filmmaker? 24:38 - If Your Story Ideas Aren't Working, This Could Be The Problem 34:20 - The Uncomfortable Truth Every Filmmaker Must Face 43:08 - If You Are Having Trouble With Your Next Big Movie Idea 59:38 -...
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Published 8 days ago
'In “The Metamorph,” Moonbase Alpha emerges from its second encounter with a space warp, six light years from its previous position. The lunar facility’s life support system needs repair, and requires the ore known as Titanium.Titanium is pinpointed on the volcanic surface of a nearby planet, but an Eagle reconnaissance flight ends in terror when the ship is abducted by...
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Published 9 days ago
The third episode of Land of the Lost’s final season, titled “The Orb,” is only a slight improvement over the disastrous second installment, “Survival Kit.” Here, Enik (Walker Edmiston) is transformed suddenly into a clone of Mr. Spock, adopting the term “logical” no less than seven times in a twenty-two minute span. I counted, because the use of the term became so egregious after the...
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Published 10 days ago
Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS is currently 10% off! - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 A lawyer turned producer and studio executive, Peter M. Hoffman built a career that bridged the creative and the corporate, the visionary and the pragmatic. As the founder and CEO of Carolco and Seven Arts Entertainment, he brought to life acclaimed and enduring films including The Believer, winner of...
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Published 10 days ago
Crime and thriller publisher Bitter Lemon Press has launched Labyrinth Press, dedicated to international literary fiction, largely in translation....
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Published 12 days ago
Common causes include purchasing or trading reviews, sharing KDP credentials, and inadvertent triggering of an Amazon automated lockout....
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Published 12 days ago
In the gap between email and social media lie tools let publishers and authors engage with readers without an algorithm in the way....
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Published 12 days ago
Yates & Yates offers representation and paid services to authors of Christian nonfiction....
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Published 12 days ago
Barnes & Noble acquires Levenger, Wattpad has become a global entertainment powerhouse, and more recent news....
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Published 12 days ago
Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS is currently 10% off! - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 Nick Morton has produced nearly 30 movies / tv series which include RAY (Jamie Fox, Regina King, Kerry Washington), SAHARA (Mathew McConaughey, Penelope Cruz, Steve Zahn) and COOPER'S BAR (Rhea Seehorn). Nick is also a standup comedian, author, and host of a podcast on addiction and recovery called The...
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Published 12 days ago
Stardate: 1312.4Under the command of James Kirk (William Shatner), the U.S.S. Enterprise probes to the very edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. The starship follows in the footsteps of the SS Valiant, which disappeared on a similar probe two centuries earlier.A disaster recording probe from the Valiant is recovered, and it is learned from it that the ship’s captain ordered...
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Published 13 days ago
The essay is like any other literary genre: There are guidelines worth following, and style choice dictates different points of view and structures....
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Published 13 days ago
Live, and a little messy on purpose. I'm opening up the new FAST Screenplay while it's still being built — the free writing tool, the private space for your work, the rough edges and all — and taking your questions about writing as a human in the age of AI. Bring your questions. Bring your own work in progress if...
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Published 13 days ago
I measured the colour of every shot in 8,135 films, from 1930 to today, to find out when warm faces against cold shadows took over the movies, and whether the look ever went away....
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Published 14 days ago
Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS is currently 10% off! - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 Matt Harry has been writing since he was 10 years old. He learned to make movies at the University of Southern California, which was the closest he could get to attending Hogwarts in the real world. He has worked as an editor, screenwriter, director, producer, college professor, and pizza...
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Published 14 days ago
Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS is currently 10% off! - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 Wade Patterson grew up in Jackson, MS, and has been making film projects since he was a kid. However, after taking a break from film to go to India to work with a non-profit, he rediscovered a passion for writing in Asia. He returned to America with an expanded...
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Published 16 days ago
The #1 Lie About Female Characters There’s a #1 lie I hear all the time about female characters. You may have heard it yourself, or even thought it. If you have, it’s not your fault. On the surface, it seems like common sense. After all, blogs like B2W have been warning for years that bad… Read More »The #1 Lie About...
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Published 17 days ago
WATCH THIS IF YOU WANT TO LIVE (in movies (if you have certain jobs (and even then, may not help))) I analysed 43,983 films and 328,558 named characters to find the most dangerous jobs in cinema....
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Published 17 days ago
It’s very rare to come across an episode of Land of the Lost -- in any season -- that I vehemently dislike and judge almost entirely worthless. But “Survival Kit,” the second episode in the third season catalog, certainly fits the bill.In this story, an arrogant Cro-Magnon man, Malak (Richard Kiel), whom the Sleestak apparently revere as “The Exalted One,” seizes control of...
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Published 17 days ago
Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS: How To Unlock Your Story One Question At A Time - https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 Ken Estin began his career as a freelance writer whose first professional script was a Taxi episode that earned him the Writers Guild Award for the best episodic comedy script of the year. Ken became a staff writer on Taxi and then the...
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Published 18 days ago
