Matinee Scholars One of my teaching colleagues at UNC is Steve Neigher. Steve has worked in the film and TV business for 26 years, writing for such TV series as “Barney Miller,” “Facts of Life,” “The Jefferson,” “Dear John,” “Sister/Sister,” and “Judging Amy.” Steve has come up with a wonderful afterschool
Rob’s Finds More merriment from GITS contributor Rob Fuller. This week Rob goes all literate on us by sourcing a series of interviews with screenwriters of note. First for all you parents of 9 year-old boys, I’m sure you know that this is the weekend that Percy Jackson & the
Rod Serling: Would you inject your philosophy into a piece of work? GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for
“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Richard Powers I uncovered this month-long NPR series “How Writers Create Their Fiction”, originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we’ll be featuring one writer from the series per day during February. Today’s writer
“27 golden rules of writing” From “The Dialogue” series, here are “27 Golden Rules of Writing”: Everyone has an angle, a rule, a strategy to get themselves to write well. Get the advice from writers who have made it work for them. 1. “You’ve got a good character when you know what he would
Rod Serling: “The Silence” GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for
“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Geraldine Brooks I uncovered this month-long NPR series “How Writers Create Their Fiction”, originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we’ll be featuring one writer from the series per day during February. Today’s writer
Scene Description Spotlight: “Rachel Getting Married” Since I started this series of weekly posts, spotlighting good examples of scene description, much of the focus has been on action. But how to write about a moment where nothing much is happening visually (External World), but so much is going on emotionally (Internal World). There’s a great
Daily Dialogue contest Folks seem to have fun with this, so let’s try another Daily Dialogue contest. What’s a great theme for a week’s worth of Daily Dialogue’s? Last week, we had dialogue that featured notable questions. We’ve had famous last words, both from the perspective of a
The GITS Club Logline Spotlight: “I.O.Lou” — Day 3 The past two days, we have considered a logline that writer Terrance Ellis posted over at The GITS Club. Here it is: Desperate for cash to save his family home, a slacker sets out to collect on all his childhood IOUs from his now adult debtors. If you haven’t
Rod Serling: Does espousing a cause lose character credibility GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for
“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Gail Tsukiyama I uncovered this month-long NPR series “How Writers Create Their Fiction”, originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we’ll be featuring one writer from the series per day during February. Today’s writer
Spec Script Sale: “Safe House” In a bidding war, Universal Pictures snags thriller spec “Safe House” from first-timer David Guggenheim. Per the LA Times blog “24 Frames”: Talk to anyone in Hollywood and they’ll tell you that the process of getting an original movie sold or made these days is about as easy
The GITS Club Logline Spotlight: “I.O.Lou” — Day 2 So as most of you surely know, longtime GITS reader Jeff Messerman approached me several weeks ago about starting a peer review adjunct to the blog, which has resulted in The GITS Club. When I drafted this post on Sunday afternoon, there were currently 117 members and a lot more
Rod Serling: Writing to please an audience GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for
“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Jess Walter I uncovered this month-long NPR series “How Writers Create Their Fiction”, originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we’ll be featuring one writer from the series per day during February. Today’s writer
Hollywood Tales “My single meeting with Hitch: Joan (series producer) told me the master was actually going to direct one of his TV shows — this one his very favorite story — “The Voice in the Night,” to be the flagship episode for his one-hour Suspicion series. Joan drove me to his home
The GITS Club Logline Spotlight: “I.O.Lou” So as most of you surely know, longtime GITS reader Jeff Messerman approached me several weeks ago about starting a peer review adjunct to the blog, which has resulted in The GITS Club. When I drafted this post on Sunday afternoon, there were currently 117 members and a lot more
Rod Serling: Where do ideas come from? GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for
The importance of compelling characters — again! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/movies/07scorcese.html?ref=movies Based on an exceptionally tricky 2003 mystery novel by Dennis Lehane, “Shutter Island” wears its something-elseness proudly, even defiantly. It’s a true oddity, an outlier, as isolated and enigmatic as the gloomy, rain-whipped island on
“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Nancy Werlin I uncovered this month-long NPR series “How Writers Create Their Fiction”, originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we’ll be featuring one writer from the series per day during February. Today’s writer
On Writing “All basic human truths are known. And what we [writers] try to do as best we can is come at those truths from our unique angle, to re-illuminate those truths in a hopefully different way.” — William Goldman
Character Flaws From a discussion on The GITS Club, a question from jl: Hi there, new to this board and personally starting on a new screenplay. I have ideas for the story, but I’m not satisfied with my main character having enough depth yet. So I’d like to ask: what
Profile: The Coen Brothers (Part 2) Here is Part 2 of Trevor Hogg’s profile at FlickeringMyth.com on the Coen Brothers. An excerpt: Midway through the writing of the script for Miller’s Crossing, Joel and Ethan Coen attempted to break their creative impasse by composing another story about a playwright suffering from writers’ block.
