Suggestions for GITS?

Every so often, I like to reach out to the GITS community to ask if there’s something you’d like for me to be doing here on the blog. So a few questions in that regard:

* Are there series or features you especially like and want to see more? Conversely are there things you think are not terribly relevant or perhaps feel a bit ‘played out’?

* Are there particular areas of focus or subjects you’d like to see me focus on more closely? For example, I have been wondering if we should explore the world of so-called ‘transmedia’ more. Any interest in that or other trends, concerns, opportunities, etc?

* Do you have any ideas for ways we could extend the experience of community here at GITS?

I have a few ideas for new series I’m kicking around. Here are two of them for your reactions:

* There is so much focus on the practical aspects of writing. Of course that is an important part of learning the craft, especially key principles and practices. But what about the emotional, even spiritual part of writing? Stories are organic in nature. It follows that a certain part of writing a story will also be organic. How to engender that? How to embrace that? It occurred to me, why not do a series of posts reflecting on finding and writing to the soul of a screenplay / story. Would that interest you?

* In the past, I have noted that Hollywood tends to pigeonhole writers, specifically in terms of what type of stories they write (“He’s an action guy… she’s a drama type”). Perhaps the line of least resistance to breaking into Hollywood as a writer is to identify one genre, learn the hell out of it, then write stories in that one subject area. I’m not saying you have to do this, only that it makes it easier to sell yourself to a manager, then have them sell you to a studio. In this spirit, I thought why don’t we come up with a list of essentials a writer needs to know per each genre:

— 10 Movies You Must See

— 10 Scripts You Must Analyze

— 10 Books [Fiction] You Must Read

— 10 Book [Non-Fiction] You Must Cover

— 10 Resources [Blogs, Websites, Journals, Magazines] You Must Track

Go through all the genres: Action, Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller. Each week for eight weeks, create a user-generated list of essential content a writer needs to know in order to understand that genre and maximize their chance for success in writing scripts that slot into those genres.

Does that sound like it would be helpful?

Again I’m always open to your suggestions, anything that can help writers improve at their craft and ultimately write great stories.

If you have any feedback or ideas, please head to comments and post them there. Thanks!

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