Deanna Shumaker was in no way born into this industry. Like many others who gravitate to it, she came from another state, drawn by everything she learned in her creative writing and television elective courses at the University of Florida. Since those days, Deanna worked as a showrunner’s assistant, was… read more →
As I conducted interviews for my new book, BREAKING IN: TALES FROM THE SCREENWRITING TRENCHES, there was one mistake that agents, managers and executives kept reminding me that writers, and especially new writers, are continuously making: Getting their work out into the professional space, be it to a potential agent… read more →
Misconceptions about what it takes to become a working screenwriter, e.g. what is required in order to attract the right sort of industry attention, and where your time and resources are best spent, are everywhere. Is it all about the writing? Or all about relationships? Do you have to have… read more →
With 2017 chugging along, and the first fellowship deadlines (Sundance, Humanitas and HBO to name a few) already behind us, many emerging television writers eager to push their television writing careers to that elusive next level are hard at work preparing their TV specs, original pilots and myriad essays for… read more →
Every new writer seeking to break into television writing hears, sooner or later, about the freelance, that one episode in a seasonal television order assigned to a writer not currently on the show’s writing staff, and for which said writer is credited, earning not only a handsome script fee, but… read more →
When I interviewed Jewerl Ross, renowned literary manager (who is these days celebrating the immense success of his longtime client, MOONLIGHT writer/director Barry Jenkins), for my upcoming book, BREAKING IN: TALES FROM THE SCREENWRITING TRENCHES, he told me of the screenplays he reads and the content he sees: “If it’s… read more →
Where in decades past hefty options were given to screenwriters whose screenplays producers had hoped would “get there,” today those same options and shopping agreements are not often granted before the producer or executive involved is convinced that they have a ready-for-market, winning screenplay on their hands.
When you reach out to your community in search of writers for interviews (as was the case when I shared my enthusiasm about my new BREAKING IN initiative with my own little community), you never know whom you will meet. And scarier yet, what sort of interview subject they will… read more →
Melissa London Hilfers is a powerhouse, and not just because she just sold her second feature spec, UNFIT, to Amazon studios for mid-six-figures with some high profile potential attachments three days after the script went out to market. I realized that this woman might just have what it takes to… read more →
My seven-year-old daughter is a fledgling gymnast. Ahead of her first meet, she asked me, “Mamma, what if I fall off the beam?” I told her the same thing I always tell my writers, “If you don’t fall, you don’t learn.” The truth is that nobody likes to make mistakes.… read more →
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