Recently, a newly minted emerging writer asked me to meet with her. She had recently made the decision to shift careers to screenwriting, got her copy of Final Draft, started taking television writing classes, and now wanted to sit down with me to find out what it was going to… read more →
One fall, many years ago, I happened to visit my family in Israel right around the time of the European Basketball Championship. Israel made it all the way to the finals that year, and on the night of the big game, Tel-Aviv was a ghost town. My uncle, cousin and… read more →
I am an observer of the human experience. Always have been. And nowhere do I get to indulge this particular proclivity more than I do in my work with screenwriters. Add to that the fact that I love numbers and stats and facts and figures; after all, my mentor was… read more →
If you’re gonna hit the road with a specific destination, you have to know what steps, milestones and landmarks you have to hit in order to get there. This, in its most stripped down form, is the logic behind setting effective screenwriting goals. With that in mind, at the end… read more →
A few weeks ago I sat down for coffee with a manager friend to do our regular catch-up about all things writers and industry. She reps writers. I work with writers. She even reps a writer I work with. And I genuinely like and respect this particular manager, on top… read more →
Before I lunge into this blog post, let me start with a disclaimer: If you only have one story that you want to tell, one script is all it’s going to take. You will revise and revise and revise, invest blood sweat and tears to see it up in lights,… read more →
f you’ve been asked to send your screenplay to someone, be it through an industry contact, a networking effort or a pitch event, congratulations! Getting your screenplay requested is always a great moment. Considering that your #1 job as an aspiring writer is getting your script read, getting your script… read more →
I first met writer/director TJ Mino a few years ago in a Seattle seminar I was teaching about the business of screenwriting. Two years and an award-winning short film later, TJ packed up his stuff, and, without any real friends or connections, made the move to Los Angeles. Shortly after… read more →
A prominent literary manager recently told me that he still reads queries. If they don’t come in late at night, in which case he rarely bothers. Or when he’s driving. Or early in the morning. Or when he’s at lunch. But when he’s at his desk, and not too busy…… read more →
Many years ago, shortly after I took over ScriptShark, I came across a script whose writers swore to me was going to be the next big Hollywood hit. The problem? The screenplay was written – as the scribes proudly told me – for what they called the Paul Newman generation.… read more →
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