Let’s face it: We all say things we shouldn’t. We don’t mean to – and most of us come to regret it later – but things don’t always come out of our mouths the way that we intended. I am just as vulnerable to this as anyone else: When I… read more →
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 →
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 →
The very best part of my job is watching new writers break into the industry, go from emerging to working professionals. And in my line of work, because of the talented scribes who have chosen to seek out my services, I get to observe this more often than many. These days,… read more →
To many emerging writers her in Los Angeles, Tawnya Bhattacharya needs little introduction: Not only is she a working television writer who has been staffed consistently for the last four years, but she is also the mastermind behind Script Anatomy, the elite television-centric writing program attended by many a television-aiming… 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 with a television writer who was making the shift from features, where he had been quite successful, to television, which is where his agent recommended he develop next. The writer sent me his thriller/sci-fi pilot, which was well written and intriguing, but left… read more →
With pilots due to be delivered in the next month and May Upfronts to be announced shortly thereafter, I am getting the same question from almost everyone I come across: How do I get staffed on a TV show? With the fall season looming, it’s natural to assume that many… read more →
The industry changed so aggressively over the past five years. Some attribute it to the writer’s strike of 2008. The strike in which the writers won the battle, but lost the war in many ways. A recent Vanity Fair article pointed out this moment as the time when Hollywood stopped… read more →
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