CRAFTY QUESTIONS

I'm getting ready to send my lovely and talented book agent the proposal for Crafty TV Writing. Everything's in shape except the outline, which is a work in progress. I think the hook for this book is something like: how do tv writers think about TV. And then how do they write it.

When a chess master looks at a chess board, he sees structures I don't see, lines of force, combinations, etc. When a crafty TV writer watches, or when he sets out to construct a new show -- and I'm just learning to do this -- he has a sense of how the characters interrelate. What are the possibilities? Whereas when a not-so-crafty writer does it, he just throws a few interesting characters in there and hopes they're the right ones for each other.

Teaching how to do that -- learning how to do that -- is a tall order. But I'm convinced it can be distilled.

I keep wondering if I should put off writing this book. I'll know more about TV writing in a year, y'know? On the other hand I'll learn about it by writing about it. Particularly because I'm going to interview people who are undoubtedly crafty.

Which brings me to my next question...