BLOG FU

In case you're new to this blog, here's a roundup of some of the higher signal-to-noise posts...

UPDATE: People keep asking about where to find scripts to read, and what a spec script does, and how to get a job in showbiz. My answers, dear friends, are below. Yes, I have already blogged about many of the things you're asking me about.

A glossary of tv writer terminology

Springboards

Challenge your core cast's strengths

Beating Out the Story

How do you get away with plotholes?
Making plotholes fun
Characters and their dumbass mistakes
On characters and the dumbass mistakes they make, part 2
On calling for backup, part 2
What can happen offscreen?
Nothing can happen offscreen
Time cuts
Train wrecks and telegraphing
Second thoughts on telegraphing
Addressing viewer expectations
Tracking expectations
Losing the audience's trust
Fully resolved by first act out?
Suspense v. surprise
Compressed reality
On step outlines
The Sucky Point
Getting past the Sucky Point
Going for the gimmes in the 4400 pilot

Scene Work

Have uncommunicative characters explain each other
The cut away from the predictable conversation
The conversation at cross purposes
Format wars
Good playing dialog vs. good reading dialog

Comedy

Three Tools from the Comic Toolkit
Where's the comedy
Comic commitment
Simple plots

Rewriting

On taking notes
When to pull the plug
The Writer Bomb

Production

Writing It Small
Why our producer doesn't like block shooting

The Writing Room

Credit the room, not the writer
Why you must have a writing room
Writing personnel titles

Your TV Career

Your foot in the door, or why you should intern
On staffing season
A few more words on TV spec scripts
Why you must have specs
Why not just write the specs, already?
Best Screenwriting School in the World. And it's free, too.
Be a back door man. Or woman
Script coordinator vs. writing assistant
Getting onto a show
Never say "no"
Contests and fellowships
Working with people who can't tell good from bad
Working for less than scale
Write a spec pilot?
Why you need an agent, part 37

Pitches, Bibles and Templates

The attractive fantasy
Pitches & Pitch Bibles
I just read a bad bible
Two things any pitch needs to answer
What network do you want your show on?
What is Gilmore Girls's template?
Blowing the template on Corner Gas?
Why Tour of Duty sucks
Character names
Backdoor pilots
Network first, or producer first?
Who's core cast?
What's the poster?
Episodic vs. serial

Reading TV

Where to find tv scripts to read
More where to find scripts

Watching TV

Watching with 9 year olds
Canadian SF?
More sex please
Car wreck TV
What naughty girls those L Word girls are
24 has jumped the shark
Watching Firefly
Project Greenlight, the fake break

Interviews with pros

Paul Guyot, part 1, part 2, and part 3 A "guyot" is an underwater seamount, in case you're wondering.
Shelley Eriksen, part 1, part 2 Part 3, part 4 and part 5
Jacob Sager Weinstein
Chris Abbott, part 1, part 2, part 3, part four, and part 5

Miscellaneous

Characters in SF&F
Writing Animal Characters
Remedial storytelling, or why Kerry lost
Sheherezade
On telling the truth
Redistricting, a modest proposal. Nothing to do with TV, but I wish someone would pick up the meme and run with it.