SCREENWRITING BOOKS

Craig Mazin has a gritty post about screenwriting books and the non-screenwriters that write them. I agree with the sentiment. One reason I wrote Crafty Screenwriting was that most screenwriting books seem to have been written in a neverland where the goal is a well-written script. Or something. Having worked for 10 years as a development executive, I noticed they missed important things like the need to have a hook. While anything that gets your juices flowing is worth something, I don't know why people are reading books by people who've never made a living from scripts. I would happily read a book about screenwriting from a producer, another development exec, an agent, an actor or a director, if there were one, before I'd read one by a professional screenwriting teacher. And I've heard the same horror stories about certain screenwriting book writers and the scripts they've perpetrated.

I also agree with Craig's sentiment that you should read and write many screenplays, too, rather than just reading many screenwriting books. The only screenwriting book I think I ever got much out of was my own, by the process of writing it, and crystallizing what I thought I knew.

But then, I'd already read a thousand scripts and had spent years trying to set movie projects up, while writing on the side, professionally. When you're already in the door, it's hard to remember how difficult it can be to find where the door is.

The right kind of screenwriting books are useful. (Craig wasn't saying they aren't, but I feel inclined to assert it, since I've perpetrated my own screenwriting book!) People don't always know where to start. A good screenwriting book can walk people through the process. A good screenwriting book talks about what a good screenplay is, and about writing groups, and where to find scripts to read. In my upcoming book, Crafty TV Writing, I'll talk about how to watch TV analytically, and how to get feedback on your specs, and what the writer's room is like, and who do you send your specs to, and how is TV writing different from movie writing. I tried to write Crafty Screenwriting to be the book I wish I'd read when I started writing screenplays lo these many years ago, and ditto Crafty TV Writing.

Anyway, if I didn't think there was a point to it, why would I have a blog about screenwriting?

ING

JDC asked me to comment on this. There's some kind of brouhaha over at Zoetrope about using "ing" verbs.

I'm in favor of all parts of speech. "Ing" verbs denote continuous action. Useful when you come into the scene on something that's already started.

Kay comes into the kitchen, where Jay is cleaning the oven.

(Or, as I'd really write it:

Kay comes into the kitchen, where Jay has his head in the oven. Is he cleaning it? A grubby arm comes out, grabs a scrubby, and goes back in again. Yep.)

Without "ing" verbs it's hard to give the right mental picture:

Kay comes into the kitchen. Jay cleans the oven.

On the other hand beginning writers do sometimes seem too enamored of the present participle:

Kay is coming into the kitchen, which Jay is cleaning.

English is an extremely powerful tool, developed and refined over millenia. I wouldn't willingly part with a scrap of it. Or as the bumper sticker says, "Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma."

WIRED WRITES ABOUT GF

Wired writes about the underground spread of the Global Frequency pilot....

CAN O' WORMS

CHARLIE JADE SPECIAL EPISODE OPENS A CAN OF WORMS
SPACE Premiere - Thursday, July 28 @ 9pm ET
Repeats Saturday, July 30 @ 7pm ET

(Toronto - June 29, 2005) SPACE presents a special recap episode of the critically-acclaimed Canadian speculative fiction series, Charlie Jade. Airing Thursday, July 28 at 9pm ET, the episode titled "Can of Worms," encapsulates what has happened in the series so far from the point of view of investigative journalist Karl Lubinsky as he recounts how his life, and the world, has changed since he met Charlie Jade. In addition, Karl's musings reveal a startling new twist in the show.

"In response to strong viewer demand, SPACE and CHUM have recognized the pent up interest in Charlie Jade," says Diane Boehme, Executive in Charge of Production and Senior Director, Independent Production. "For those who are intrigued and missed our first broadcasts and want to catch up, this episode will reveal many of the mysteries at the heart of this great new series."

Yes, it's the Charlie Jade recap show. Liked the look of the show? Cool concept? Don't know what the hell is going on? Watch the recap. Inspired by the Lost and Desperate Housewives recaps, but, of course, much more twisted.

Good idea, Denis!

REGISTRATION AND COMMENTS

By the way, I've banned anonymous comments. You have to be registered. However, you can register at Blogger for free. Just go to the comments page and click on the link. You don't have to have your own blog or enter your address or fill out the profile, though it's nice if you do. This is just so I can tell which comments are coming from the same person, and which are coming from different people.

THE LAST CHAPTER

I'm editing the last chapter of Crafty TV Writing today. I'm wondering how far to go. The previous chapters take you from how to watch TV (yep!) through how to manage a writing room. The last chapter is about creating your own show.

Now that's a bit arrogant, since I've only co-created one show on the air, though I have been commissioned to write sundry bibles and such, and I've optioned some pitches and spec pilots. But someone has to go there. And David E. Kelley wasn't available for an interview.

I'm debating how far to go, though. Just cover the "spec pilot" that you write as a sample, with the off chance it'll actually get bought? Cover actually doing a bible, not that everyone does a bible? (In Canada we do bibles, you might say, religiously.) How much depth? How helpful is it to the beginning or intermediate TV writer to know what's going through someone's head as they're trying to create a show?

You guys are my readership, so you tell me.

A SINGULAR NOTION

Ray Kurzweil writes about the tech Singularity. Everything is speeding up, he says, taking after Vernor Vinge, and within our lifetimes our technology will be unrecognizably smart and fast. Beyond that point it is as impossible to see as it is to see beyond the event horizon of a singularity...

THE BIRTH TAX

Nicholas Kristof came up with an interesting phrase I think we should all promote: the "birth tax."

Every American born owes $150,000, mostly to China, courtesy of the huge US deficit.

Whatever happened to the Republicans being the party of fiscal restraint?