You’re in the writers room, working on a TV series. Every weekday you arrive, ready to collaborate with other smart writers. The showrunner, your boss, has created characters you’re excited to write for and a series you’re thrilled to help on. You have a desk and an office and the show buys you lunch every day. Before […]
I got my first agent (as an actor) when I was a senior in high school. I was riding the bus to school with a girl who studied at a performing arts center near my house on Long Island, and one day, she asked me if I wanted to come […]
Before I was brave enough to call myself a writer, I was writing. It came in spurts. I’d get an idea and I’d start putting words on the page. At the time, I was writing short stories. I wanted to write novels. Inevitably, I’d hit a wall. I didn’t have […]
The holidays are whipping by as they usually do. They might be leaving you breathless with parties and shopping and other celebrations. Or perhaps you’re relaxing in front of the TV with your feet up or making trips to the movie theatre or obsessed with your favorite […]
I was at a networking event (a holiday party – ‘tis the season) and I ran into a friend of mine. He’d just sold a script and was really excited. But he also said he was feeling scared because now he had to write it. (This is […]
This used to be my biggest impediment as a writer: I’d get so excited about an idea that I’d just start writing. No outline, no nothing. Somewhere along the line I’d become stuck and have no idea how to proceed. I believe that’s because I didn’t have […]
I’ve been hearing this over and over again from writer friends and clients: some believe they’re handicapped because they don’t have confidence. Without it, they say, they are floundering in their writing careers. I don’t think confidence is required.
On Dictionary.com confidence is described these ways:
1. full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a […]
Pitching may be the toughest thing you do as a writer.
In my life as a playwright, I have the luxury of writing FIRST. Rarely have I been in the position of telling someone what I was going to write before I wrote it. That means I have […]
This happens all the time: I’m out somewhere and I meet a new person who is excited to hear that I’m a writer and a writing coach. The person claims she is “not yet” a writer, but has “great ideas”. Then she proceeds to tell me […]
In any dramatic scene, the energy should flow back and forth – like a tennis match. Someone says or does something and the other person responds. In the best scenes this movement is palpable – the power dynamic shifts – and the resulting momentum moves us into […]