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 […]
Recently, I saw a post on Facebook about contest submissions for writers. The person who posted was making the point that assessments about the winners and losers are “sometimes subjective”. I posted an alternate view: they’re always, 100% subjective. 100% of the time.
It can […]
Recently I’ve been posting on Twitter, inviting people to send in questions about playwriting, TV writing and the “writing life”. I’m willing to answer the juiciest questions on video, posted to my YouTube page. Part of the reason I coach, is that I enjoy being […]
This strange phenomenon happens all the time. I encounter a creative person who says they’re stuck. Often they paint themselves as desperate: looking for a lifeline from anywhere. Sometimes they claim to have no resources, no idea how to find their way to a job in their chosen creative field.
We […]
For the first time, I was invited to speak on a panel at Comic Con. The UCLA Extension School put a panel together of instructors who work in the entertainment industry. I was honored to be one of them.
If you’ve never been to Comic Con (I hadn’t […]
When I was in playwriting school, there were three distinct groups of artists under the umbrella of the school’s Drama Division: playwrights, directors and actors. We collaborated on occasion, but we had separate tracks in terms of classes and focus and goals. In the second year of […]
Someone told me this week that they’re cutting back on Facebook. I get it. It can be a time-suck. It’s tempting to spend time liking and posting and commenting. Your creative work (and other work) can be ignored in the wake of all that activity. There are […]
I was talking, recently, to an artist friend who was experiencing some frustration about his creative life. His big issue was that he felt like his projects weren’t moving fast enough. He expressed a desire to have the artistic life of a friend.
I’m teaching a class at the UCLA Extension School about developing your original story. Over 12 weeks, we’re exploring the basics behind TV movies, mini-series and TV shows. The class culminates in the students developing a pitch. They’ll turn in a written version and then they’ll pitch […]
Last week when it was announced that ABC wouldn’t be renewing American Crime, I received the news like a punch in the gut.
I knew, intellectually, that it might happen: although our reviews were stellar [Deadline critic Dominic Patten called season 3 “the strongest installment yet in the Emmy-winning anthology series from John Ridley and ABC” and compared the […]