When I go to the cottage next week, I’m taking Writing the TV Drama Series by screenwriter Pamela Douglas. I bought it on the recommendation of Scott McEwen and even though I haven’t started it yet, I have peeked ahead to her interviews with some of the great showrunners. Douglas calls them guest speakers and they include David Milch, Steven Bochco and John Wells.
Here’s a little taste.
Wells on what he wished he knew about become a writer:
”you sort of assume it’s going to be a couple-of-years process and you don’t really start making any headway until you’ve written about a foot and a half of material, measured up off the floor. That’s when you really start to think of yourself as a writer in the way you look at the world. It’s a craft that takes a tremendous amount of time.
I wish I had more of a sense that it was much more like learning to play a musical instrument. After four or five years you start to not embarrass yourself. It takes 10 years before you can even begin to call yourself proficient”
”The craft that’s necessary”takes a very long time to develop. I’m suspicious of writers who haven’t been writing for 10 years. I will often ask people for three or four or five pieces of material if I’ve read one thing of theirs that I like. I know they’ve given me the thing that they’re proudest of, and I’m looking to see the growth, and how much they’ve done and how much they’ve committed themselves to the long-term process of writing.”
Wells on the difficulties of writing:
I really don’t know any talented writers who ended up being successful who haven’t had a struggle. That’s just what being an artist is all about.
From Milch on commercial networks vs. HBO:
The predicate of a commercial network’s existence is to appeal to as brood a segment of the population as possible. So their impulse is always to take the edges off of anything that might offend the audience. Once the network has bought the particular premise, immediately there ensues a leveling of that idea to make it as broadly appealing as possible. Now, one of the byproducts of that is the people who bring them their ideas internalize those expectations so they conceive shows that will appeal to as broad an audience as possible.
From Bochco on creating Hill Street Blues:
When you end up creating a show with seven, eight, nine character — in response to that, ask yourself how can you appropriately dramatize that many characters within the framework of an hour television show? And the answer is that you can’t. So you say, okay, what we have to do is spill over the sides of our form and start telling multi-plot, more serial kinds of stories. Even though any given character may not have but three scenes in an hour, those three scenes are part of a 15-scene storyline that runs over numerous episodes. So that was simply a matter of trying to react to the initial things we did. The show began to dictate what it needed to be. Probably the smartest thing that Michael [Kozoll] and I did was to let it take us there instead of trying to hack away to get back into the box. We just let it spill over.
What’s your beach book?
Jaqueline
I think you will really enjoy this book. For a pro it gives valuable insight into the writing process of others, for a beginner it scares the hell out of you, but builds you up at the same time by showing that it *can* all work out.
I really enjoyed it, one of the best TV writing books there is.
My beach book? “Down and Dirty Pictures” by Peter Biskind. Tells about the history of Sundance, Miramax, the fights and skirmishes behind the scenes. Fantastic read, seriously —
— https://www.amazon.com/Down-Dirty-Pictures-Sundance-Independent/dp/068486259X
Andy
Any Hill Street Blues fans reading this, may be interested to know there is an active fans website and Egroup, both of which can be found from this link
We would be pleased to hear from you.
Regards Andy
Regards Andy
Blogette
“Writing the TV Drama Series” is a great book. I bought it earlier this year and have read through it more times than I can count. I think it may be my every occasion book.
Lex
Same as Blogette. “Writing the TV Drama Series” is awesome. I’m currently reading Foreskin’s Lament by Shalom Auslender but my next “beach” book will probably be “Television Writing from the Inside Out”.
But hopefully I won’t get stuck on reading it and work on my specs rather!
Jaqueline
Another classic I enjoy again and again is David Mamets “On Directing Film”. Sure, this is a no-brainer – I don’t know any author or wannabe who hasn’t practically inhaled the pages of this book – but if you haven’t read it: do so.
One may not agree with his ways of directing, but the impact his step-by-step style of composing shots has on modern day screenwriting is huge. It has certainly changed the way I write.
Samantha
I’ve finished the book and have to say it helped me create my best drama spec ever. I’m looking at it right now on my desk, and I highly recommend it.