The Case for Not Rushing It: Where Good Ideas (and Good Book Trailers) Come From
“The Latin verb cogito for ‘to think’ etymologically means ‘to shake together.’” Writers are often at their least creative when it comes to beating themselves up for not working, or … Continue reading
Seth Speaks: Family Guy Creator, Oscar Host & Mega-Mogul Seth MacFarlane On Breaking Into the TV Business
Seth MacFarlane talks about getting started in the business, what he looks for in a spec script and the original pilot for “Family Guy” in this exclusive interview for The … Continue reading
Ira Glass (of “This American Life”) on the Building Blocks of Storytelling
The producer and host of the popular NPR storytelling show, describes why many stories don’t work and gives you the two basic building blocks of personal storytelling: 1. The Anecdote … Continue reading
Alan Zweibel on Comedy Writing and Writing Comedy
Alan Zweibel is the prolific writer of Emmy-winning TV shows (“Saturday Night Live”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”) and a Thurber Prize-winning novel (“The Other Schulman”). He offers … Continue reading
Billy Wilder on What It Takes to be a Writer Who Writes
You may have heard of him or seen some of his movies like, oh, for instance, “Some Like It Hot”, “Sunset Blvd.”, “The Lost Weekend” and “The Apartment”. No shock: … Continue reading
Kurt Vonnegut on the Shape of Stories
Kurt Vonnegut’s (rejected) master’s thesis in Anthropology looked at the structure of stories told in different cultures, a topic he lectured on frequently. Here’s an illustrated transcript of a Vonnegut … Continue reading
The Science of Productivity
This cute (and short) animated article from brainpickings.org backs up a lot of things I’ve been telling clients for years about how to be more productive. Of course, I didn’t … Continue reading
