TV writer Ken Levine (M*A*S*H, Cheers) wrote the opening of a sitcom where Superman is adopted by a Jewish couple instead of the Kents. Then the next day he broke down his decisions, showing how the plot was driven at each point, where he inserted jokes that moved the story or defined the characters, and where he gave nods to the Superman canon. ( Read more... )

Clarion West is more than halfway over, but their Write-a-thon continues. A whole busload of talented writers are pounding the keys and hoping for your bucks to help support one of the premier writing workshops in the universe.

Donate now to help them keep on keeping on!

Today I Learned that there is an online archive of TV scripts.

--> I see that Hard Case Crime, the noir book series reprieved from an early death by Titan Books, will be publishing Blood on the Mink by Robert Silverberg this coming April. It joins a lineup including books by specfic writers Roger Zelazny, Stephen King, and Robert Bloch.

--> Donald Maass, James Scott-Bell, and Christopher Vogler discuss story ( Read more... )

Thank goodness for the 4th of July. While Amy was off delivering Katie to a summer camp, I finished the story on which I was working, and posted it to our writers' group, Sound on Paper. Here's a bit:       It was the work of half a minute to lay open the frozen flesh and access the veins beneath. Carefully she scraped some flakes of blood onto a ( Read more... )

It was a productive evening. I took the opportunity to deep-six four-hundred words constituting the entirety of a story and replace it with twice that amount, freshly minted this evening. Here's a bit of it:
      Zhao Xixi handed her husband a canteen of water and watched him anxiously as he sipped. Doctor Chen An had not adapted well to the ( Read more... )

Lots of staring at the screen today, but a few words added:
      Lois Stanton, the clerk on her right, popped a bubble of gum. “Better get back to work, dearie, before old Battle Stations sees you slackin’ off ( Read more... )

I've been writing every day for the Clarion West Write-a-thon, really I have. Where I've not kept up is in writing my posts. I know that's a vital part of the job!

I'm having second thoughts about posting a section of the current work-in-progress. It feels like it could be a bit spammy. Could you let me know if it's a good idea or not? Thankee.

Poll

Hello ( Read more... )

James Patrick Kelly challenged Clarion alumni to come up with five lessons learned when attending the Clarion SF/F writing workshop. The first couple of posts collecting these lists are up at the Clarion Foundation Blog (1,2).

I went to Clarion with two goals: to see if I could write fast enough to consider a writing career, and to see if I liked ( Read more... )