After the networks announce their fall schedules in May, there’s a mad rush for the handful of available writing staff jobs on the new and returning shows. This nightmarish three-to-four week period is known as "staffing season." Today, TV writer Jane Espenson demystifies it for you on her blog.
Writing
Tie Me Up
I got this email today from my brother Tod about my buddy James Kosub, worldwide President of the Lee Goldberg Fan Club:
You’ll be happy to know that the man who once lambasted you for writing
tie-ins, is now trying to get a job…writing tie-ins. I fucking love that guy!
I had to check this out for myself. Sure enough, Jim is sniffing around for tie-in work:
I sent an email to a gentleman at Black Flame
today, inquiring about possible work on the media tie-ins his imprint
produces… The way I figure it is this: go where the work is… It’ll be a challenge, I’m sure. It’s always easier to work with
wholly original material than with licensed properties, but it’s a
credit and a paycheck, and that’s what matters.
This struck me as an odd switcheroo, coming from a man who once described me as follows:
"For a man who makes his living writing television show
pastiches for those who cannot summon the intellectual wherewithal to tackle
original mystery fiction, he’s painfully full of himself…"
I wish Jim the best of luck in his endeavors to become as painfully full of himself as I am. If you would like to find out more about the tie-in field, I invite you to visit the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and browse through their wealth of articles on the subject.
Burden of the Badge
For the last few months, I’ve been one of the judges reading short stories for BURDEN OF THE BADGE, a new Mystery Writers of America anthology edited by Michael Connolly that will be published next year by Little Brown. My fellow judges and I — Ed Hoch, Marcia Talley, Barbara D’Amato and Bill Crider — read hundreds of blind submissions (the authors were not identified) and picked the following winners:
What A Wonderful World – Paul Guyot
Rule Number One – Bev Vincent
A Certain Recollection – John Buentello
Burying Mr. Henry – Polly Nelson
A Change in His Heart – Jack Fredrickson
Serial Killer – Jon Breen
Such a Lucky, Pretty Girl – Persia Walker
Oaths, Ohana and Everything – Diana Hansen-Young
Congratulations to all the winners!
Big Day for Two Crime Writers
Variety reports that novelist James Ellroy will adapt Nicci French’s thriller LAND OF THE LIVING for New Line Cinema. Literary agent Joel Gotler will be among the executive producers, presumably for brokering the deal.
Story concerns a promiscuous woman who’s
captured and tortured by a serial killer. After surviving the ordeal,
she has to figure out what happened because cops and even her friends
think she fabricated the story.Alexandra Milchan brought the book to
Ellroy, who just adapted his own "The Night Watchman" at Paramount.
Milchan is producing that pic with Lucas Foster and Erwin Stoff.
Things not to worry about
Novelist PJ Parrish offers some very good advice to aspiring writers under the heading "10 Things You Should Never Worry About." Among my favorites:
7. I’m querying an agent. Should I send my first chapter or my best chapter?
If your first chapter isn’t your best chapter, you’re in deep doo-doo.8. Who should I dedicate my book to?
Geez…9. Should I include my picture with my submission?
Only if you’re Brad Pitt or his wife old whatshername.
A Set of Jumper Cables for Your Script
Here’s some great writing advice from Jane Espenson:
SHADY GUY
I promised you a half-ton of frozen fish. That’s a
half-ton of frozen fish.
When
we hear that, we know that the previous line was some kind of protest
about whether or not Shady Guy met his end of the bargain. We’ve
established the attitude of both characters by the end of line.As
you look through your own writing, you may very well discover that
you’ve been doing this automatically, too. If not, try knocking off a
few opening lines, see if it doesn’t jump-start the scene!
Dem BONES
Variety reports today that Fox has picked up BONES, based on the Kathy Reichs novels, for a full 22-episodes next season… but the future isn’t looking so bright for the new midseason crime dramas HEIST, CONVICTION or THE EVIDENCE, which are suffering from anemic ratings. HEIST was partially undone by poor lead-in from LAW AND ORDER, which reportedly had it’s weakest ratings in 15 years, presumably thanks to its new 9 pm Wednesday timeslot.
“Brilliant Writing…This is why the English Language Was Invented!”
Chicago Sun-Times reviewer David J. Montgomery is single-handedly revolutionizing the publishing industry. No longer will authors have to scrounge through his reviews looking for a blurbable phrase. Today, David has launched his Blurb Machine.
My reviews get blurbed fairly often, but that seems like such a
roundabout way of doing it. Why not, I asked myself, just give the
blurb directly and cut out the middle man?
Why not, indeed! The first recipient of a Blurb Machine Blurb is Lee Child:
"The Hard Way is the best book
yet from one of today’s top thriller writers. Put a pot of coffee on
before you start reading it, ’cause this one’s going to keep you up all
night." -Crime Fiction Dossier
We Are Writers, Hear Us Roar
Writer Nathan Long has designed a logo for the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers (I AM a Tie-in Writer). Cool, huh? The logo will soon be up on the IAMTW site…where you can find lots of interesting articles about the craft and business behind novelizations and original tie-in novels.
Dem BONES
BONES may just be the most unusual notion for an tie-in novel since THE SPY WHO LOVED novelization (a novel based on the movie based on the book by Ian Fleming). BONES: BURIED DEEP is an original novel by Max Allan Collins based on the Fox Television Series BONES created by Hart Hanson featuring the character created by Kathy Reichs from her best-selling series of novels. Whew. I’m winded just typing that.
What I don’t get is why Kathy Reichs a) allowed the studio to shop tie-in novels based on the series based on her books while she’s still writing books in the series herself (and her old titles are still in print) and b) why, if the tie-in books were going to be done, she didn’t do them herself. Isn’t the whole idea behind selling your book to TV to boost sales of the books? It would seem to me that authorizing original tie-in novels would actually work against Reichs’ best interests. On the other hand, the format of TV series and the tie-in novel, while featuring the central character from Reichs’ books, differs substantially from the books from which they are derived.
It’s very interesting to me and I’m eager to get the scoop from Max (who, by the way, also writes the CSI novels and is co-founder, with yours truly, of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.