From West Virginia to Hollywood

Since Diablo Cody is my poster child (female) for a screenwriter coming from outside L.A. (and the original inspiration for this blog)  then I think I’ll name Lawrence Kasden as the poster child (male) screenwriter from outside L.A. Kasden was raised in Morgantown, West Virginia. Quick, name another screenwriter from West Virginia.
(While Morgantown is the [...]

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The First Time I Got Paid For It…

Driving from Minneapolis to Cedar Falls feels like a long commute because the three and a half hour drive literally involves heading south on Interstate 35 and making one turn. It’s a pretty mellow drive. There’s not much worth looking forward to once you’ve made the slight detour to visit the Spam Museum in Austin, [...]

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Writing Quote of the Day #5 (Garrison Keillor)

I confess that when I was in my early 20s and was given some cassette tapes featuring Garrison Keillor I totally did not get his appeal. But somewhere on a long road trip I’m sure (as well as a few more years of life lived) I stumbled upon A Prairie Home Companion on some remote [...]

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A Minnesota Nice Day

Saturday afternoon & evening in the Twin Cities I was able to pack enough fun into about a six hour period to last me for the rest of the year. I was in Minneapolis to attend Emmy Night for the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. But I also [...]

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Michael Hauge (part 3)

And my last quote from Michael Hauge’s book Writing Screenplays that Sell comes in on the inspirational side and something worth posting above your writing area.
“100 percent of the screenwriters who now have agents at one time didn’t have an agent.
100 percent of screenwriters who are now working at one time weren’t working.
100 percent of [...]

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Michael Hauge (part 2)

The only thing wrong with Michael Hauge’s Writing Screenplays that Sell is that it was first printed in 1991 so the film references are all old.    (At least that’s true of the version I have, and I don’t think it has been updated in the  30+ reprintings of the book.) But the tend to [...]

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Michael Hauge (part 1)

I saw where highly regarded screenwriting teacher Michael Hauge will be teaching a one-day workshop in Minneapolis Saturday (9/26/09) and this offers a good chance for Midwest writers to get a taste of whom Shane Black (Lethal Weapon) said, “When I pick up the phone for help, Michael Hauge is the call I make.” He’s [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #104 (Robert Benton)

Writer/director Robert Benton grew up in Texas where he suffered from Dyslexia, failed his only creative writing class before dropping out of college, but went on to write Bonnie and Clyde on his way to being nominated for six Oscars.
“Now it’s a side of my inability to deal with reality that I decided to be [...]

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Diablo’s Body

“I need to know two people can stay together forever.”
Juno
(Winning an Oscar) doesn’t mean anything. It’s like winning class president.”
Diablo Cody
Someone once said that in America we love to cheer victors as they enter the triumphal arches and then throw rocks at them as the pass through the other side. If you’re [...]

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Grey Gardens, Emmys & Michael Sucsy

Last night I just caught a few minutes of the Primetime Emmy awards and glad to see Jessica Lange and Ken Howard win Emmys for their roles in Grey Gardens. The HBO movie also picked up the Emmy for Made-for-TV Movie. (The movie won a total of six Emmys.) It’s always [...]

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