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A review by ryanberger
Created by . . .: Inside the Minds of TV's Top Show Creators by Steven Prigge
1.0
Let me preface by saying yes, I am very bitter.
Let me also say that there are bits and pieces of the advice within the book that is out of date, but the book doesn't lose points for that. Still, beware if you read advice like "I would focus on writing on a pilot rather than a spec script" when everyone everywhere requires both in 2021.
Then again, I think saying something like that reinforces my general gripe with the book, which is that a lot of the creators seem more than a little out of touch. Pages upon pages talking about personal connections that easily landed them in certain rooms or landed them an agent. There are very few stories about scraping and clawing your way to your first TV writing job, which is what a vast majority of the people who pick this book up will be after.
It's not like they're completely out of touch, or that they say something annoying at each opportunity (Only Bill Lawrence "understands the assignment" of this book, to me), but there are some stunning positions in this book. It really seems like they believe anyone can get their foot in any given door, and that the hard part is just staying afloat and writing well. Many people who pick up this book already write well, they want to know how they're going to feed their family and get a paycheck.
I can appreciate the research done in wrangling all of these talents together. Can it be enjoyed as someone who is a TV enthusiast and not a writer? I suppose it could, but even then I'm not really sure. It's not like the stories of how these writers came to be are especially interesting.
You can descend into platitudes about how much of this industry is just being a "good hang", but the TV writing landscape is a wasteland in which everyone is starving and this book, despite it's star power and promise that it will bestow knowledge on you, gets you no closer to your ultimate goal. Very disappointing.
This is one of the books that Disney recommends you should read as a part of their Writers programs. A lot of their recommendations have been hits. This one is a huge miss.
Let me also say that there are bits and pieces of the advice within the book that is out of date, but the book doesn't lose points for that. Still, beware if you read advice like "I would focus on writing on a pilot rather than a spec script" when everyone everywhere requires both in 2021.
Then again, I think saying something like that reinforces my general gripe with the book, which is that a lot of the creators seem more than a little out of touch. Pages upon pages talking about personal connections that easily landed them in certain rooms or landed them an agent. There are very few stories about scraping and clawing your way to your first TV writing job, which is what a vast majority of the people who pick this book up will be after.
It's not like they're completely out of touch, or that they say something annoying at each opportunity (Only Bill Lawrence "understands the assignment" of this book, to me), but there are some stunning positions in this book. It really seems like they believe anyone can get their foot in any given door, and that the hard part is just staying afloat and writing well. Many people who pick up this book already write well, they want to know how they're going to feed their family and get a paycheck.
I can appreciate the research done in wrangling all of these talents together. Can it be enjoyed as someone who is a TV enthusiast and not a writer? I suppose it could, but even then I'm not really sure. It's not like the stories of how these writers came to be are especially interesting.
You can descend into platitudes about how much of this industry is just being a "good hang", but the TV writing landscape is a wasteland in which everyone is starving and this book, despite it's star power and promise that it will bestow knowledge on you, gets you no closer to your ultimate goal. Very disappointing.
This is one of the books that Disney recommends you should read as a part of their Writers programs. A lot of their recommendations have been hits. This one is a huge miss.