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Posts tagged as “Tips”

Luck of the Draw

Next Saturday marks a full year since my move to Los Angeles.

As you may or may not know from one of my tweets yesterday, I received last night a depressing email:
an “automatic Delivery Status Notification” telling me that “delivery to [email protected] has failed.”
Translation: my NBC/Writers on the Verge 2012 application was not delivered.
The kicker is that I’m getting this message a full month after I sent out said application (for the two people who don’t know, the deadline was end of June).
Yes, I did e-mail WOTV back, just in case, but who am I kidding here.
It’s over a month too late for any “new” application to be accepted, regardless of when it was originally sent out.

In between the tears and hair-pulling, I began to curse the heavens.
Why me?!

Don’t worry, I’m not gonna go into a philosophical debate right now.
Well, not entirely.

Let’s go back to me yelling at an imaginary person in the sky:
Why me?!
Why is the world against me? Why did the delivery notice not arrive minutes after the e-mail pinged back, but literally a month later? Why did HD DVD lose to Blu-Ray?

And then, like [insert tired simile about a bolt of lightning, a slap or a ton of bricks], it hit me:
It happened to me because it happened to me. It is what it is.
What I mean by this very generic assembly of words is that, in my case, I could as much curse my luck as bless it.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, right?
And on my side, it’s plenty green.
After all, I did get my own Green Card (Green? Get it?) a little over a year ago.
Not a lot of people can say that in these neck of H-woods.
(As far as I know, only Dominic Purcell won his. No, really.)

“Why me?!” works both ways.
You can be thankful or ungrateful.
Pour yourself another half-glass of vodka and you’ll get it.

The end?
Not yet.

This isn’t a tale about how everything happens for a reason.
Hell, this isn’t a tale.
This is life.
I could whine all day about how everything’s going wrong.
Or I could suck it up.

Even if the application was never received, was it a waste of my time?
Did I really write a spec only to impress a nameless judge?
Do I have to continue asking these obvious rhetorical questions for dramatic effect?
Of course not.

I write because I want to write. Nay. I write because I have to write.
I don’t need a reason, I don’t need an excuse.
Whatever happened to my application, at least it allowed me share my writing (even to the Internet ether).

No tears will be shed at the loss of my Writers on the Verge application.
Better luck next time.

In conclusion, there is no conclusion.
You don’t have to see this industry (or life) as an everyday battle, but know this:
Fact: Setbacks happen.
Fact: You will be remembered by what you do, not by what you shoulda coulda woulda done.
Fact: Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

Clearly, this long-winded (and hilarious) post was meant more for me than anyone else.
But maybe, hopefully, it was a little helpful for you as well.

Catharsis: unlocked.

Tips and stories from around the Web: Comic-Con 2011 Edition

We might be bitching about the ridiculous price of the tickets (especially next year’s) or the hotels, but Comic-Con is ultimately a celebration of — well, I’d say comics but we both know that’s not true anymore, so, let’s just say, a celebration of pop-culture mostly for the fans (and the pros).

As this will be my first trip to the Con, I did a bit of research to find some tips and guides.
Needless to say, I found several very interesting ones:
– Kotaku ran an article last year not necessarily on tips about the con itself, rather tips about travelling to it (and in it). Still a very interesting read.
– Another “Top 10” list to mention is the POVonline convention guide.
– If you’re a Flash fan, then you must know Speed Force. What you may not be aware of is that they published amazing suggestions “for making the most of comic conventions.” It’s all based on personal experience from the author and it has a lot of handy nuggets of information.
– I can’t list great Comic-Con guides without mentioning Shouting in the Wind’s own post. It pretty much answers most of the questions anyone has about attending the con. There’s usually an update every year, though I’m linking last year’s guide since, as you can guess, sadly no ’11 update has been made for now.

A lot of these tips may seem a tad redundant, but it’s pretty clear you can’t go to Comic-Con unprepared.
Three key suggestions seem to emerge:
Pack for the day with food and water, be ready to walk/stand in line with comfy shoes, and, perhaps most of all, have a hand sanitizer. I know I will.

With all of that said, I must also talk about one extremely exhaustive guide/tip-list stands out above all the rest.
I am of course referring to The Comics Reporter‘s own 150+ Tips For Attending San Diego’s CCI 2011.
That’s right, the website has over 150 tips, and these are definitely not one-liners. Warning: given its extensiveness, the page is pretty long.
This is clearly a must-read for any attendee, especially the first-timers.

I also thought it’d be a good idea to link in this post several other websites which are great source of intel about the convention.
– First up is SDCC Blog, an unofficial SDCC blog self-described as “the ultimate source for all things SDCC.” Although it’s not as “ultimate” as they seem to think, it is still pretty comprehensive. The most notable part of the site is its dedicated off-site events page.
– A great “counter-point” to this website is Comic-Con Geek, which also provides news on the subject, often more extensively.
– Finally, we have The Beat which has a dedicated Comic-Con section and often brings amazing insight into the con and news around it.

You should also know that the official San Diego Comic-Con website is full of amazing guides, from maps of the convention floor and shuttle information, to exhibitor listings and schedules.

If you’re interested in what my panel schedule will look like (I know I am), here’s a link to MySched–or what’s left of it.
Some panels still interlap as I’ll probably be deciding last-minute for those.
Obviously, it’s mostly a wish-list, since you can never tell how everything is going to go down.

I’m also hoping for some kind of ‘LA TV Writers’ meet-up to be organized.
And if yourself are attending the Con, you can always shoot me an e-mail!
If nothing is ultimately planned, I’ll probably tweet up something around Saturday, maybe a screening of a crappy pilot — or an impromptu get-together…
After all, isn’t that the point of a convention?

Tips and stories from around the Web, Part 5

With the fellowship deadlines in full swing, I sadly was not able to update the site as much as I’d wanted to. However, fear not gentle reader as others have in my absence update their own. And by that, I mean it is time again to take a gander at some great articles and insightful videos from around the Web.

Let’s start off with this great New York Times article by Frank Bruni which is actually a profile on J.J. Abrams.
I highly recommend watching Abrams’ famous TED talk beforehand if you haven’t already.

On the writing side, we’ve already seen (or rather heard) a couple of Jen Grisanti’s amazing one-on-one interviews/podcasts with writing producers of several big shows.
This month, she interviewed not one but two such people with Glen Mazzara (EP of The Walking Dead) and Aaron Zelman (CP on The Killing).
Needless to write, they are very informative about both their respective writing process, careers, and the politics of the writers room.
It was especially a fascinating take in regards to The Walking Dead, which had its fair share of (ultimately unfounded) writer-related controversies a few months back.
In any case, they’re well worth the listen.

Speaking of high-powered writers (yes, I need to work on these transitions), you might have heard a documentary coming out next year about showrunners. Well, the movie trailer is out and the lineup is quite interesting.

And since television is mainly about dialogue (well, besides characters), you might be highly interested in this amazing talk by Steven Pinker entitled Language as a Window into Human Nature on “how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings.”
An eye-opener to say the least.