Here are ten links we've seen that are worth sharing.

 

The writer of Willy's Wonderland G.O. Parsons talks about how he broke the rules of screenwriting.

Deadline's Read the Screenplay series features a number of feature scripts you can read, along with an article on them. The scripts include Mank, Cherry and The United States Vs. Billie Holiday. 

Sitcom writer James Cary has some thoughts on sitcom characters on his blog. What do your characters do? Maybe they have a paid job, but what takes up most of their screen time? Is it parenting? Is it tree surgery? Is it treating sick people? And can you think of twenty things to do within that? You need to know this because your character will need to have things to do in 20+ episodes.

With the news that Frasier is soon to be returning to television screens, it's a good time to read John Hoare's article on the pilot episode and the number of lines that were cut from it.

On the British Comedy Guide, comedy historian Graham McCann looks at how Billy Connolly has appropriated material over the years. 'Even his celebrated breakthrough gag on Parkinson, in 1975, about the half-buried bum that served as a parking space for a bike, had been in circulation for ages up and down the northern pubs and clubs. His distinctiveness in using it there was simply in being the first one to believe, unlike so many other comics of the time, that he could get away with telling it on a mainstream TV show.'

A good long interview with Jodie Foster in the New York Times Magazine. What do you learn as a director7 I learn something new every time. I learned from directors who do things that I would never do. David Fincher is an extraordinary filmmaker, and also crazy and obsessive — but it’s his attention to detail, his sense of technique. And Robert Zemeckis likes to create problems for himself that can’t be resolved on film. So he has to invent things in order to resolve them. That’s kind of amazing.'

On YouTube, you can find The Hollywood Reporter's full Writers Roundtable featuring Aaron Sorkin ('The Trial of the Chicago 7'), Emerald Fennell ('Promising Young Woman'), Radha Blank ('The Forty-Year-Old Version'), Sam Levinson ('Malcolm & Marie'), and Kemp Powers ('One Night in Miami', 'Soul').

On the iPlayer you can watch Meet Jim, Citizen of the World, the documentary about Jim Haynes, the co-founder of the Traverse who passed away in January.

The New York Times has a great feature on Rent 25 years on from opening on Broadway and the shocking death of its writer Jonathan Larson. ANTHONY RAPP, who played Mark: From that last dress rehearsal until mid-July, no one missed a performance. It seemed impossible. No one could. I don’t say that to brag. I just think it showed our level of commitment. We had to do it for Jonathan.

The Tron theatre has a fabulous sonic theatre series, Earwig, (designed for headphones) that lets you drift off into mysterious, dramatic, grotesque, and funny other worlds, and it reaches its first season finale this March, but stays online. 

The best writing and theatre chat we saw on Twitter since the last newsletter.

Commissioning Editor Jack Sommers does an AMA on pitching.

Kerry Hudson asks for some sources of screenwriting advice and gets loads of great replies.

Better Call Saul writer Gennifer Hutchison offers to answer some questions on revising.

Overused dialogue tropes from Collin Lieberg. 

A little technique from James Henry on how to get your manuscript completed.

Joanne Harris on copyright removal after 30 years.