Writing for TV

[txanne]

Hey, c'mon, that whole origin thing turned out to be con-job.  It was a put-up by some Neolithic male sorcerors who wanted the girls to do all the work. 

That was the very last episode I watched, so I wouldn't know what they retconned it into. Hey look! I'm still bitter!

[Cass]

Ben Edlund
That is who you need.

Ok, who I would REALLY like to meet.
A LOT.

This is a man with a twisty mind.

[Cal]

I think our writer shopping list would be DIZZYING. But some of the very best ones seem to come out of nowhere (which really means, shows nobody noticed).

Which means there are...I don't know how many Farscape writers for you to choose from... 

Happy thought, that.

[Elizabeth Bear]

Mmm. Farscape.

I'm sorry, where were we? Oh, right, coding HTML like motherfuckers. ;-)

[Barton Fender]

Mmm. Farscape.

I'm sorry, where were we? Oh, right, coding HTML like motherfuckers. ;-)
[/quote
I think this is great right here.
I have to say I have decided to go to the book store Saturday and stock up on books by the writers here.
So not only will I be readying many, many, many plays I will also be reading books from my new favorite authors.
Oh and when MadG puts out a cook book I'll buy that to.

[MadGastronomer]

Oh and when MadG puts out a cook book I'll buy that to.

Thanks!  Alas, the only cookbook I have so far conceptualized is a basic how-to for single guys titled something along the lines of <I>Cooking to Pick Up Chicks</I> (it's based on my experience of trying to teach my younger brother to cook).  I've got an outline, a couple of recipes, and part of a chapter on shopping.  Possibly it will some day be finished.  Probably not, though.  Writing is harder work than cooking!
On the other hand, if an SU cookbook is ever assembled, either an official one or a fan version, I'd love to help put it all together.

[glinda_w]

Oh and when MadG puts out a cook book I'll buy that to.

Thanks!  Alas, the only cookbook I have so far conceptualized is a basic how-to for single guys titled something along the lines of <I>Cooking to Pick Up Chicks</I> (it's based on my experience of trying to teach my younger brother to cook).  I've got an outline, a couple of recipes, and part of a chapter on shopping.  Possibly it will some day be finished.  Probably not, though.  Writing is harder work than cooking!

You're in the Seattle area, right? For your cookbook, I'd be happy to do things like keying into Word, or proofreading/editing (until I became disabled, I was a tech editor and writer, and I've retained those mad skillz, I just haven't the stamina to work even a 4 hour day.) Files passed back and forth online, though, without a tight deadline, I could handle. I work very very cheap (mention in the credits, please *grin*).

I'm still working on "my cookbook" - first 'printed' in, um, 1992, last updated in 2000. Lots of recipes for things with chocolate in them; it's very heavy on the desserts. Worked out at um. about 100 pages, 8 1/2 x 11, put into sheet protectors then into a 3-ring binder. 'S *great* for being able to wipe splatters off the pages. My friend Liz wants it updated, as a Mom's day present for her mother, and I'm trying to do that. I've forgotten most of what I'd learned about indexing and setting up styles for automagically generating the table of contents. I think mid-March is about when I'll start fighting with it...

edited to add this: Have you thought about changing the title a bit, so it's not just focused on guys? I know a frightening number of women who could use that information. Not up to thinking of an alternate title, am rather crashy and out-of-spoons from doing too much yesterday and some today. (bloody f$cking fibro and CFS and migraines, taking away my life! *swears*)

[MadGastronomer]

You're in the Seattle area, right? For your cookbook, I'd be happy to do things like keying into Word, or proofreading/editing (until I became disabled, I was a tech editor and writer, and I've retained those mad skillz, I just haven't the stamina to work even a 4 hour day.) Files passed back and forth online, though, without a tight deadline, I could handle. I work very very cheap (mention in the credits, please *grin*).

The problem right now is motivation.  Every few months, I go poke at a couple of things, but then it just sits there some more.  I usually only get a chunk of writing done when my brother asks me for information, at which point I write it up for the book and send it to him.  But if you want to take a look, I'll send you what I've got.  Or I can just add you to the LJ filter, since most of it is already on there.

Have you thought about changing the title a bit, so it's not just focused on guys?

It's more than the title, it's the whole way I conceptualized and then outlined it.  I mentioned that it's based on my experience of trying to teach my brother to cook.  Well, aside from a few basic items with which to feed himself, he wanted all of the recipes I gave him to be portioned for two, so he could cook for himself and a woman.  All of it has been planned around the idea that the major motivation for learning to cook is to cook for a date, and everything else is just practice; all the ideas are so far aimed at guys and butch lesbians (although most of the butches I know are very good cooks).  I suppose it could be de-gendered, but I'd have to rework a whole lot of ideas.
But there are a lot of basic groundwork cookbooks out there, and I went with this idea partly because I thought it was a good hook.

[Elizabeth Bear]

Not that I have any idea how the cookbook publishing industry works, but I think it is a good marketing hook, and I would probably stick with it, much as it might chafe my inner feminist.

The late. great, much-lamented James Barber has a fabulous book on cooking for two, by the way. Called, shockingly, "Cooking for Two."

[will shetterly]

MG, make that "Cooking to Pick Up Chicks—or Guys!" and then give me a cut of the profit, please. If no one's beat you to it, it's a fine idea. One way to get people to cook is to get them to focus on something other than the cooking itself, and your title does that perfectly.

[Barton Fender]

Oh and when MadG puts out a cook book I'll buy that to.

Thanks!  Alas, the only cookbook I have so far conceptualized is a basic how-to for single guys titled something along the lines of <I>Cooking to Pick Up Chicks</I> (it's based on my experience of trying to teach my younger brother to cook).  I've got an outline, a couple of recipes, and part of a chapter on shopping.  Possibly it will some day be finished.  Probably not, though.  Writing is harder work than cooking!
On the other hand, if an SU cookbook is ever assembled, either an official one or a fan version, I'd love to help put it all together.

Well I have been trying to find a good recipe for hot and sour soup. All the ones I have tried never quite worked. Normally not quite sour enough.
Don't stop working on the cookbook at some point you will finish it and many times that alone is worth the effort.

[txanne]

MG--what about "Cooking for a Hot Date"? Because "Hot Food for a Hot Date" is just dumb.

[MadGastronomer]

Bear, it chafes at my inner feminist, too.  There are things that I have come up with that I have had to prune because they chafed too much.  But writing it for the kind of guy who ten-plus years ago were doing Home Improvement grunts (I just realized I have no idea of what they're doing now.  Something to look into if I pick this project up again.  Maybe they're all watching Jackass?) makes it both funnier and more marketable than if I make it unisex.  Also, then there's room for a version for young women (some of whom, I suspect, would pick up the Chicks version anyway, thinking, "Well, if guys can cook this stuff, then so can I.") later.
It's a working title -- I know y'all know all about those -- so it may not stay, but I think the concept is a lot more marketable, funnier, and more interesting to read if I make it gender-specific.  But thanks to everybody for the input.

[Elizabeth Bear]

Chafing the inner feminist = blues euphemism.

[MadGastronomer]

That is possibly the most awesome blues euphemism yet.