Don't let another season slip through your fingers!

Greg is offering a SPRING FORWARD SUPER SALE on his creative consulting. Get 12 hours for the price of 10 and commit to weekly check-ins for the next 3 months while you...
Draft your script
Write your show
Outline your book
Finish a book proposal
Create your online profile
Transform your standup act

Veteran screenwriter, story editor, teacher and writing coach Greg Miller will get your creative work on track with concrete suggestions, fresh perspective, strategic planning and regular deadlines.

"It's like magic!" - Parker (outlined and drafted article)

If you have material you've already generated, e-mail your pdf or link(s) or mail to: 137 N. Larchmont Blvd. #107 LA CA 90004. Greg is an expert reader and will help you focus the project, re-ignite your excitement for the material and chart a course to a finished draft (or performance).

"Terrific insights!" - Noah (re-wrote a script)

If you don't have any material generated... then you really need to saddle up and get started. Call Greg directly at 323-717-4731, explain your particulars and schedule your first session today.

Maybe you had some trouble getting started, but now you're beginning to generate material.

Or maybe you're a natural generator, or even an over-producer, and you have too much material.

Is it all even part of the same project? Maybe it’s several different projects?

Congratulations, you've just hit Hurdle #2: defining the parameters of your writing project.
 
If your problem is: “I can’t choose between several possible projects”...

There are several hurdles that almost every writer has to get past in almost every writing project; scripts, books, plays, or even a substantial essay or article.

As a writing coach I've helped many writers and talented would-be writers get over – or around – these hurdles. I've also written over a dozen scripts myself – plus many projects that never got finished because of one or more of these stumbling blocks.

Webster's defines a 'hurdle' as: “an artificial barrier over which racers must leap”. I think the key here is remembering they're artificial blocks, usually psychological, and they're almost always put in your way by you. Of course, they seem - and act - pretty real.

HURDLE #1: GETTING STARTED

You might be one of the lucky ones who has no trouble here. If so you've probably gotten started on way too many projects. If you’re one of those people, you can skip directly to the second hurdle. But if you’re having trouble getting going it’s probably due to one of the following reasons:

“I’m too busy with other things!” aka “I can’t find the time!”

Solution #1:

Beth just sent me another great quote about the creative process, this one from Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Easy reading is damn hard writing". And of course, when he says 'hard writing', he means rewriting. Which can be the hardest kind of writing of all.

Over the years, we've developed a number of techniques to take some of the pain out of the rewrite process. It's inevitably going to be a little painful,  because you have to confront the fact that you're writing isn't perfect. Yet.

I use these techniques when I work as a writing coach for private clients. We also use them, and others like them, at The Comedian's Way Workshop for Writers, Performers and Other Humans (next class this Sunday, Nov. 1, 1-4pm at M Bar in Hollywood).

There's nothing magic about any one of these. The point is to make a game of the rewrite to keep yourself from taking it so seriously that you get blocked. I realize some of these are going to be way too cutesy, or too woo woo, for some of you serious writer types. Maybe you'll feel differently the next time you're in the middle of a pit of rewrite despair and considering slitting your wrists.

What happens when a piece of material gets stale? How do you keep the audience - and yourself - interested?

Get some great advice about how to keep your material fresh, find the material that will stay fresh the longest, and tips on integrating this freshening practice into your creative process and your life in this inspiring rap from Beth Lapides at The Comedian's Way workshop.

Audit, register for a single class or get discounts on multiple classes. Upcoming classes: Sunday, Oct. 4 & 18, 1-4pm at M-Bar, 1253 N. Vine St. LA 90038.

Click here for more info about The Comedian's Way workshop or call 323-993-3305.

btw, this video was taken with the new Flip UltraHD Camcorder. Yes, the HD takes a long time to process and upload video, but the resolution and color are way advanced, the camera now holds up to 2 hours of video (instead of the previous version's 1 hour capacity), the sound is a lot clearer and, most importantly, it has retained virtually all its cuteness.

In almost any Hollywood pitch meeting, some executive will inevitably ask you something like 'But what are the stakes'? Or 'Can we raise the stakes'?

Maybe that's why so many plots turn to someone having to save the world - or the whole universe! Those stakes are high enough, right?

In this illuminating clip from The Other Network Writers Room, 30 Rock Co-Exec Producer and Writer John Riggi talks about times when the stakes are too high and plot overshadows character. Many successful current comedies like 30 Rock and The Office, focus on microscopic plots, and great characters, and 30 Rock earned 22 Emmy nominations this year.

With comedy, I think the important thing to remember is that the stakes that are important to the character aren't necessarily global. And in fact, a character's out of proportion caring about their often-miniscule goal, is part of what makes it funny.

Me! Pick me! What about me?! And me! You can't leave me out! But you can't include everything. Your book/essay/show/standup comedy set can't go on forever.

There are so many things to write/talk about, so many stories, and so many beats in each story, that sometimes it's hard to decide which to pick.

Here are 9 great reasons to choose a piece of material:

1) IT'S FUNNY - That's enough of a reason, especially if you're working in a comedy format. Funniness is less important when you're going for tragedy.

2) IT'S TIMELY - Something that just happened has an urgency and energy when you try to communicate it, whether it's something in your personal life or in the world. If you're performing live, especially with stand-up comedy, a major story from the news of the week will be on everyone's mind and something big like Michael Jackson dying is almost a required topic. The audience wants to know your take on it.

One day a talented student arrived a little late for our writing & performance workshop. She apologized and said she was late because she had a 'hand job' that morning. What?!

It turned out she worked as a hand model and while she had been doing funny material about other things in the class, this was the first we'd heard about her day job. And everyone was fascinated.

Emily Aiken is a brilliant strategic consultant known as 'the Brand Dominatrix' who came up with a great phrase: Low-Hanging Content.

That perfectly describes a whole category of potential material that a lot of writers and comedians overlook because it just seems too obvious and too familiar (to them). Too easy.

Over the years we've worked with a lot of very talented people who kept searching farther and wider for material when they had a wealth of great stuff within easy reach. For the writer referred to above it was hand modelling, for another

Beth Lapides offers advice on dealing with other characters in your stories, especially your most important character: you. This rap recorded at the Un-Cab Lab Writing & Performance Workshop.

Audit the workshop this Saturday, April 25 (1-4pm) - or any time - only $10 per class. The workshop meets at M-Bar, 1253 N. Vine LA 90038. Call 323-993-3305 or e-mail info at uncabaret dot com for more info.