Last week, John August, a screenwriter who runs one of my favorite blogs, provided the less-than-six degrees of separation between him and the other screenwriting bloggers he links to from his site. Since I also link to those same folks, I thought I’d write a bit about each one myself.
Now, since John actually knows these people, his list is emphatically different in tone from mine. I’m just writing a bit about what drew me to those other blogs and why I check in on them regularly.
John August
The writer of several produced scripts (Go, Charlie’s Angels, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), John was the first screenwriting blogger I stumbled upon, and his site’s been a huge source of information for this budding screenwriter. He is quite modest (and a bit of a fellow geek) and is brimming with solid advice, which he gives freely. He also has mixed feelings about pictures of himself.
Man Bytes
David Anaxagoras (hey, I spelled it correctly!) feels much like a kindred soul. A fellow aspiring screenwriter, struggling with rewrites, work and occasional self-doubt. (don't we all?!) One major difference, though – he's finishing up the UCLA grad MFA program, and has written somewhere in the vicinity of 12 screenplays. And he lives on the correct side of the continent.
I Find Your Lack Of Faith Disturbing
Reading screenwriter Josh Freidman’s (War of the Worlds, The Black Dahlia) site is like hanging out with a fellow writer at a local bar, ranting about stupid industry people, while knocking back few drinks. I’m not sure if Josh actually drinks, but I like to imagine he does on occasion. Probably rum and Diet Coke.
The Artful Writer
This blog is maintained by Craig Mazin (Rocketman, Scary Movie 3) and Ted Elliot (Aladdin, Shrek, Pirates of the
The Thinking Writer
As a 12-year veteran of the business, Jon Deer (not the tractor guy) has worked jobs from mailroom jockey to producer. Plus, he’s an entertainment lawyer and loves to answer questions. Standard legal advice disclaimer applies.
Wordplayer
A vast knowledgebase of screenwriting wisdom. A great choice for the first place to check when you’re looking for the answer to a sticky writing problem. Run by Ted Elliot (see the Artful Writer description above) and his writing partner, Terry Rossio. Check out the columns. There’s gold in there.
Now, I’m not claiming that my blog will in any way stand up in quality to the ones I’ve mentioned. And yes, I’ll probably end up linking directly to their posts from time to time, thus contributing to the massive replication of content that links all blogs together in some way or another. They’re just really great sites. Hope you’ll enjoy them, too.
