Two Things To Think About

Number One:  Check out this great advice from Jen Grisanti posted on The Hollywood Temp Diaries.

Here are some memorable quotes:

"One of the biggest mistakes young writers make is their writing portfolio doesn't support their goal."

"Once you identify some universal life moments, you add some fiction to the story while coming from a place of emotional truth. This is where the gold is."

"I think that scripted writers can learn a lot character wise. If you study the back story of some popular reality shows characters, it could give the scripted writers ideas."

Number Two: Check out this great memo from Walt Disney to Don Graham from Letters of Note.

Here is one particularly poignant point:

"Comedy, to be appreciated, must have contact with the audience. This we all know, but sometimes forget. By contact, I mean that there must be a familiar, sub-conscious association. Somewhere, or at some time, the audience has felt, or met with, or seen, or dreamt, the situation pictured. A study of the best gags and audience reaction we have had, will prove that the action or situation is something based on an imaginative experience or a direct life connection. This is what I mean by contact with the audience. When the action or the business loses its contact, it becomes silly and meaningless to the audience."