Official WGA Writers Strike thread.

[Nicholasp27]

[ QUOTE ]

Being a good writer is about writing well and ultimately storytelling in an intelligent/original/novel/clever/funny/... way.

[/ QUOTE ]

no it isn't

that may be YOUR definition of a good writer, but that is your opinion: that written work should be intelligent/novel/clever/funny/etc

someone who writes instruction manuals or other technical documentation for a living may be a good writer...they may not be a good novelist or fiction writer or storyteller, but they are a good writer

definition of a writer:

1. a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., esp. as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist.
2. a clerk, scribe, or the like.
3. a person who commits his or her thoughts, ideas, etc., to writing: an expert letter writer.
4. (in a piece of writing) the author (used as a circumlocution for “I,” “me,” “my,” etc.): The writer wishes to state….
5. a person who writes or is able to write: a writer in script.


nowhere does it mention clever/funny/intelligent/etc

storytelling is just one type of writing...if someone can effectively convey business strategy or poker strategy or how to open a bottle of wine through written word, then they are a good writer

your definition is simply your opinion of what makes a good storyteller

[KneeCo]

[ QUOTE ]

"Being a good writer is about writing well and ultimately storytelling in an intelligent/original/novel/clever/funny/... way."

The majority of TV writers do this every week.

[/ QUOTE ]
No they don't. Maybe they are capable of it, maybe they would all be Shakespeares if they didn't work for an industry that requires they churn out crap, but we can't know that, what we do know is that they are churning out crap and nothing else, so they don't write well.

This isn't very complicated people.

Imagine if I get a painter and I ask him to make me a piece of [censored] drawing, for whatever reason. Maybe I'm stagging a play and I need something to put up on the prop refrigerator that looks like it was done by a 2 year old.

Maybe the guy I got does a really great job, so much so that I hire him on professionally to paint simple, silly crap for me. At the end of his life that's all he's done, and the question comes to you: 'Was he a good painter?'.

While he did paint professionally and was very good at it, the answer to the question has to be 'no', or at best 'can't tell'.

Now, it's true that perhaps he could have been Rembrandt if he had a job that expected/demanded more of him, but we don't know that, and we have to go on what we know, we have to judge him on what he painted (because, like I said, there no such thing as a noveless novelist) and what he painted was crap, though to his credit perfectly suited to what was demanded to him and probably better for his job than what a lot of better painters would produce in the same spot.

[Nicholasp27]

he may not be a good artistic painter, but if he paints walls very well with no drips and a very straight line between the wall and the moulding, then he is a good painter

u need to distinguish between artistic writers (or storytellers) and writers and distinguish between artistic painters and painters

painting a wall perfectly isn't artwork, but it's painting...he's a painter, but not an artist

[CharlieDontSurf]

The Unit, The Office, ER, Grey's Anatomy, Any Joss Whedon show, LOST, HEROES at times, 2 1/2 Men, The Big Bang, The Shield, The Closer, The Wire, 30 Rock, all the CSI's, House, etc etc etc...all good writing and better than what 95% of the US population could come up with.

[KneeCo]

[ QUOTE ]
The Unit, The Office, ER, Grey's Anatomy, Any Joss Whedon show, LOST, HEROES at times, 2 1/2 Men, The Big Bang, The Shield, The Closer, The Wire, 30 Rock, all the CSI's, House, etc etc etc...all good writing and better than what 95% of the US population could come up with.

[/ QUOTE ]

1 - Most TV sucks. I love good TV, but it's in the minority by a very long shot.
2 - Doing something better than 19 people out of 20 doesn't make you good at it, especially if the population in question is the whole world
i.e. the avg 2p2er may be better than 95% of the US population at poker, that doesn't mean he can play worth a damn.

[Pudge714]

CDS,
The fact that the writing is better than 95% of the population troubles me. That means I should know dozens of people that could be professional television writers.

Also the fact that Sopranos writers wrote for bad shows doesn't really prove anything. That's like saying A-Rod played AAA therefore a everyone in AAA could be the next A-Rod.

[CharlieDontSurf]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The Unit, The Office, ER, Grey's Anatomy, Any Joss Whedon show, LOST, HEROES at times, 2 1/2 Men, The Big Bang, The Shield, The Closer, The Wire, 30 Rock, all the CSI's, House, etc etc etc...all good writing and better than what 95% of the US population could come up with.

[/ QUOTE ]

1 - Most TV sucks. I love good TV, but it's in the minority by a very long shot.
2 - Doing something better than 19 people out of 20 doesn't make you good at it, especially if the population in question is the whole world
i.e. the avg 2p2er may be better than 95% of the US population at poker, that doesn't mean he can play worth a damn.

[/ QUOTE ]

Whether you like a TV show or think a TV show sucks has no bearing on whether the show has good or bad writing. I doubt you'd even be able to tell the difference based on your retarded definition of what constitutes good writing and or writers.

[CharlieDontSurf]

[ QUOTE ]
CDS,
The fact that the writing is better than 95% of the population troubles me. That means I should know dozens of people that could be professional television writers.

Also the fact that Sopranos writers wrote for bad shows doesn't really prove anything. That's like saying A-Rod played AAA therefore a everyone in AAA could be the next A-Rod.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah i just threw the number out there probably more like 99.99999.

and the Sopranos example does make sense given KneeCo was arguing that if a writer writes on a bad show then he or she is obv. a bad writer.

[CharlieDontSurf]

[ QUOTE ]
CDS,

If someone wants to get a job writing for television and they live in Idaho, what should they do after they move to LA?

[/ QUOTE ]

Get a job on a TV show as like a PA or something to pay the bills and make contacts and hopefully work towards getting a job as a writer's assistant on a show's staff.

While doing this they would also write spec episodes of the top shows at the given time and write screenplays etc.

[KneeCo]

[ QUOTE ]
and the Sopranos example does make sense given KneeCo was arguing that if a writer writes on a bad show then he or she is obv. a bad writer.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where did I say this? I've clearly said throughout that if someone *only* writes bad shows and nothing else, they are a bad writer.

If someone is born, writes [censored] exclusively for his whole life and dies; and you're asked if he was a good writer the correct answer isn't he was better than most people, it's that he sucked at it. This isn't rocket science.

As for my retarded definitions, whatever, I'm at least making arguments here and you're just mis-quoting/attacking me. I'm sure it's hard to think straight, you're probably still reeling from the engaging-nail-bitting-life-changing brilliance you saw in last week's episode of "CSI: Miami", but you know, you could at least try to play along cause you're making my job of making you look wrong and stupid a little too easy.