In 1972, Rod Serling sat down with a small group of students and talked with them, on-camera, about writing for television. Portions of these conversations are currently up on YouTube. Much of what he was saying then is just as true today for those of us writing fiction – whether that’s for television, the stage, or print. It’s worth taking the time to watch the entire series.
Rod Serling talks about Writing for Television
part 1 – Where do ideas come from? part 2 – Writing to please an audience part 3 – Does espousing a cause lose character credibility? part 4 – Discussing “The Silence” part 5 – Would you inject your philosophy into a piece of work? part 6 – Do you just take off and write? part 7 – Is there any kind of therapy that helps characterization? part 8 – All writers are born part 9 – I wish more good writers would put themselves to the test part 10 – On time travel part 11 – On story climaxes part 12 – On government versus the individual part 13 – I was traumatized into writing by war events part 14 – The instinct of creativity must be followed by the act part 15 – On character motivation part 16 – On creativity
