Advice — the writers store

Jeffrey Stepakoff has been writing professionally in Hollywood since 1988. He has credits on shows including The Wonder Years, Sisters, Major Dad, Beauty and the Beast, and Dawson's Creek. Stepakoff has also created and developed pilots for many of the major studios and networks, and has developed and written major motion pictures, including Disney's Tarzan and Brother Bear. His new book, Billion-Dollar Kiss, is about his life and career in the screenwriting business. Jeffrey sat down with The Writers Store to answer a few questions about the TV industry. How did you become a TV writer? In truth, I kind...

Steven Priggé, a one-time assistant on the hit sitcom Spin City starring Michael J. Fox, has written a new book entitled Created By: Inside the Minds of TV's Top Show Creators. Between the covers, Priggé delves into the minds of people like Max Mutchnick and David Kohan (Will & Grace), Brenda Hampton (7th Heaven), Josh Schwartz (The O.C. ), Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls), Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), Bill Lawrence (Scrubs), Ilene Chaiken (The L Word) and others, to ask the questions all aspiring TV writers want answered, such as: How do I get an agent? What spec...

WS: You graduated magna cum laude AND Phi Beta Kappa from a small, private liberal arts college, Macalester in St. Paul. What was your major and did it have any impact on your careers as house painter, apartment house owner, and prize-winning screenwriter? SLO: Well it was a funky mix of physics, psychology, philosophy and neuroscience that qualified me for nothing, except maybe a housepainter or a graduate student. I was trying to get at what consciousness was. As it turns out it was also good prep for being a writer. WS: One of your comments in your bio that...

Originally an actor, Ray Gideon first took the turn into writing 20 years ago with fellow actor Bruce Evans, and the two of them have been working together ever since. It's a partnership that has yielded some impressive credits, first with short films then to feature films with their first sold script, 'A Man, A Woman and A Bank.' This first effort launched their career, which has included films such as 'Stand By Me,' 'Starman,' 'Made In Heaven,' 'Jungle' and 'Jungle 2' among others. Today, they work from their West Hollywood office, continuing their two decades of collaborative writing nurtured...

Karin Howard has written for nearly every medium: she's written film scripts and TV shows in English and German, she has several novels to her credit, she has a degree in journalism and has worked as a journalist and even hosted a television magazine. Her work as a writer and director on 'The Tigress' earned her a Merit Award, and she's received fellowships from both AFI (American Film Institute) and MAAPAS. A native of Germany, Howard now lives in Los Angeles, where she writes extensively for German and European films and television. Computers definitely make my life as a commuter...