Why I’ve Been M.I.A.: Fighting Broke’s How Hollywood Works: Television

Happy Friday dear readers! As you may have noticed, I’ve been pretty inactive as of late (read: I completely disappeared from the face of the planet). To make matters worse, I then reappeared only to disappear again. It was sucky of me, and I’m sorry. Very sorry.

Would it help if I said I have a legitimate reason for being M.I.A.?

The reason I’ve been such a bad blogger lately is because I’ve been busy working on a project over at Fighting Broke called How Hollywood Works: Television. Long story short, Chris, a former boss of mine from my stint down in LA, and I have spent the last few months putting together all the information you need to know about the television industry. We know that there are a lot of people out there who are looking to break into television or just want to know more about the industry in general, and we wanted to make it a little easier for people to go through and process the massive amounts of information spread all over cyberspace about how to do it.

It’s been a massive project, much more massive than either of us initially anticipated when we first got started, and the first two sections–Pilot Season and Creatives–are finally up and running. I’m super happy with how they turned out. Like, over the moon proud mama bear happy, because they are legitimately awesome resources that I REALLY wish I’d had when I was down in LA working in the industry. I didn’t know even half of the stuff we talk about while I was working there (which, by the way, is more than a little bit depressing) and they would’ve helped me so much.

So, since I’m such a proud mama bear about this project, I figured I’d share it with you, dear readers, so you can see what I’ve been doing instead of blogging here and can check out these awesome resources.

Here is the main page: http://fightingbroke.com/hhwwtv/

They’re worth checking out even if you aren’t looking to become a TV writer, if for no other reason you can get a better foundation knowledge of how television and the television industry work. For example, do you know why the top primetime shows (think Scandal on ABC, and football on CBS) always air on Thursday nights? No? Well, you can find out here.

If you like them as much as I do, make sure you subscribe to our mailing list so you don’t miss our upcoming updates.

So now you know, dear readers. Hopefully I’ll be able to start posting more regularly on here soon, but at least you’ve got this to tide you over in the meantime!

Publication Rights for Freelance Writers

Dear readers, I’m afraid I’m still trapped in the special circle of hell known as job hunting. It’s a hard market out there for a bewildered 20-something writer! Many of the jobs I’ve come across have been freelance writing gigs for startups and blogs, which got me wondering about what rights I have regarding any content I’d publish doing these jobs. So I did a little digging and found this nifty little infographic over at freelancewriting.com by Brian Scott that I found extremely helpful. Seeing as I’m sure at least a handful of you, dear readers, have considered doing or even done freelance writing work, I figured I’d share the knowledge and pass this on. Enjoy, and if any of you with experience in this line of work have any input on the information here, please write me and let me know!

A Bewildered 20-Something’s Goals for 2014

Happy (very) belated New Years dear readers! I hope all of your holidays were fantastic and filled with plenty of quality time with your loved ones. I know I’ve been a terrible blogger recently and have been slacking a *lot* when it comes to posting, but there have been reasons I swear!  Namely, I’ve been trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my bewildered 20-something self in the new year, which was surprisingly more difficult to figure out than I thought it would be. Is it possible to have a quarter life crisis before you’re 25 (rhetorical question, please don’t say no)? Well, either way, I *finally* put together my list of goals for 2014, and seeing as I’ve owed you a post for weeks now, dear readers, I figured I’d share them with you.

Day Jobs of Famous Writers: Librarians, Postmasters, and Oyster Pirates

Did you know that Kurt Vonnegut was the manager at the first Saab dealership in the United States? Or that Stephen King was a high school janitor and it was there that he came up with the idea for the opening girls’ locker room scene in Carrie? True story. In honor of Labor Day, it seems apt that I supplement last Friday’s Day Jobs of Poets post with a longer piece on some of the kooky day jobs of famous and successful writers, including a few that they never stopped working at even after they made it big!

Friday Funday: The Day Jobs of Poets

Happy Friday dear readers! You survived the work week made it to the holiday weekend (assuming you’re in the states; if not, you still made it to the weekend!)!

In honor of the end of the work week, here is a fun little chart that popped up on my Facebook feed last night about famous poets’ day jobs, just so you know that you are not the only one who’s had to get a “real person job” in order to pay the bills.  Unless you’re Herman Melville or Emily Dickinson, that is. I’m not sure the yearly salary for aspiring harpooner or keeper of cats would’ve been all that great…

We Don’t Just Make Your Coffee: Why Employers Love Hiring English and Humanities Majors

If you majored in English or in another “useless” humanities field like Art History or Philosophy, then you’ve been the butt of this meme’s joke more times than you can count. You’ve heard it so many times, in fact, that maybe you’ve even started to believe it. But fear not, fellow English and humanities majors! We are not all doomed to a life of serving overpriced diabetes-inducing coffee drinks (unless, of course, you want to work at a coffee shop, which’s cool too). There are employers out there who not only hire us, but even (gasp!) *LOVE* to hire us!

Wowed English Major cat says “Whaaatt?”

What is this “Real World” Thing?

It is now August 2013, and I have officially hit a new point in my life: for the first time *ever* (Note the asterisks, demarcating the importance of the word “ever.” I’d do caps, but I’m not going to subject you, dear reader, to any Kanye-ing on the very first post. You’re welcome.) I’m not getting ready for the next school year. Finally, at the age of 23, I have stopped going to school and am now entering the “Real World” that I’ve been hearing so much about.