We’ve started a series of paid and free posts and podcast episodes about writing bestsellers. Our first post about this is here. To see them all just look up “hit novel” or “bestselling” in the search bar. In his book Hit Lit, which we’ve been talking about, James W. Hall talks about 12 elements that he thinks really make those super-popular-multi-…

The Boys welcome GAVIN MATTS to the show try to figure out who he is. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Noti…

Dogs are Smarter Than People There’s an old NPR article about writing bestsellers that quotes critic Ruth Franklin’s overview of American best-sellers as saying "No possible generalization can be made regarding the 1,150 books that have appeared in the top 10 of the fiction best-seller list since its inception." In his book Hit Lit, which we’ve bee…

Sean, JESSE FARRAR AND STEFAN HECK from Go Off Kings discuss Hayes’s plans for the episode. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and C…

Dogs are Smarter than People podcast We’ve started a series of paid and free posts and podcast episodes about writing bestsellers. Our first post about this is here. To see them all just look up “hit novel” or “bestselling” in the search bar. Whew. Blah. Blah. Blah. Right? Not a bestselling way to start a podcast episode. What’s a better way? Well,…

See Hollywood Handbook live and livestreamed Friday, October 4th at 7:30 pm PST at Dynasty Typewriter with special guests Vic Michaelis, Zac Oyama and Lou Wilson! Get tickets HERE! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.…

The Boys help JACK QUAID AND TAWNY NEWSOME make Star Trek: Lower Decks a cartoon for adults. Get tickets to see Hollywood Handbook live and live-streamed in LA Oct 4th with special guests Vic Michaelis, Zac Oyama and Lou Wilson HERE! Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hol…

We’ve started a series of paid and free posts about writing bestsellers. Our first post about this is here. In James Hall’s book, HIT LIT, he looks at twelve top-selling novels and tries to find similarities to their success. One thing that he found in the twelve novels is the theme of “America as paradise.” He writes, “America-as-paradise, an idea…

The Boys try to learn to like DEMI LARDNER AND TOM WALKER from the podcast bigsofttitty.png. Get tickets to see Hollywood Handbook live and live-streamed in LA Oct 4th with special guests Vic Michaelis, Zac Oyama and Lou Wilson HERE! Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hol…

So, last week was Shaun’s birthday. Yay, Shaun! We’ve started a series of paid and free posts about writing bestsellers. Our first post about this is here. And today, we’re talking about a main element in writing a hit novel. Some people call it The Big Clock. Some people call it a Ticking Clock. Some people call it The Timer. Dramatic theory is fa…

The Boys help SIMON RICH juice the comments of his Broadway play announcement “All In: Comedy About Love.” Get tickets to see Hollywood Handbook live and live-streamed in LA Oct 4th with special guests Vic Michaelis, Zac Oyama and Lou Wilson HERE! Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the …

The Boys welcome back LANGSTON KERMAN to discuss his new FX spinoff show. Get tickets to see Hollywood Handbook live and live-streamed in LA Oct 4th with special guests Vic Michaelis, Zac Oyama and Lou Wilson HERE! Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-S…

A lot of the writers I teach get really freaked out about structure. They go on multiple craft book journeys trying to find the structure that resonates with them, the one that gives them that beautiful a-ha moment. Who can blame them? Don't we all want that beautiful a-ha moment? They learn about pinch points, rising action, falling action, subplo…

The Boys welcome back HALEY JOEL OSMENT for a special episode of Salty Ones. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode HERE Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.c…

We talked about this a long while ago, and I've revisited it, too, but it's time, my writing friends, to revisit it. So in writing one of the biggest tips that you start hearing starts in around third grade and it’s “SHOW DON’T TELL.” And it’s sound writing advice, but it’s pretty sound life advice, too. How many of us have heard the words, “I love…

JON GABRUS, BEN RODGERS AND DOMINIC DIERKES show The Boys a few scenes from their monthly live improv show Pretty Funny. Ticket link for their show here! Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gu…

Readers want questions that they’ll get answers to. They want to be hooked along. They want to unwrap the answer the way people unwrap a birthday present. That’s what Robert Prince says, anyway, writing in his class at the University of Alaska,”The key to understanding what audiences really want in a story is to understand that the audience doesn’t…

The Boys help BRANDON WARDELL and JAMEL JOHNSON get on Hollywood Reporter’s Most Powerful People in Podcasting list. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Author, podcaster and professor Robert Prince has this thing he does when he watches a movie: the Atomic Bomb test. “After I’ve watched about 20 minutes of the film I ask myself, ‘If an atomic bomb were to go off and destroy everyone in this film, would I care all that much?’ If the answer is no, I don’t keep watching the film,” he says in his clas…

The Boys help CARMEN CHRISTOPHER sell his hats. Buy Carmen’s hat here! Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Not…

The Boys and BRIAN HUSKEY work on the next film in the Teen Pope franchise. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privac…

Brainstorming . . . Even the word sounds a little creepy. Like there is a storm inside your brain. It sounds... It sounds sort of violent and hazardous and windy. In this podcast, we talk about the storms inside our brain and how those storms can become story ideas. Five Ways To Get Story Ideas Some authors have a really hard time just getting an i…

The Boys and JOHNNY PEMBERTON discuss all the ideas from Fallout. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice a…

Setting is where your story happens. It’s the time period. It’s the physical place. You can have more than one setting. There. That’s the definition. We’re all good, right? Wrong. Let’s really talk about setting. WHAT SETTING DOES Setting is the foundation of your story. It is the ModPodge that has an addictive smell (Cough. Not addicted to ModPodg…

The Boys talk to JO FIRESTONE about how New York comedy can save us. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notic…

Algonquin Young Readers Will End in September The traditional book publishing world is a bit like the wild west if the cowboys wore pink-framed eyeglasses and could quote Derrida. People are heroes. People are let go. Entire divisions of publishing houses close. And so on. And this continues this week with the changes at Hachette Book Group and its…

The Boys welcome back MAX SILVESTRI to discuss his podcast Past Your Bedtime. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Priv…

Our podcast title is “How To Write a Book Description That Gets Readers Tingling All Over” and that just sounds naughty, doesn’t it? And it is a little naughty because this, my friends, is about selling a book, your book, and that requires being a little bit sexy. Sexy is something I, Carrie, am very very bad at. Let’s start by thinking about it th…

The Boys help JIM O’HEIR fix Parks and Rec for his podcast Parks and Recollection. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California…

Dogs are Smarter Than People/Write Better Now Last week, we talked about pinch points both on the podcast and on the blog, and honestly? Nobody seemed super into it, but we’re finishing up this week. This post is going to be a bit more about the first part of act two of a three-act story, focusing on the time from the first pinch point to the midpo…

The Boys welcome back ADAM CONOVER to ruins Hollywood Handbook. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm Get started with a $13 trial set for just $3 at harrys.com/THEBOYS See Privacy Pol…

There are some things in the writing world that don’t make a ton of sense in the world of regular humans. One of those things is pinch points. This podcast episode is going to be the start of a quick series of podcasts and regular posts about pinch points. The regular posts will be at our Substack LIVING HAPPY under the WRITE BETTER NOW publication…

The Boys welcome back AYO EDEBIRI to discuss her recent interview with Vanity Fair. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm Fiji Water - https://www.fijiwater.com/ See Privacy Policy at …

There are a lot of people who advocate spending just an hour a day doing something to become awesome. That hour a day is often learning. You study up about what you want to do, you self learn, you teach yourself to be better by learning all about the thing you're into. So, if you're into writing, you read books about writing and actual books. You s…

The Boys help MARY SOHN enter the lucrative world of podcast adaptations. Check out the new summer edition of the Hat Pack Hat HERE Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm Go to MackWeldon.com and get 20% off yo…

The Boys welcome back REKHA SHANKAR to help promote their live show with the Doughboys this Friday! Tickets available HERE! PROMO PIC (SPOILER) Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm Fi…

On last week’s podcast and the one a few before that, and in a post, Shaun and I talked a bit about plot structures and narrative structures and how here in the U.S. we think of these usually (not always!) as pretty linear, and pretty much in a three-act framework (think beginning, middle, end) with rising stakes and drama as you go along. This is …

The Boys and JEN D’ANGELO fix the awards shows. See Hollywood Handbook live and streaming Fri, June 14th at 7:30 pm PST at Dynasty Typewriter with special guests Doughboys! Get tickets HERE! Also make sure to get the new Summer Edition of the Hat Pack Hat HERE! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate H…

Last week, maybe a week ago, maybe 82 years ago, who knows, we talked about alternative plot structures. Much of American film and novels is built on what's considered to be the classic three-act structure, which basically goes beginning-middle-end, and there's this rising line of the plot. It ends up looking like a bit of a triangle. As readers, w…

See Hollywood Handbook live and livestreamed Fri, June 14th at 7:30 pm PST at Dynasty Typewriter with special guests Doughboys! Get tickets HERE! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Boys audition BOBBY MOYNIHAN to perform at next year’s Super Bowl Halftime show. Check out Bobby in the new movie Unfrosted. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Polic…

The Boys help DAVID BROWN take full credit for Jury Duty. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https:/…

Do you want to be happy? It’s a question philosopher Sebastian Purcell asks his students every year. Do you want to be happy? For Purcell being happy has a lot in common with living a good life, “The Stoic answer to this question, that the good life consists in flourishing (eudaimonia), has seen a resurgent interest that is indicative of a cultural…

The Boys welcome back JEREMY LEVICK and RAJAT SURESH to discuss the rules for their diss track. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy an…

You can learn a lot about culture by how it looks at what makes a good story and a good story structure. In Western culture right now, we tend to think of stories as three acts (a beginning, middle, and end with the bulk being in the middle), and with a protagonist or hero or main character (whatever you want to call it) who drives the story forwar…

The Boys lock down GRIFFIN NEWMAN on Draft Day and discuss what’s next on Blank Check. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Califor…

It ended up being a bit of a free-for-all as we talked about the strange things people do sometimes. SHOUT OUT TO STUBHY! The snippet of our intro and outro music is only a snippet of this guy’s awesome talent. Many thanks to Kaustubh Pandav. You can check out a bit of his work at the links below. www.luckyboysconfusion.Net or www.Facebook.com/mrms…

So building a sympathetic character on the page is a lot like being a sympathetic character in real life. This sympathetic character is basically the opposite of a butt-hole. There’s this great post on the SocialSelf blog that talks about what makes people likable and what keeps people from being likeable. And writers can learn from this, really. T…

The Boys welcome back Jackie Johnson to open for her live show How to Get a Second Husband. Get a Hat Pack Hat here! Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/TheFlagrantOnes. Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Ca…

A lot of writers that I work with have a problem. The problem is that they want to be a writer, but before they come to me? They don’t write. Here’s the thing. For a lot of us, we have to make time to be a writer. That’s just how our brains and process work. There are some writers who manage to get 10 days of alone time and writer time and they pow…