I see this as fun challenge for Dio and not a vindictive, cruel hoax. I’d like to see him do it, and I’m not likely to be a very harsh critic if/when he does.
Ty Cobb? Hell no! Chuck Norris? Hell yes!
Ty Cobb could kick Chuck Norris’s ass. There’s no martial art skills that can make up for plain-old to-the-core meanness and the willingness to fight dirty.
The people with twisted panties are the writers who were ever so offended that an amateur would claim to be able to write a teleplay. Those people continue to snark on Dio every step of the way on his writing process. If that’s not you, good. I haven’t been keeping track. You do realize that high-fiving someone for a wondrous slam of Dio could seem like someone grinding an axe. If you have no axe to grind, cool, but it wasn’t all that great of a slam, considering the slam wasn’t really a valid one IMO. Worth a congratulatory post? Eh. If you really think so.
I’d just really like to see the script.
If Diogenes had started a thread to say that he’d always been interested in writing a script and now he was finally going to try, then I wouldn’t be the least bit snarky. I’d praise his willingness to try new things and encourage him to keep plugging away.
But he didn’t do that. He spouted off about how easy it is to write for TV and essentially pissed all over the idea that it’s a profession that requires some skill and experience. He was, in short, an ass about the whole thing.
I’m not a scriptwriter. Don’t know the first thing about what it takes. But I do have enough humility to admit that any trade takes some skill, or at least practice. Hell, even digging a ditch probably involves little tricks and procedures that I wouldn’t think of if you just handed me a shovel and told me to get to work.
Dio has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible. Let’s say that was his profession. I wouldn’t waltz into a thread and start claiming that anyone can study the Bible because it’s just a matter of reading some old book about a bunch of imaginary nonsense and, heck, I could learn Greek if I wasn’t so busy and easily distracted. I would be respectful of his scholarship and all the work it required.
So if he can’t be respectful – or at least civil – about other people’s work, then forgive me if I’m a little snarky about his attempt at scriptwriting.
Coming in real late to the thread…
Having met Dio, and knowing that his job(s) are not only important, but they are mentally and physically taxing, I am amazed that he will be able to do this at all.
Can’t think of anything I’d rather see than an episode of House by Diogenes. It’ll be quite an accomplishment.
I know writers who have day jobs as doctors, lawyers, teachers, computer programmers, and sales clerks. They are all mentally and physically taxing. They still make the time to write, because by gum, that’s what writers do.
I don’t care what your story is. I have no respect for “I could do it if I tried” and not trying. Try it or shut the fuck up. I’m glad Dio chose the former of those two options.
I think it’s a really good point that “tedious is a form of difficult.”
There are lots of things in life that a reasonably intelligent person could do – and do well – if he or she could find it in himself or herself to work at it day after day, rain or shine.
Is this really true of professional television writers? That’s the writing that was the point of this matter.
I think for some of them, yes. It’s definitely true for writers of screenplays. Wasn’t The Wonder Years some guy’s pet project until he sold it to NBC? I think Family Guy was like that too, and Seth had to do the animation, too!
I definitely don’t think that writing teleplays is so much harder than writing novels that it can’t be done by one person in their spare time, the way many novels are – especially not with the fan-fiction/nanowrimo style expectations we have for Dio.
And I’d be disappointed if he decided you were right about him not being able to do it.
Well, since we haven’t had any snow until today, Dio can finally start putting the words down in print.
Yes, it is. While most of us work with teams, we’re still freelancers. Take me, for example. I’m a script-doctor and a rather specialized dialog editor/writer (small and big screen). I am also a playwright and composer, and I am the artistic director of a musical theatre company. I also have private students.
Those of us who do not live in NY or LA almost ALWAYS have other jobs. Now, this said, most who live out of NY and LA are usually “big screen” folks and not television writers because of the pace at which television shows are produced. In the television world, there are few of us who work outside the big centers. Those who do tend to be, like me, doctors with experience who are either specialized, in demand, and/or extremely on the ball and fast.
Most of us with so-called day jobs are professors, playwrights, musicians, theatre directors and/or in other writing professions like journalism.
So how’s it going?
I, too, would like an update. I promise to be completely neutral and non-snarky about whatever info Dio can provide.
Reading this thread makes me happy I’ve never made one of my favorite RL comments about a random bad movie I’ve seen - “I could eat a can of Kodak and crap a better film!!”
For the record, I can’t actually crap a watchable film. (Not that this fact invalidates the statement. I’ve seen some pretty bad movies.)
I say, “I know that making your way up in the business is amazingly hard and takes lots of talent and perseverence… which makes it all the more remarkable that the retards who write this show did it.”
I normally stay out of the Pit, but I do want to point out that I’ve been watching this thread from the beginning, and have watched my first episode of House because of this thread.
As a guy who tried for years to start a business on the side while maintaining a full-time job and raising a family, I know how hard it is to put the real world on hold to accomplish something different. Can’t wait to see it!
Dio says he had the teleplay was finished, but it disappeared when another doper stole it, ostensibly to make subtle changes as a joke and then put it back. But it was never put back. 
Exactly right. This isn’t a case of people getting on Dio’s case simply because he claimed he could eventually produce a script of passable quality. Rather, it was a case of Diogenes ridiculing the ability of TV writers and claiming that he could do better, despite a complete lack of experience.
People aren’t trying to stack the deck against him. They’re simply pointing out that the struggles he’s facing (e.g., tedium, family life) are common to a writer’s work. If anything, several of them have been cutting him a considerable amount of slack.
I’m still working on it. I’ve just had a series of events which have kept me from being able to sit at the computer. One of my daughters is having surgery tomorrow morning. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back to work on this.