definitely had more to say and offer but thank god he had that insatiable motivation to write like he was dying because he left an insane and impressive amount of brilliant work behind......guy really was a genius and was one of the few lucky ones who found his true callling
nah, his wad was shot.Night Gallery was pretty bad, besides the gallery concept and opening with Rod. He could do what he does here, share wisdom, but creatively? He left it all on the field
In case anyone is wondering, the first quote about there being nothing to writing and that it is merely "Sitting at a type writer and bleeding" is by Ernest Hemmingway.
I figured. I like 'My psychiatrist is my typewriter', but I really like the quote machine Twain, 'A writer is someone who has done nothing but confesses to everything'[quote approximate] Twain was a oneliner expert
Serling was my first writing inspiration after I watched his 1959 Mike Wallace interview. I now have a book published (albeit by a minor publisher) called THE LONE ESCAPIST. It's not nationally known yet, but it's a start :-)
Rod Serling was the man the Ernest Hemingway dreamt of being. The gritty, seasoned war veteran, with insights and experience matched only by his supreme intellect. Neither donning the cowl modesty, nor boastful, but a real, visceral and an assertive intellectual, engaging the viewer and capturing their imaginations by drawing on the world’s harshest realities, and helping us to reflect on them, process them, through fantasy. Not to denigrate Hemingway, but Serling (both as a writer and a man) was the real thing, not playing at it, as Hemingway so often did. Underrated in the way that Raymond Chandler still is. But his genius lives on; partly, in thanks, to people who curate his memory, like the uploader of this video. And partly thanks to his timeless stories, which are so often retold; ingrained into our culture . . . RIP Rod ✌️👍
@@Cyber_Smoke There are better shows in terms of overall quality but I've never seen a piece of media be so far ahead of it's time. There are profound messages that to this day will ring as true as they ever have. To cover topics such as racism and paranoia over other beliefs and to paint them in a negative and self reflective light in an era where these things were at their apex and even heavily punished is nothing short of brilliant and masterful
@Evan Hodge Get out of here with that nonsense bud. For many people the only way they'll hear about people like Rod Serling and shows like the Twilight Zone is through the internet
Rod Serling was the man the Ernest Hemingway dreamt of being. The gritty, seasoned war veteran, with insights and experience matched only by his supreme intellect. Neither donning the cowl modesty, nor boastful, but a real, visceral and an assertive intellectual, engaging the viewer and capturing their imaginations by drawing on the world’s harshest realities, and helping us to reflect on them, process them, through fantasy. Not to denigrate Hemingway, but Serling (both as a writer and a man) was the real thing, not playing at it, as Hemingway so often did. Underrated in the way that Raymond Chandler still is. But his genius lives on; partly, in thanks, to people who curate his memory, like the uploader of this video. And partly thanks to his timeless stories, which are so often retold; ingrained into our culture . . . RIP Rod ✌️👍
0:12 Where do ideas come from? 1:11 Writing to please an audience 3:50 Does espousing a cause lose character credibility? 5:03 Discussing "The Silence" 10:08 Would you inject your philosophy into a piece of work? 11:09 Do you just take off and write? 13:07 Is there any kind of therapy that helps characterization? 13:59 All writers are born. 16:00 I wish more good writers would put themselves to the test. 17:09 On time travel 18:20 On story climaxes 20:18 On government versus the individual. 21:44 I was traumatized into writing by going through a war. 26:28 The instinct of creativity must be followed by the act. 27:34 On character motivation. 28:59 On creativity.
@@trooper326 It's a matter of willingness to do the WORK. Inspiration never hits me when I'm sitting down to write, it hits me when I'm going for a walk or listening to music - the act of getting it all down is just "Grunt work" but it's work that has to be done if you're going to call yourself a writer. Writers write; talkers talk.
Films like this should be shown on television. So much more interesting and inspiring that ANYTHING seen on television. These types of films need to be seen by young people.
@Just Moi To be fair, corrupting minds isn't their goal. It's just a byproduct of TV & most media being owned by corporations that use it to make people into obedient consumers lol
The problem is that most young people these days don't really care about telling a good story. They're all obsessed with fame and money and how they can get rich and famous without any sense of self awareness because they're not interested in self discovery or self mastery. Most will never learn until after they've been through some horrible adversity like being homeless but adversity is exactly what they're trying to avoid -WORK is what they're trying to avoid. Young people today are always trying to find the shortcuts to success as if life is nothing but a video game and all they have to do find the cheat codes. They're obsessed with fame but too lazy to work it. The most important thing any writer can do can be summed up in two words "Know Thyself". Their favorite phrase is "work smarter not harder" because they don't understand that any meaningful success is about 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration and persistence.
I read his bio when I was living on the street at 16 years old. The library had AC and I'd go there during the day to read and get out of the sun. His life story is like an episode of the free twilight zone in instances. He was an incredible writer and producer. This is a joy to listen to.
That's horrible that you were homeless at the age of sixteen but allow that adversity to inspire your own writing and creativity. I was homeless for one year but I was 43 years old when I became homeless and now I have an MFA in TV Film screenwriting, I'm allowing those experiences to filter into my writing and inspire my creativity (in a time travel story of all things).
He was so fascinating. Pure genius, he inspires just sitting there with his cigarette. What a massive contribution to literary arts and media, he gave. One of my favorite individuals of the mid 20th century.
This video is wonderful to me because we can witness a group of people sharing thoughts without being interrupted by one another. Speaking without being rushed or interrupted is a beautiful thing. I'm so tired of trying to communicate with people that I consider to be stopwatch talkers whom place their egos above insight from others. As a Master Writer I will say that the cornerstone of composing literature is truly self edification via honoring the inspiration and craft.
I’m starting my very own first full length novel and I’ve been losing faith. He’s always been a fascinating writer for me and I felt so inspired by this. Like he held out his hand to pick me up and say “keep going”
1% inspiration... 99% perspiration. Don't allow yourself to make excuses. When I was in training at the Writers Guild one thing that was told to me which inspired me to work harder was this: There isn't any one thing you can do that will guarantee success as a writer but there IS one thing that will guarantee failure if you're not doing it EVERY DAY and that one thing can be summed up in three words: "Ass In Chair". Don't make excuses, make a schedule and stick to it. Write every single day and don't expect it to be perfect, it's not about perfection it's about progress. Never ever ever ever ever ever EVER give up on your dream. And never throw out any of your writing, all writing is rewriting. If you get stuck - put that story aside for a few weeks and work on a different one. Sometimes you need to get some distance from your own ideas in order to gain perspective. Go back to that story later with a fresh set of eyes, when you're able to change the way you see things the things you see will change. That's exactly why it's important to have more than just one story, if you get writers block - jump into a different story. I've got twelve screenplays in progress and I never work on the same story two days in a row - unless the inspiration hits me and I HAVE TO write. Don't write because you want to - write because you HAVE TO. Ask yourself "do I HAVE TO tell this story?". If not - put it aside and find a different story, different idea that inspires you, go for a long walk and keep writing materials with you at all times, smoke a joint or go for a hike, listen to music, read a book - do whatever it is that gets your creativity flowing (light some incense and play Mozart - whatever works for you). I have to be in the right mood and if I'm not in the right mood... I'll SET the mood, light candles etc
During the 1958-59 school year, Rod Serling was the PTA President at Roosevelt Elementary in Santa Monica, CA. At the fall school carnival he wore his iconic suit/tie he is seen in Twilight Zone. The school principal asked him to help him get a glitzy gold lame gown, long blond wig, and all the trimmings to dress up in complete drag for the carnival. . I will admit it was a bit unnerving to see the principal in full drag at the school carnival. But Santa Monica has always been funky....even in the 50's.
He was a master of his art. When you watch his shows and see the concepts and ideas he was coming up with, you understand how ahead of his time he actually was.
His comments on Dialogue are earth shattering. I'd never considered that when the lights are off, and people are listening, unless I strive ardently against it, all of the characters who are participating in the dialogue are going to sound just like me. Ingenious man that he is. Every time Rod Serling spoke, if you were listening.... You learned.
That's a problem that a LOT of writers today have, even many successful writers like Aaron Sorkin. Every damn one of his characters talks exactly like he does and yet he's still a successful writer. If two of his characters are arguing it sounds like Aaron Sorkin arguing with Aaron Sorkin. When each character has it's own distinct voice that's called "character separation". The three main characters in the movie Jaws are a perfect example of this - they are each distinctly different. The chief of police, the scientist and the crazy boat captain. They gave us an exercise when I was training at the writers guild - think of someone you know very well, so well that you could imagine what they might say in ANY situation. Now write a scene where that person is standing in line at the grocery store and the person in front of them is getting into an argument with their boyfriend or girlfriend while standing in line. Don't think; just write. Put your pen to the paper - you're not allowed to stop writing until you've filled one full page. Then go back and read it. Do you believe that's what they would really say? Or does it sound more like something YOU might say?
This man helped me understand the difference between actual writing and what I was doing; actual writing can be expressing anger for something, injustice, racism, what have you. What I did was expressing anger AT something, graffiting my bile on the printed page. That's screeding.
Him simply talking is almost poetic sounding. Him and Carl Sagan could talk and sound like they had pre-written it all out. Never an um or uh..... amazing.
Rod Serling's narrations composed by him for his Twilight Zone series were for me pure literature. His exceptional and profound flair for writing enabled him to capture the essence of a character in a mere paragraph or two. Even today I often read his narrations from the Twilight Zone and find them complete stories unto themselves. Think about that: a Twilight Zone narration as spoken and written by Rod Serling becoming a complete story unto itself. Therein lies the wonder of Rod Serling!
Those were basically Loglines (as we refer to it today). I don't know if Loglines were a thing back then but the idea of a logline is: don't tell the story - sell the story. Never give away the end. Only give away enough to make them want to keep reading (or watching). Loglines are considered essential these days, if your story is muddled at the Logline stage it's not going to get any clearer when you're writing the third act. It's also necessary if you're going to pitch a screenplay because it's the shortest version of a story possible, which you will need if you ever end up doing an "elevator pitch", it's an absolute necessity if you have a literary manager, they will demand that you have Loglines for each story you're developing because THEY need it in order to pitch/sell your story. Sundance has a great page on the ten elements of loglines.
His way with words has always been something marvelous to me. I have a book called _Stories from The Twilight Zone_ which include the tales he wrote for TZ but they are in prose form in this collection (not television script format), and it's so nice to enjoy how he uses words to take the reader to other worlds for a little while.
This is the only one I've ever seen or heard of but you CAN take writing classes. If you're a military veteran you can do the veterans writing program at the writers guild in Hollywood for free. It's an amazing program.
Wow! What a fantastic video! What a generous man and genius he was! So approachable. So relatable. So free with compliments to those students. He freely acknowledged when they made good points or even said something that "went one better than Checkov"! I can imagine that kid took that compliment and nourished his soul for decades with it. Or at least until he found writing success himself. We lost Rod Serling way too soon.
Rod is inspiring to me, 50 years after his passing. He just gave me the spark needed to get back to writing. I am a sponge with every thought he brings to the table. Thank you God for this recorded lessons of direction and direction to succeed. Writing is simple, and yet not easy. Rod's experience of war gave him volumes of what to say.
This video should have 26 million views. 260 million views. It should have the highest number of views ever on UA-cam. And for the writer, it should be number 1.
Serling speaks like he could dictate a storyline, maybe even the dialogue, into a recorder, and it would end up close to his final draft. Flowing and very articulate.Genius.
Military members are presented with lapel pins of their medals. For semiformal dress, as in sports coats, or coat and tie, we're allowed to wear one lapel pin. Most of us wear the highest award. He also had a Silver Star (heroes medal), but chose to wear the Purple Heart instead. That implies he feels he did not deserve the Silver Star. A lot of heroes are like that.
Brilliant !!!! He breaks it down like no other writers you can understand,feel and see all at the same time what he is saying to you!!!!❤️ He was a great teacher!!!
THANK GOD and youtube for these pearls of wisdom from Rod himself! Although I'm a painter and musician, Rod's advice and insights can be applied by ANY creative individual in any creative endeavour...RIP ROD.
Fascinated he was self-aware of his treatment of dialogue. We played a game where we would guess which Twilight Zones he wrote based on the dialog. His written dialog is very ... unique. 😃
such an underrated writer. and to give away some of his secrets to his writing is unheard of today. And his formula to writing was kind of genius. Many writers today could learn a few things from Rod.
In 2023, Rod is still very much correct when he said that Professors should be required to take a course about what issues face young people and how we're affected. I can't count how many times professors have been absolutely clueless and said things that turned entire classes against them.
Great stuff from Rod. Thanks for sharing. Here are a couple of Tolstoy ideas that came to my mind when watching: "Feelings, the most diverse, very strong and very weak, very significant and very worthless, very bad and very good, if only they infect the reader, the spectator, the listener, constitute the subject of art." "[Art] is a means of human communion, necessary for life and for the movement towards the good of the individual man and of mankind, uniting them in the same feelings.“ -Leo Tolstoy, “What is Art?”
You can tell Mr. Serling has a true passion for what he speaks. Each word is thoughtful and well chosen without waste. He imparts wisdom without banality. He truly cares about students who can become better at this skill.
Rod was,a vision of greatest all his,shows where great well writing and I can watch the,twilight zone all day on the new year when it comes on so many of them where 30 years b4 time and then most where rite on time.
I never saw him other than Twilight Zone. Lol I love to write. Not really done so much of it in years but I enjoyed my writing classes. I would love to have been a student in his class.
Wow was this on television? In what country? Serling was from Binghamton NY. I grew up there and heard this a lot. I always thought he was merely the narrator on Twilight Zone. I never knew he was such an insightful person.
Working screenwriter here. Wish I watched this and the Mike Wallace interview five years ago. "I don't think anything on earth is as difficult as writing." ~Rod Serling
@@FathomlessJoy nothing this year :) but i am writing some things that hopefully will be out at some point. the point is, i don't find it the most difficult thing in the world. if you've ever taken classes in advanced physics, organic chemistry, advanced economics classes, etc, and then go from that to writing something, writing is sort of a joke at that point. now, if the goal is to write as eloquently and beautifully as haruki murakami, that's a different matter. but just writing a book or even moreso a screenplay is nowhere near the most difficult pursuit.
A brilliant, articulate man sitting in the company of brilliant, articulate young people. I can only hope that somewhere in the world these sorts of things continue. Quarantine has me living in an intellectual vacuum.
Rod Serling in short understood people and how many perceive the world we all share. Transferring it from idea to paper is what a great writer does. Being a fan of Serling's writing for over 50yrs my appreciation still grows. A pioneer of scify.
He helped pave the way... Made the medium of television the art form it is today... Made writing for television a respectable profession. Rest easy, Rod. Your work is done. The struggle is over. You are gone... you will never be forgotten... Every word, every... syllable he's saying about the writing profession is... absolute fact. It's why I didn't embrace the profession right away. I eventually surrendered to it myself. "Gave up the ghost... "
you mean he's a space alien? that's really scary, I never thought of that but maybe your right. His watch did look like a communicator to the mother ship. I'm scared
An evolved human. He was self aware, a master of his craft, and respected others. We just don't see that everyday so it seems other-worldly, but he was what we all CAN be if we choose to live with intention.
@@loe3175 You put him on too much of a pedestal. I think it would embarrass him. He had flaws just like everyone else. He smoked, which killed him, and cheated on his wife. Those are hardly the characteristics of someone who evolved into something more than human.
Its mad to watch videos like these and see people discussing and debating. Albeit in a more sophisticated manor. Not to sound pretentious, but the dialect they're using is much more colourful. The vocabulary they are throwing around, terms I've never heard before. Sentences oozing with detail. Doesn't hurt the Rod has such an articulate way of speaking, so clear and crisp. Great watch :D
I admire Rod Serling; i aspire to think and speak as smoothly and marvelously as he does. (Edit: I am an artist...specifically, a painter; everything Rod spoke about writing and those who write in this video equally translates to many (if not all) artforms...rather the generalized spirit of it all is seeing truth, being honest to others and to one's self, integrity to the art and allowing yourself to be human... as God has created you to be.)
this is one guy that i really really wish was still alive. i feel like he had so much more to share with the world.
definitely had more to say and offer but thank god he had that insatiable motivation to write like he was dying because he left an insane and impressive amount of brilliant work behind......guy really was a genius and was one of the few lucky ones who found his true callling
nah, his wad was shot.Night Gallery was pretty bad, besides the gallery concept and opening with Rod. He could do what he does here, share wisdom, but creatively? He left it all on the field
@suny123boy1 someone smarter than you
If we just could have parted him from the cigarettes.
You’re right.
What an intelligent man he was
"Dirty Old Rod" was a WWII Paratrooper too.
*. . . R.I.P . . .*
He was, and the way in which he spoke, every word, every inflection, had meaning and purpose. A word craftsman for sure.
In case anyone is wondering, the first quote about there being nothing to writing and that it is merely "Sitting at a type writer and bleeding" is by Ernest Hemmingway.
I figured. I like 'My psychiatrist is my typewriter', but I really like the quote machine Twain, 'A writer is someone who has done nothing but confesses to everything'[quote approximate] Twain was a oneliner expert
it's true, well, i should say,it's true for music and for film work for me. it's a real grind.
I am a writer, and watch this every day. .He has inspired me to write.
Tommy Lintner now is it coming along
Good luck to you!
Write for fun.
Serling was my first writing inspiration after I watched his 1959 Mike Wallace interview. I now have a book published (albeit by a minor publisher) called THE LONE ESCAPIST. It's not nationally known yet, but it's a start :-)
Rod Serling was the man the Ernest Hemingway dreamt of being. The gritty, seasoned war veteran, with insights and experience matched only by his supreme intellect. Neither donning the cowl modesty, nor boastful, but a real, visceral and an assertive intellectual, engaging the viewer and capturing their imaginations by drawing on the world’s harshest realities, and helping us to reflect on them, process them, through fantasy. Not to denigrate Hemingway, but Serling (both as a writer and a man) was the real thing, not playing at it, as Hemingway so often did. Underrated in the way that Raymond Chandler still is. But his genius lives on; partly, in thanks, to people who curate his memory, like the uploader of this video. And partly thanks to his timeless stories, which are so often retold; ingrained into our culture . . . RIP Rod ✌️👍
33 minutes ago, I had no idea who Rod Serling was. Now, I am blown away. Ahead of his time. The man of tomorrow from yesterday.
Serling was the original Twilight Zone creator. Watch the show, it's great if you like sci-fi and fantasy.
The Twilight zone is one of the best TV shows ever made regardless of your taste in television there will be one story that really speaks to you.
I was a kid when the original Twilight Zone aried and my parents wouldn't let my younger brother and I watch it.
@@Cyber_Smoke There are better shows in terms of overall quality but I've never seen a piece of media be so far ahead of it's time. There are profound messages that to this day will ring as true as they ever have. To cover topics such as racism and paranoia over other beliefs and to paint them in a negative and self reflective light in an era where these things were at their apex and even heavily punished is nothing short of brilliant and masterful
@Evan Hodge Get out of here with that nonsense bud. For many people the only way they'll hear about people like Rod Serling and shows like the Twilight Zone is through the internet
Rod Serling was the man the Ernest Hemingway dreamt of being. The gritty, seasoned war veteran, with insights and experience matched only by his supreme intellect. Neither donning the cowl modesty, nor boastful, but a real, visceral and an assertive intellectual, engaging the viewer and capturing their imaginations by drawing on the world’s harshest realities, and helping us to reflect on them, process them, through fantasy. Not to denigrate Hemingway, but Serling (both as a writer and a man) was the real thing, not playing at it, as Hemingway so often did. Underrated in the way that Raymond Chandler still is. But his genius lives on; partly, in thanks, to people who curate his memory, like the uploader of this video. And partly thanks to his timeless stories, which are so often retold; ingrained into our culture . . . RIP Rod ✌️👍
0:12 Where do ideas come from?
1:11 Writing to please an audience
3:50 Does espousing a cause lose character credibility?
5:03 Discussing "The Silence"
10:08 Would you inject your philosophy into a piece of work?
11:09 Do you just take off and write?
13:07 Is there any kind of therapy that helps characterization?
13:59 All writers are born.
16:00 I wish more good writers would put themselves to the test.
17:09 On time travel
18:20 On story climaxes
20:18 On government versus the individual.
21:44 I was traumatized into writing by going through a war.
26:28 The instinct of creativity must be followed by the act.
27:34 On character motivation.
28:59 On creativity.
Thank you.
Your efficiency is scary
ur awesome
Somebody needs to buy you lunch, or a drink, or wax your car. Thanks for your time.
Your real good..but are you good enough to find the date?
I love how he used humor to draw attention to the young lady's voice not being heard enough. A voracious egalitarian.
Yes sir, beautiful observation.
He would have been the best professor of creative writing.
He was an amazing man. He made art that started a dialog between people. There is no measure of worth greater than the ability to expand minds.
I wish he had lived longer. He was a brilliant man.
"If it weren't hard, everyone would be a writer."
@Tuatha DeDanann
By definition, a wannabe is not a writer in the qualitative sense.
That's the point.
I FYI z
Indubitably.
It's not difficult persay, it's just a matter of imagination and proficiency of conveying a meaningful point.
@@trooper326 It's a matter of willingness to do the WORK. Inspiration never hits me when I'm sitting down to write, it hits me when I'm going for a walk or listening to music - the act of getting it all down is just "Grunt work" but it's work that has to be done if you're going to call yourself a writer. Writers write; talkers talk.
This is wonderful. There will never be another Rod Serling. Thanks so much for posting this.
Mr. Serling was a true treasure. May he rest in peace.
Films like this should be shown on television. So much more interesting and inspiring that ANYTHING seen on television. These types of films need to be seen by young people.
@Just Moi To be fair, corrupting minds isn't their goal. It's just a byproduct of TV & most media being owned by corporations that use it to make people into obedient consumers lol
This is the very reason these are archived and not current viewing.
The problem is that most young people these days don't really care about telling a good story. They're all obsessed with fame and money and how they can get rich and famous without any sense of self awareness because they're not interested in self discovery or self mastery. Most will never learn until after they've been through some horrible adversity like being homeless but adversity is exactly what they're trying to avoid -WORK is what they're trying to avoid. Young people today are always trying to find the shortcuts to success as if life is nothing but a video game and all they have to do find the cheat codes. They're obsessed with fame but too lazy to work it. The most important thing any writer can do can be summed up in two words "Know Thyself". Their favorite phrase is "work smarter not harder" because they don't understand that any meaningful success is about 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration and persistence.
OMG he actually answered the dreaded question 'where do you get your ideas?' CALL NORM, IMMEDIATELY
That bit is the first thing I thought about when she asked that question, lol.
I wonder if that was Adam Eget's mom?
"Uh, yeah, so, I've always wondered, where do you get your ideas from?"
Funny enough Norm was a big Twilight zone fan
I read his bio when I was living on the street at 16 years old. The library had AC and I'd go there during the day to read and get out of the sun. His life story is like an episode of the free twilight zone in instances. He was an incredible writer and producer. This is a joy to listen to.
indeed
That's horrible that you were homeless at the age of sixteen but allow that adversity to inspire your own writing and creativity. I was homeless for one year but I was 43 years old when I became homeless and now I have an MFA in TV Film screenwriting, I'm allowing those experiences to filter into my writing and inspire my creativity (in a time travel story of all things).
Rob was born on Christmas Day, he said he was a gift unwrapped...lol😊
Altho he was Jewish.
He was so fascinating. Pure genius, he inspires just sitting there with his cigarette. What a massive contribution to literary arts and media, he gave. One of my favorite individuals of the mid 20th century.
This video is wonderful to me because we can witness a group of people sharing thoughts without being interrupted by one another. Speaking without being rushed or interrupted is a beautiful thing. I'm so tired of trying to communicate with people that I consider to be stopwatch talkers whom place their egos above insight from others. As a Master Writer I will say that the cornerstone of composing literature is truly self edification via honoring the inspiration and craft.
Bravo to this comment ...I agree in a major way. Good conversation needs room to breathe.
I’m starting my very own first full length novel and I’ve been losing faith. He’s always been a fascinating writer for me and I felt so inspired by this. Like he held out his hand to pick me up and say “keep going”
Your comment is two months old. How's the writing going? I'm genuinely curious.
Try writing something different, just to shake things up.
Don't get bogged down and obsessed with a novel.
How's the novel coming along, Vincent? Hope it's coming along well.
1% inspiration... 99% perspiration.
Don't allow yourself to make excuses. When I was in training at the Writers Guild one thing that was told to me which inspired me to work harder was this:
There isn't any one thing you can do that will guarantee success as a writer but there IS one thing that will guarantee failure if you're not doing it EVERY DAY and that one thing can be summed up in three words: "Ass In Chair".
Don't make excuses, make a schedule and stick to it. Write every single day and don't expect it to be perfect, it's not about perfection it's about progress. Never ever ever ever ever ever EVER give up on your dream. And never throw out any of your writing, all writing is rewriting. If you get stuck - put that story aside for a few weeks and work on a different one. Sometimes you need to get some distance from your own ideas in order to gain perspective. Go back to that story later with a fresh set of eyes, when you're able to change the way you see things the things you see will change. That's exactly why it's important to have more than just one story, if you get writers block - jump into a different story. I've got twelve screenplays in progress and I never work on the same story two days in a row - unless the inspiration hits me and I HAVE TO write.
Don't write because you want to - write because you HAVE TO. Ask yourself "do I HAVE TO tell this story?". If not - put it aside and find a different story, different idea that inspires you, go for a long walk and keep writing materials with you at all times, smoke a joint or go for a hike, listen to music, read a book - do whatever it is that gets your creativity flowing (light some incense and play Mozart - whatever works for you). I have to be in the right mood and if I'm not in the right mood... I'll SET the mood, light candles etc
That climax issue he talked about is a killer
Beautiful, just beautiful. Thank you for the upload.
Indeed Bronson! My pleasure. Ron Vail
Truly one of the purist writers. Rod Serling is a course in creativity.
During the 1958-59 school year, Rod Serling was the PTA President at Roosevelt Elementary in Santa Monica, CA. At the fall school carnival he wore his iconic suit/tie he is seen in Twilight Zone. The school principal asked him to help him get a glitzy gold lame gown, long blond wig, and all the trimmings to dress up in complete drag for the carnival. . I will admit it was a bit unnerving to see the principal in full drag at the school carnival. But Santa Monica has always been funky....even in the 50's.
The more things change they stay the same.
Just a question, back then it was Serling or Sterling
@@hothemeep1219
It was always Serling.
That sounds like a chill school, you have mr. twilight zone himself as the PTA president and the principle in drag!
Except that the show premiered in October 1959 and episode 2 didn't air until 1960.
He was a master of his art. When you watch his shows and see the concepts and ideas he was coming up with, you understand how ahead of his time he actually was.
His comments on Dialogue are earth shattering. I'd never considered that when the lights are off, and people are listening, unless I strive ardently against it, all of the characters who are participating in the dialogue are going to sound just like me. Ingenious man that he is.
Every time Rod Serling spoke, if you were listening.... You learned.
That's a problem that a LOT of writers today have, even many successful writers like Aaron Sorkin. Every damn one of his characters talks exactly like he does and yet he's still a successful writer. If two of his characters are arguing it sounds like Aaron Sorkin arguing with Aaron Sorkin. When each character has it's own distinct voice that's called "character separation". The three main characters in the movie Jaws are a perfect example of this - they are each distinctly different. The chief of police, the scientist and the crazy boat captain.
They gave us an exercise when I was training at the writers guild - think of someone you know very well, so well that you could imagine what they might say in ANY situation. Now write a scene where that person is standing in line at the grocery store and the person in front of them is getting into an argument with their boyfriend or girlfriend while standing in line. Don't think; just write. Put your pen to the paper - you're not allowed to stop writing until you've filled one full page. Then go back and read it.
Do you believe that's what they would really say? Or does it sound more like something YOU might say?
Thanks for the Master Class. Was aMUSE.sing ❤ All Hail ROD STERLING. may His Stories Echo in Eternity
THE Talk At it Zone ❤
I put Rod Serling in the same group as Carl Sagan. Ultra intelligent, cares about the human race and a soothing, wise manner of speaking.
This man helped me understand the difference between actual writing and what I was doing; actual writing can be expressing anger for something, injustice, racism, what have you. What I did was expressing anger AT something, graffiting my bile on the printed page.
That's screeding.
Him simply talking is almost poetic sounding. Him and Carl Sagan could talk and sound like they had pre-written it all out. Never an um or uh..... amazing.
Rod Serling's narrations composed by him for his Twilight Zone series were for me pure literature. His exceptional and profound flair for writing enabled him to capture the essence of a character in a mere paragraph or two. Even today I often read his narrations from the Twilight Zone and find them complete stories unto themselves. Think about that: a Twilight Zone narration as spoken and written by Rod Serling becoming a complete story unto itself. Therein lies the wonder of Rod Serling!
Those were basically Loglines (as we refer to it today). I don't know if Loglines were a thing back then but the idea of a logline is: don't tell the story - sell the story. Never give away the end. Only give away enough to make them want to keep reading (or watching). Loglines are considered essential these days, if your story is muddled at the Logline stage it's not going to get any clearer when you're writing the third act.
It's also necessary if you're going to pitch a screenplay because it's the shortest version of a story possible, which you will need if you ever end up doing an "elevator pitch", it's an absolute necessity if you have a literary manager, they will demand that you have Loglines for each story you're developing because THEY need it in order to pitch/sell your story. Sundance has a great page on the ten elements of loglines.
His way with words has always been something marvelous to me. I have a book called _Stories from The Twilight Zone_ which include the tales he wrote for TZ but they are in prose form in this collection (not television script format), and it's so nice to enjoy how he uses words to take the reader to other worlds for a little while.
Did Rod Serling hold class/lectures? This is an amazing convo from an artist I’ve loved so much through being a fan of classic Twilight Zone!
This is the only one I've ever seen or heard of but you CAN take writing classes. If you're a military veteran you can do the veterans writing program at the writers guild in Hollywood for free. It's an amazing program.
He was a college professor later in life, so he would do lectures as part of his classes. Some of these are from those lectures.
I will always remember him speaking at Sherwood Oaks Film School before he passed. What a brilliant man. Thank you for sharing.
I would’ve loved to have had a conversation with Serling at a party.
I know. I hope heaven exists so I can have a conversation with him.
Great talent, great man. Gone at 50.
Wow! What a fantastic video! What a generous man and genius he was! So approachable. So relatable. So free with compliments to those students. He freely acknowledged when they made good points or even said something that "went one better than Checkov"! I can imagine that kid took that compliment and nourished his soul for decades with it. Or at least until he found writing success himself.
We lost Rod Serling way too soon.
Wow, what a legend. He speaks the way he writes. It’s like he’s typing all the time in his mind.
Rod is inspiring to me, 50 years after his passing. He just gave me the spark needed to get back to writing. I am a sponge with every thought he brings to the table. Thank you God for this recorded lessons of direction and direction to succeed. Writing is simple, and yet not easy. Rod's experience of war gave him volumes of what to say.
*This video is still an absolute and utter masterpiece years later..!* 💜
What a treasure. Thank you for posting. I am a writer and Rod Serling's thoughts about writing is very, very helpful. 💻 ⌨👍
This video should have 26 million views. 260 million views. It should have the highest number of views ever on UA-cam. And for the writer, it should be number 1.
True genius borne thru hard work!
Rod is my writing muse. Thank you for posting this. How the hell did you get your hands on this?
This is a great find! This man was brilliant. A highly intelligent man. He is sorely missed.
Serling speaks like he could dictate a storyline, maybe even the dialogue, into a recorder, and it would end up close to his final draft. Flowing and very articulate.Genius.
Interesting as well that Rod wears his Purple Heart on his sportcoat / blazer
The experience of being injured in war shaped him tremendously.
Military members are presented with lapel pins of their medals. For semiformal dress, as in sports coats, or coat and tie, we're allowed to wear one lapel pin. Most of us wear the highest award. He also had a Silver Star (heroes medal), but chose to wear the Purple Heart instead. That implies he feels he did not deserve the Silver Star. A lot of heroes are like that.
Fascinating discussion. Serling's sage advice is timeless. Truly a genius.
Brilliant !!!! He breaks it down like no other writers you can understand,feel and see all at the same time what he is saying to you!!!!❤️
He was a great teacher!!!
He had such a great voice the way he says 'time' and 'mind' 'place'!
THANK GOD and youtube for these pearls of wisdom from Rod himself! Although I'm a painter and musician, Rod's advice and insights can be applied by ANY creative individual in any creative endeavour...RIP ROD.
Wonderful, and hugely inspiring. Many thanks for uploading this.
Fascinated he was self-aware of his treatment of dialogue.
We played a game where we would guess which Twilight Zones he wrote based on the dialog. His written dialog is very ... unique. 😃
Amazing masterclass captured on videotape. Tobacco ruined his health, sadly.
that tobacco demon is relentless
Like so many soldiers of the time.
he was only 17 years old in this video, tragically
@@j.s.m.5351 Huh? That makes no sense.
@@robertromero8692 a joke, about the health consequences of smoking, Robert.
For those curious, the “writers bleed” quote was none other than Earnest Hemingway.
such an underrated writer. and to give away some of his secrets to his writing is unheard of today. And his formula to writing was kind of genius. Many writers today could learn a few things from Rod.
Rod Serling was a classic dude very knowledgeable better then anybody in today's generation
My all time favorite writer. Just a wonderful imagination. I remember when he passed. Just way too soon.
In 2023, Rod is still very much correct when he said that Professors should be required to take a course about what issues face young people and how we're affected. I can't count how many times professors have been absolutely clueless and said things that turned entire classes against them.
@21:09 - "Let's say we have to do a musical about Adolf Hitler ..." Well . . Mel Brooks did one called "The Producers," so I guess it can be done !
Great stuff from Rod. Thanks for sharing. Here are a couple of Tolstoy ideas that came to my mind when watching:
"Feelings, the most diverse, very strong and very weak, very significant and very worthless, very bad and very good, if only they infect the reader, the spectator, the listener, constitute the subject of art."
"[Art] is a means of human communion, necessary for life and for the movement towards the good of the individual man and of mankind, uniting them in the same feelings.“
-Leo Tolstoy, “What is Art?”
You can tell Mr. Serling has a true passion for what he speaks. Each word is thoughtful and well chosen without waste. He imparts wisdom without banality. He truly cares about students who can become better at this skill.
He was a good man
I am not a writer but I've always enjoyed the Twilight Zone and Rod Serling's stories. This is great stuff! Very inspiring!
Rod was,a vision of greatest all his,shows where great well writing and I can watch the,twilight zone all day on the new year when it comes on so many of them where 30 years b4 time and then most where rite on time.
I never saw him other than Twilight Zone. Lol
I love to write. Not really done so much of it in years but I enjoyed my writing classes.
I would love to have been a student in his class.
I feel honored to be able to sit in on this now in 2023 truly the twilight zone
Rod Serling was a genius
1) He pronounces "forte" correctly.
2) He correctly self-diagnoses his main dialogue bugaboo as a writer!
He makes me very proud to have attended Antioch College. I saw him there once when he came back to teach.
I could listen to him talk all day
Wow was this on television? In what country? Serling was from Binghamton NY. I grew up there and heard this a lot. I always thought he was merely the narrator on Twilight Zone. I never knew he was such an insightful person.
10:29 soooo true. Tarantino and Sorkin. Strong dialogue writers most characters sound the same!
Tarantino has some of the best dialogue ever written yet they all sound exactly like him lmao
this is basically Whedon as well, but that's probably more a crutch as I wouldn't really say Whedon is a great writer when looking at his body of work
LOVED Rod Serling!!!
The Coolest Television Personality of His time .
Working screenwriter here. Wish I watched this and the Mike Wallace interview five years ago. "I don't think anything on earth is as difficult as writing." ~Rod Serling
Writing memorable melodies is more difficult actually than writing words!
@@ricomajestic Unlikely.
if that was true, you wouldn't have so many new books by so many different writers coming out every year.
@@IRGhost0 How many are you coming out with this year?
@@FathomlessJoy nothing this year :) but i am writing some things that hopefully will be out at some point. the point is, i don't find it the most difficult thing in the world. if you've ever taken classes in advanced physics, organic chemistry, advanced economics classes, etc, and then go from that to writing something, writing is sort of a joke at that point. now, if the goal is to write as eloquently and beautifully as haruki murakami, that's a different matter. but just writing a book or even moreso a screenplay is nowhere near the most difficult pursuit.
Top tier podcast, hope you have Rod on again!
His opening response to the first question followed by a exaggerated puff from his cigarette was legendary
Excellent interview and quality questions. N insult to present day interview style.
A brilliant, articulate man sitting in the company of brilliant, articulate young people. I can only hope that somewhere in the world these sorts of things continue. Quarantine has me living in an intellectual vacuum.
What an incredible man. Absolutely moving talk, and a brilliant speaker. A class act until the end.
This man emulates humility and love for the betterment of humankind
Love rod serling
Just a nice thing i am born on christmas day. Thats nice
Thank you so much for sharing this ! I really appreciate it
My pleasure Fac Forcia Et Petere! It's great to hear how he still affects us so many years later. What an inspiration. Ron Vail
Excellent post many thanks.👏🏻👏🏻🙏
GREAT voice.
The only man I've ever known to correctly pronounce "forte".
Good students, too! Open, honest, inquisitive.
And they all died from Rod's second-hand smoke.
When Rod Serling speaks, I listen.
Twilight Zone lives on because the themes are universal and apply to any generation.
What an amazing man he was
I love everything about this conversation and am very fortunate to know, at least by long distance, his lovely daughter Anne.
The more Rod speaks, the more I want to listen to him.
Rod Serling in short understood people and how many perceive the world we all share. Transferring it from idea to paper is what a great writer does. Being a fan of Serling's writing for over 50yrs my appreciation still grows. A pioneer of scify.
We lost him way too soon. He shared a lot of himself in this video.
He helped pave the way... Made the medium of television the art form it is today... Made writing for television a respectable profession. Rest easy, Rod. Your work is done. The struggle is over. You are gone... you will never be forgotten...
Every word, every... syllable he's saying about the writing profession is... absolute fact. It's why I didn't embrace the profession right away. I eventually surrendered to it myself.
"Gave up the ghost... "
Anyone else feels like Mr serling was more than human.
Nope. He was a gifted writer who expressed himself very well. There's nothing "superhuman" about that whatsoever.
@Jake Stockton Excuse what? My saying that Rod Serling was human?
you mean he's a space alien? that's really scary, I never thought of that but maybe your right. His watch did look like a
communicator to the mother ship. I'm scared
An evolved human. He was self aware, a master of his craft, and respected others. We just don't see that everyday so it seems other-worldly, but he was what we all CAN be if we choose to live with intention.
@@loe3175 You put him on too much of a pedestal. I think it would embarrass him. He had flaws just like everyone else. He smoked, which killed him, and cheated on his wife. Those are hardly the characteristics of someone who evolved into something more than human.
One of the coolest dudes to ever walk the earth.
Its mad to watch videos like these and see people discussing and debating. Albeit in a more sophisticated manor. Not to sound pretentious, but the dialect they're using is much more colourful. The vocabulary they are throwing around, terms I've never heard before. Sentences oozing with detail. Doesn't hurt the Rod has such an articulate way of speaking, so clear and crisp. Great watch :D
I admire Rod Serling; i aspire to think and speak as smoothly and marvelously as he does.
(Edit: I am an artist...specifically, a painter; everything Rod spoke about writing and those who write in this video equally translates to many (if not all) artforms...rather the generalized spirit of it all is seeing truth, being honest to others and to one's self, integrity to the art and allowing yourself to be human... as God has created you to be.)
Love everything hes done. Love from Boring England, while my Sons are in America.
Thank you for a most insightful video into the mind of "Mr. Zone".