How to Write Good

John Vorhaus

Feb 2013 · John Vorhaus

About this ebook

 Starting with a wink at his own dumb title and a case for whimsy as a writer’s best friend, veteran writer and writing instructor John Vorhaus offers us this latest glimpse inside his writing mind. Drawing on a quarter-century of experience in writing scripts and novels, and teaching and training writers worldwide, Vorhaus delivers a quick, expressive overview of the writing process, how to engage it, and how to beat its common pitfalls. With abundant concrete writing strategies and an empowering generosity of spirit, HOW TO WRITE GOOD joins JV’s classic COMIC TOOLBOX in providing what every writer needs: rules, tools, and a good, swift kick in the motivation.

About the author

 John Vorhaus is best known for his classic comedy writing textbook, The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not. Now available in five languages, this “bible of comedy writing” continues to be a definitive source of information and inspiration for television, film and fiction writers from Santa Monica to Scandinavia.

An international consultant in television and film script development, Vorhaus has worked for television networks, film schools, production companies and film funding bodies in 30 countries on five continents. He created his own situation comedy in Romania, ran the writing staff of the Russian version of Married… with Children, and co-created the social action drama Sexto Sentido in Nicaragua. He has been a meaningful change-agent for tens of thousands of writers all around the world.  

As a novelist of some note, Vorhaus has seven titles to his credit, including the “sunshine noir” mystery series recounting the exploits of the world-class con artist Radar Hoverlander. Titles in the series include The California Roll, The Albuquerque Turkey and The Texas Twist. He has also written three novels about poker and the 20th century coming of age stories Lucy in the Sky and Poole’s Paradise.

Vorhaus’s scriptwriting credits run from situation comedy to episodic drama, and from web-based programming to theatrical-release screenplays and documentaries, including the provocative Misery Loves Comedy.   

Vorhaus is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the Writers Guild of America. He has consulted to Walt Disney Feature Animation and taught at such institutions as Northwestern University, AFI, The New York Film Academy and the Writers Program of the UCLA Extension. He is also the author of the Killer Poker instructional series, the writing workbook Creativity Rules! the other writing workbook, How to Write Good, and the comedy-writing texts The Little Book of Sitcom and Comedy Writing 4 Life. He tweets for no apparent reason @TrueFactBarFact and secretly controls the world from www.johnvorhaus.com.