For those Hellnotes readers who are writers or who aspire to be writers, we thought this article would be of great interest. It is not horror related. However, it is writing related. Even horror writers can learn more about the craft from a variety of sources, even those that are not directly related to the genre.
David Mamet created a TV series called The Unit, which ran from 2006 to 2009 on CBS. As part of the process, writers were hired, some seventeen of them over the duration, not counting Mamet himself.
In 2005, David Mamet dashed off a memo to his writers. This document circulated through writing circles for years. It is rumored to have first been publicized by Ink Canada, but that is unconfirmed. The memo was published in 2010, the year after the show was cancelled, by Seth Abramovitch on MovieLine. It has been referenced by many others since.
Here, you can read the memo in its entirety on Adelaide Screenwriter: David Mamet
