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"I never bought beer before. I never went on a joyride, I mean, a reckless one; was never in a car accident; never, well, I've been beaten up, but never with that many spectators; never broke in anywhere; never skinny-dipped, and I almost did, I was going to; never eluded the authorities before..."

That's Larry Doyle's hero ticking off just a few of the underage taboos he broke over the course of one cinematic novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper. Doyle has written the Ulysses of high school novels, chock full of allusions and dreamy imagery.

The book is cinematic because Doyle cut his teeth in the world of television. Doyle has written for The New Yorker, The Simpsons, and HBO, and this week he sharing some writing advice with us. 

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.

Jason Boog:

What did television teach you about writing? How are the first steps that aspiring script writers and television writers should take? Any resources you would recommend for this kind of writing? Continue reading...

Larry Doyle:
I went about my television career in a really half-assed way, and didn't go to LA until I was 38 (i.e. legally dead).

People who want to write for television should go out there early, take production assistant jobs and work their way up. People who want to write screenplays should get assistant or reader jobs for producers and write like crazy on the side.

Click here to read the whole interview.