TV writers: were you staffed once or a few times or been writing assistants for awhile and feel stuck? I’m gonna try to help bc this is a common DM I get. Not big picture advice but as far as scripts and things you might be able to control. I’ll do a Q&A on this topic only after.
Okay so maybe you have a manager but you’re not getting meetings, or you fired your manager bc they weren’t doing much. Maybe your sample got some traction but nothing solid happened. Maybe you’ve been out of work for a moment. Maybe you can’t seem to get promoted.
What can you control? Your work. Your self. Who you know (who likes you). How your work and your self are perceived to match what and who people need on staff.
The most common thing I see that prohibits folks from working more and promotion is... being too general. Reps and showrunners are usually looking to match make writers to jobs by filling specific, niche roles. Gaps in their team.
Let’s say you describe yourself as writing sci-fi with good dialogue and interesting characters. Well guess how many other writers out there can say the same thing? So when a job appears on a character driven sci-fi series will you be in the to-read pile? Maybe.
Staffing happens because 1) the showrunner knows you 2) someone recommended you highly 3) your work has something in it that shows you can do something SPECIFIC the show needs. I don’t mean “sci-fi” “good dialogue” “interesting characters.” I mean you write cities as characters.
Or you know the criminal justice system, or the military or what it’s like to be a billionaire. Or make people remember what it’s like to fall in love. Does your writing show a niche ability or more that people need on their shows?
Next. Are you someone whose identity is a niche insight someone needs on their shows? Are you putting this forward when writers get to know you? The writers I currently mentor. One has a mom who told her her father was Tom Cruise when she was a kid. Her mom is mentally ill.
I never forgot her and she writes movingly and humorously about health and families. You don’t have to be “diverse” but you need to be specific.
Goes without saying but the other aspect of yourself you can control is, do people want to spend a lot of time with you? Or do you take up too much air in a room? Are you hygienic? Can you listen and follow directions or do you need to be in charge?
You can’t really control who you know. You can’t be the son of another showrunner if you aren’t. But one way you can control this is to work for writers. Another way is to just genuinely do your homework on a writer and be genuinely kind or interested in their work.
It’s kind of like getting into a really exclusive college and you and your script are the college essay. What is your specific narrative that makes you, you and how does your work speak to that? This can often not have to be autobiographical. It can be about how you’re perceived
For example if reps think of you as someone who writes family drama, what is the most spectacular and specific family drama pilot you can write that also serves a bit of what you really want to write about in the world? How would your family drama be different than anyone else’s?
At the end of the day it’s about a grabby idea well executed or your personal take on a well-known genre. Those are the best samples.
I think the hardest thing to break through with is probably a single camera half hour of quirky characters not starring yourself. It’s not impossible, but it tougher bc it’s not genre which helps readers orient themselves when everything else is original.
If you have reps: Read all the pilots. Find the one or two that really feel like your voice could match the showrunner. Ask your reps for one meeting —on the show you think you could nail. Say it’s ok if it’s the only meeting you get this season. Help your reps know where you fit
If you don’t have reps. Work on your samples being specific and resonant to your narrative. Let genre be your friend. The fastest hire I saw this year was a writer who grew up working in a mortuary who wrote a genre take on a family working in a mortuary.
Lean in to how you are perceived and stretch that narrative to show you can do that and more on the page. If your work is competent but not grabbing people it might be the premise is not undeniable or the writing isn’t about anything you care about yet. Try to improve one or both
Hope this stuff I experienced and observed (with a dash of tough love) was helpful to someone. Im looking for ways I can help with all this uncertainty. This is not set in stone as rules. It’s what I believe might help a script go higher on a pile or turn a career more in demand.
Oh yeah and of course like I said the other day, and many others before me. If your script makes readers feel— you’re halfway there. If not yet, maybe take a look at that. In solidarity— M xx
