Thread by @ShawnWaugh

Some people were curious about how the TV #writersroom works, so I thought I'd let you peek behind the curtain. For those of you who don't know me, my name’s Shawn, I’ve been support staff on nine seasons’ worth of TV writers’ rooms (always support, never staffed), 1/

so I know a thing or two.

And for anyone looking for a #preWGA writer, I’ve got a killer pilot about werewolves in Los Angeles. #pleasereadmyscreenplay

Now let's have some fun. 2/

What is it?

The Writers’ Room (or writer’s room – there’s no real agreement on which is the correct terminology, but since there’s more than one writer, I’ll insist on using the possessive plural) is a metonym for the insular little community tasked with writing a TV show. 3/

Generally speaking, this is a team effort. To take the question of what a writers’ room literally is: It’s a small business office. It can be on the studio lot or an unassuming office above a mattress store off Ventura. 4/

You’ll have one or two large conference rooms, a number of smaller offices for each of the writers, and a small windowless closet in which to stick your script coordinator. The conference room is the titular “writers’ room” where the writers gather around a conference table. 5/

Whiteboards, corkboard, magnetic boards, or even large computer monitors and TV screens may be set up around the room. A writer’s assistant takes notes on various important things said in the room (story ideas that land, jokes that raised a chortle, esoteric lunch requests). 6/

Some showrunners prefer to write directly on whiteboards with different colored markers, while some prefer to use note cards that they pin up to a corkboard. Each might use different colored pens or notecards to keep track of character arcs and A/B/C stories. 7/

Outside of the conference room, there’s generally a welcome desk where the writers’ PA sits, a desk near each Executive Producer’s office where their assistant sits, a kitchen with snacks and beverages, a multifunction heavy-duty printer/copier/fax/scanner, 8/

a water cooler, and tons of paper in all the colors of the color wheel (unless you’re a paperless office – shout out to the Scriptation app), and other office supplies. 9/

Who’s in it? The #1 boss of the writers’ room is your showrunner. They’re often the creator. They give final say and final signoff on everything that the show will create. But while the boss is off, say, locking a cut or reviewing casting choices or on a studio/network call10/

then you’ll have a senior level writer who’s “running the room”. This is almost always the same person for every episode (usually the show’s #2 writer). Think of it like the president and the vice president. 11/

Other writers follow the hierarchy below (executive means a step above a given title, and co- means a step below that title):

Executive Producer
Co-Executive Producer
Producer
Co-Producer
Executive Story Editor
Story Editor
Co-Story Editor
Staff Writer 12/

Your support staff will consist of:

Executive Producers’ Assistants (they run professional and sometimes personal errands for the producers and schedule calls and meetings) 13/

Writers’ Assistant (usually one or two per show, they take notes on everything that’s gone on in the room, take daily pictures of the boards, and may help with in-room research) 14/

Writers’ Production Assistant (they’ll go on runs for the show like picking up lunch or office supplies, track receipts, keep the kitchen stocked, and help pick up the slack to keep the room running) 15/

Script Coordinator (they’re the conduit between the writers’ room and the outside world – they proofread scripts, distribute scripts to all the executives and production personnel, liaise with legal clearance, fill out the WGA paperwork, 16/

maintain in-episode and inter-episode continuity, handle script security, track character occurrences, troubleshoot script problems with different production department heads, and provide IT support to the production. Think “project manager” with none of the respect or pay.) 17/

How does it work?

Let’s say your showrunner’s already written a pilot that’s been greenlit to series. It’ll then be up to the room to figure out what the series arc is going to look like. 18/

A low-level writer with excellent handwriting will be nominated to write on the whiteboard (or note cards) as writers start pitching out journeys for the characters, both story-wise or thematic. 19/

The showrunner or the room runner will weigh in on which ideas should or shouldn’t be written down, and by the end of the week, enough of these ideas will be written down so that each character’s arc can be easily tracked. 20/

This might as simple as a character’s name being written on the left side of a board and, across the row, a few moments on their journey. Assuming a 9-episode season: 21/

The showrunner will eventually turn these ideas into a pitch that they’ll give to the studio and network to get them to sign off on the season. New clean boards come out (the season arc board might get relocated, but its picture will be placed somewhere prominent in the room).22/

Episodes are usually assigned to the writers rather arbitrarily (this writer will get episode 2, another one will get number 3, etc). The whole writing team (or at least, as many writers as are available) will work on the rough concept of an episode as a group. 23/

They’ll all pitch ideas, scenes, jokes, etc, and whoever’s running the room will decide what goes on the board. The boards are usually broken down with acts running across the top 24/

– even if a show isn’t divided into acts by commercial breaks, it’s still not a bad way to break up the sheer number of scenes that need to be tracked.

Once everything gets filled in, they’ll pitch the ideas to the #1 and #2 writers (if they weren’t part of the story breaking process.) Assuming it gets approved, the writer will be sent off to turn the board into an outline 26/

(an 8-12 page piece of prose that breaks down what goes on scene by scene) and the room will move onto the next episode. When the outline’s approved by the studio and network, the writer will turn it into a script. 27/

That script eventually gets handed off to an executive producer who’ll then rewrite what they think needs rewriting (usually so that every episode maintains the showrunner’s signature style), and the script coordinator will proof and send it out. 28/

And so on and so on, around we go, until the whole season is written.

Thank you for attending my TED talk. 29/29