Helen Shang Profile picture
Writer of TV and features! Avatar S2 (Netflix) Welcome to Derry (Max) Rings of Power (Amazon) Man who Fell to Earth (Showtime) Hannibal (NBC)
Aug 17, 2024 5 tweets 1 min read
I'm seeing some discussion about who wrote what on TV shows so here's a TV writer's room primer 101! 😎

The VAST majority of TV shows are written by more than one writer. We all gather in a room (or virtual room) and come up with the story of the entire season together. (1/5) All the writers pitch in ideas and showrunner(s) have the final creative say. When we've come up w/ the plots for the episodes, each ep is then given to a separate writer to expand into a script. In script, each writer writes the plot into scenes, dialogue, details, etc. (2/5)
Jun 5, 2023 10 tweets 2 min read
It's the #BadApple Apple Day of Action so here's my Apple Plus story! I was staffed in one of their mini-rooms 2 years ago. The showrunners had written an incredible, daring, TRULY UNIQUE pilot and I loved all the writers. That said, I do NOT feel we were set up to succeed. (1/?) Firstly, we only had 5 writers total, including the 2 showrunners. And we only had 6 weeks to break the entire first season, plus write 2 more eps and revise the pilot. 6 weeks is not enough time to break ANY season, but this show in particular required A LOT of research. (2/?)