Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #wgastaffingboost
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As we roll into the end of the year, I am taking stock of 2019. It was a pretty crazy year for me personally. Here are just a few of the good, bad and weird that happened to me this year: 1/
Jan 2019: I reconnected with a long "lost" friend after 22 years. This entire year we have been catching each other up on the interim years since he went to a new job and we drifted apart. It has been a joyful experience that has pushed me to maintain all my friendships.
Jan 2019: Our mother @sweetnote had surgery for breast cancer which was very successful. She went through a month of radiation and came out the other side. I am grateful that this was caught early and was dealt with quickly.
Writer rule of thumb: You have to have one sample. You HAVE to. You should have more, but that's the bearest of minimums. Whether that's a play, a short story, a pilot, a feature or something else. You must have a piece of writing that's your calling card if you want to be hired.
Most showrunners will want to read something original. Pilots, plays and features scripts are your best bet. Some are willing to read short stories, graphic novels, specs & other material. But pilots and features are where it’s at. Make sure they’re in good shape and ready go.
Not only do I read all the #wgastaffingboost tweets, I use them to recommend writers to executives, producers and showrunners. I want to get writers hired. Whether you’re already in the WGA or #PreWGA if I reach out to you & say it’s go-time be ready to GO!
This is kind of a thread. I’ve been working in TV writing since I graduated college, pretty much. All types of assistant. Ten years went by and I found myself really stuck in an assistant mentality. If you’ve been there, you know. Shoulders hunched.
I kind of stopped believing I’d ever get my break as a writer, but I didn’t feel like I could do anything else. Other people still believed in me. But I knew I needed to believe in myself. So around the end of 2018, I took an online class about my “inner warrior.”
I had enough experience to get picky about my next job - to try to put myself on the right path - but it was really scary to turn down interviews, or say no to opportunities that felt wrong for me. I decided to focus on fellowship apps, not interviews, for a few months.
I staffed on the next season of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." My packet was descriptions of cars. Room is in the Hamptons.
Just got to the room. There is a framed photo of a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera on the wall and multiple Lavazza espresso machines.
Day 2 in the room. Met the other writers. They're all luxury-car mechanics plus one writing team who worked on "Suddenly Susan."
So, you're been seeing a lot of stuff from TV writers on Twitter thanks to #WGAStaffingBoost & #WGASolidarityChallenge, as broadcast staffing season kicks into high gear. But what is staffing season? And why does it seem like it is LITERALLY THE WORST? A thread.
First, a disclaimer. This is about writers trying to get staffed. Showrunners and creators have a whole other pit of despair and anxiety to deal with (focus groups, network screenings, trying to meet all of us and not being able to hire everyone they want bc budgets).
Staffing season is the time of year, from around April through as late as mid-June (but really more like Memorial Day) when the broadcast network pilots are done filming, and start meeting writers to form their first season writing staff.
WRITERS OF THE INTERNET: I have a pilot on CBS called SURVEILLANCE. It’s a serialized spy thriller with a morally complex female lead. I want to read your samples. DMs are open. Get at me. #WGAStaffingBoost
Some backstory on SURVEILLANCE for my fellow travelers: I wrote this script on spec in 2014. I had some credits in nonfiction TV but I wasn’t repped, didn’t live in LA and had just a couple contacts.
A couple years earlier I was about to turn 30, sitting at home reading @johnaugust blog posts while working freelance transcribing interviews on a show about dogs & cats who see ghosts.
