September 2006

So You Want to Write for Television
by Debbie Smith
dlynnsmith.com

Debbie Smith has spent the last fifteen years writing and producing such television shows as Touched By An Angel; Promised Land; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; Murder, She Wrote; and The Trials Of Rosie O'Neill.

Debbie has taught screenwriting classes at Maui Community College and The Girl's Film School of Santa Fe. She has conducted writing workshops and seminars, including a seminar for the New Mexico Screenwriter Series, and provides consulting services to Hollywood writers and producers as well as beginning writers.

In addition, Debbie has published short fiction under the name of D. Lynn Smith in After Hours, Pangaia, the Bram Stoker Award nominated Dark Delicacies and the forthcoming Hot Blood 13.

As a Writing Producer for network television, the most common question I'm asked is: how do you sell a script to a television show? The first time this came up was at a Museum of Broadcasting celebration of The Trials Of Rosie O'Neill. That evening, after screening an episode of Rosie, there was a question and answer period with producers and cast. The first question was about an episode called Time Will Tell. That episode, it so happens, was written by myself and my then writing partner. Since I was in the audience Beth Sullivan, the Supervising Producer and hence my boss, had me stand up and be recognized. Then Barney Rosenweig, the executive producer, proceeded to tell the story about how I was a writer's assistant on the show, how I had taken the initiative to write a spec script and how they had subsequently produced it.

At the program's conclusion a man came up to me and asked me what I had done to get the producers to read my script. I told him, "Work for the show." I went on to explain that working as a writer's assistant or PA helped you meet people who would be inclined to read your work. He said he was a lawyer and he wasn't going to quit his job to be a PA. I said, "Then I don't know what else to tell you." He wasn't happy with my answer.

My first break came out of nowhere. At the time, I was a Contracts Administrator for a computer software company. One day I got a call from my friend, Mark. The series he was working for, Tour of Duty, needed another Writer's Assistant. Was I interested? The job consisted of processing scripts, keeping up with required paperwork and answering fan mail. It paid seven hundred a week for 14 hour days with no overtime and no benefits. I measured that against my fifty thousand a year, 401K, 40 hour work week, three weeks vacation and stellar insurance benefits.

Unlike the lawyer, I had no hesitation. I said, "Yes!"

That was where I learned how to write scripts. Before TOD I'd never even seen a script before. I didn't attend any classes or workshops. I simply studied the scripts I was given to process and learned everything I could, including how to use the special formatting software required.

The following season Tour was no longer on the air and I was hired for The Trials of Rosie O'Neill. It was there at Rosie that I sold my first script, so apparently my studies had not been in vain.

All of the above illustrates a simple truth about breaking into writing for television: You must live in Los Angeles. Feature writing is different. You can live anywhere. But television is still primarily a Los Angeles based industry. LA is where you'll meet the people you need to meet, where you'll learn the skills you need to learn, and where someone might just call you up out of the blue and give you the chance of a lifetime.

The exception (and there are always exceptions) is if you live in Canada. Many television shows, especially genre shows, are shot in Canada and the writers must be Canadian. I have friends who actually moved to Canada for six months in order to establish their residency so they would be eligible for these jobs.

Assistant jobs don't pay all that well and the hours can be quite grueling, but the experience is invaluable. Not only because of the people you meet, but also for the incredible education you receive. Constructing a teleplay isn't just about writing. It's about budget, cast, budget, locations, budget and all other production aspects. Oh, and of course, budget.

In feature writing the writer doesn't need to worry about the budget. As a matter of fact, spec writers should make their screenplays as big and as special as they can. But in television, budget is a huge consideration.

Budget isn't the only difference between writing features and television. There are formatting differences as well, but if you have good script writing software, the formatting pretty much takes care of itself.

The biggest difference between writing features (or novels or short stories) and writing for television is that a television writer is paid to write in the voice of the Executive Producer of the series. The story idea may be original but it occurs within the confines of the world and characters that have already been established. You need to stand out while conforming.

You'll need a number of original spec scripts for various established TV series to prove you are capable of this. These spec scripts are what an agent uses to sell their writers. A writer doesn't expect to sell these scripts to the show. The producers for that particular show will probably never even see your script (unless you work for the show and they're willing to read it). What these specs do is prove to producers that you are capable of writing in different voices, capturing characters that have already been developed, and that you can bring something new to an established series. Danna and I got our Murder, She Wrote assignment based on a Quantum Leap spec script.

So take a look at your favorite series on television and write an episode of one you dearly love. Study the series. How many act breaks are there? Is there a Teaser or Cold Open? Who are the main characters? How many characters are in a script? How many locations do they use and what are their main locations? How long is each act? How do the acts end?

Reading scripts that have been produced is actually more helpful than watching the episodes. Remember, television is a collaborative art and if you have brilliant directors and actors they make the script better than it reads.

Not only do you have the hard copy you can use to figure out the aforementioned questions, but also you get a feel for how the script lays out on the page. By comparing what you see on the screen to what's on the page, you can pick up any idiosyncrasies of a particular show. For example, how does CSI write in those really gross shots where they go into the wound and show the damage? You aren't the only person out there writing a CSI spec so producers have probably read quite a number of them. You want yours to be as professional and as close to the show's format as possible.

Not all shows have scripts available to the general public, but you can get many screenplays and teleplays for a reasonable cost at www.hollywoodbookcity.com.

Do not write spec scripts for shows that have been canceled, shows that are failing or shows that are only seen in reruns on TV Land. Current, popular shows that people know will get the most mileage.

Another thing you need to understand is that your scripts must be in the correct format; otherwise, they won't get read. This goes for both teleplays and screenplays. The best investment you can make is in scriptwriting software. The most popular right now are Final Draft and Movie Magic, both available at www.writersstore.com. These are rather pricey, but if you are serious about writing for the big or the small screen, they are a must-have. Scripts that come in less than perfect format go unread.

And now a word about agents: Just because you have an agent doesn't mean you'll get a job. An agent is there to negotiate contracts and, hopefully, get you meetings. The best way to get a job is to know people. It really does come down to who you know. My first staff job was on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. The Executive Producer was Beth Sullivan, the woman who bought my first script on Rosie O'Neill. She hired me because she knew me and she liked my writing, not because of my agent.

An agent, however, can be a great asset. My point is that you can't rely solely on your agent to get you a job. You've got to do your part, which means networking.

You can find a list of Writers Guild Signatory Agents at www.wga.org under guild and member services. Once again, when approaching an agent be sure to have more than one script in hand, whether it be teleplays or screenplays or both. Agents want to know that you're not just a one script wonder. If the script you sent them captures their interest, they'll ask if you have anything else. The answer had better be, "Yes."

A word of caution, you can protect your scripts through the Writers Guild Registry and I highly recommend that you do so before sending it out anywhere. This industry attracts a lot of people who want ideas for nothing. Registration only costs twenty dollars and it is easily accomplished on-line.

Another truth about television: Hollywood loves novelists and short story writers. It doesn't guarantee you a job in the industry, but if you have that background AND you can write good scripts, you have a much better chance of breaking in.

Now some of you out there might be thinking that you just want to sell a script a year. I mean, after all a one hour dramatic teleplay brings in thirty-five thousand dollars and that doesn't include residuals. But the freelance world is essentially dead in television. Most scripts are staff written, and those that aren't are farmed out to friends. So if you want to work for television, it's an all or nothing proposition.

Okay, so now you know how to give yourself the best chance of getting read, selling and making tons of money. So the question is, do you really want to do it? The only person who can answer that question is you.

Television can be a very difficult world for writers. Even if you are a top flight writer you can expect to be rewritten. Just know that once you finish a script, it's not yours anymore. You have nothing to say about what happens to it next. You'll be happy if fifty percent of your work makes it to the screen and consider it a miracle if ninety percent makes it.

Ageism is alive and well and something you have to deal with. Also, there's lots of politics, sexism and backbiting. Once you're in, it's a constant struggle to stay in. But the work is really fun, exciting, and lucrative. If you have a thick enough skin and an ego strong enough to withstand all the negative aspects of the job, you might really come to enjoy it. Then again, as William Goldman says, "I do the writing for free. They pay me to put up with the bullshit."

Now a brief word for feature writers: Check out InkTip.com. This is a great site where you can post your scripts and be read by industry professionals. Agents, managers and producers frequent the site and many writers have either gained representation or sold scripts through posting there.

So let's go back to the lawyer at the Museum of Broadcasting who wasn't willing to give up his job. On Tour of Duty I met a writer who had been a lawyer in Washington, DC. She had quit her job and moved to LA, accepting a position at AFI as a secretary. She worked her way up. Waaaay up. The writer is Carol Mendelson, Executive Producer of the CSI franchise.

So go on and ask yourself, what are you willing to do to sell a script and break into television?