Desk of Amy Suto

TV writer who eats danger for breakfast

How to Ghostwrite a Memoir (Ghostwriting 101)

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Hey look it’s me on the left! Upwork recently featured me as a freelancer and hired me for their most recent conference in Vegas, where I wrote bios for anyone who stopped by and said hi 🙂

Cool, huh? I’ve written before about lessons I’ve learned as a freelancer, how I made my first $10,000 on Upwork, and my not-so-typical day-to-day as a freelance writer.

Anyways, it’s October and I haven’t blogged since I got back from Berlin. It’s also sPoOkY sEaSoN which means I have to go to Halloween parties thrown by actors who somehow have ENDLESS costume/wig/special effects makeup to the point where 1 actor friend could outfit all the dayplayers on an episode of THE WALKING DEAD and STILL have leftover digs for the cast of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD. (Sidenote: are people still watching these shows?)

And then there’s me, with a normal amount of closet space for LA, and all I have is like a potato and a broken crown to whip up into some sort of witty costume. What do I do with those? I… I just don’t know. (There’s a joke here, probably an offensive one related to the Irish potato famine, but I’m not a comedy writer. So.)

What are you being for Halloween? Let me know in the comments below or get @ me on Twitter. Would love to know, especially if your costume is more clever than mine. (Currently — it DEFINITELY is. Right now I have some really lame costume ideas. Maybe this will change when the onslaught of costumed carnivals start. We’ll see.)

Didya Know I’m a Ghost

As you all know by now, when I’m not in a writers’ room, I ghostwrite memoirs for fascinating people all over the world. It’s an intimate process that I’ve come to love, and I’ve met some truly inspiring people through this work.

Being a memoir ghostwriter means playing the roles of writer and investigative journalist: you need to ask the right questions in order to get the most vivid, compelling stories on the page.

[Read more…]

How to Plan a Research Trip for Your Script or Novel

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A spur-of-the-moment research trip to the Bay Area was just what I needed for my new pilot. From the fog to firepits to tunnels of trees, I walked where my characters walk and got curious about who these people are and how to tell this story in a way that feels as authentic and real as it feels in my head. This translation process to the page is challenging, but part of why I love this work. Rejoining society tomorrow for a day before we head to Arizona and shoot our sizzle reel in Anthem with a killer team. Hope your week is filled with inspiration and joy, friends ✨ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #amwriting #travel #writersofinstagram #writer #books #scriptchat #wga #photooftheday #travelphotography

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I’ve been lucky to travel a lot this year. So far I’ve gotten to DC, NYC, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Phoenix/Arcosanti, Reno & Tahoe, Temecula — and most of those were “work” trips where I was visiting clients or doing research for my projects.

Traveling for your story is a must. I’m not saying that because I need to rationalize my spending on the travel that isn’t subsidized by my freelancing. (Okay, maybe that’s part of it!)

In the past few months, I’ve been writing and rewriting my new pilot that’s set in the Bay Area. Hitting the road and visiting the places my script is set in transformed my story. I also got to see some dope sea lions, and briefly considered whether or not my cat would be cool if I adopted one.

Find Inspiring Writing Spaces

best office ever

There’s a beautiful AirBnb in La Honda that’s a cottage on a gorgeous ranch with horses and an acre or so of grasslands. You can wander the property, say hey — or hay 😉 — to the horses, or take a short drive to the cliffs where you can ponder life’s darkest secrets across the glittering tidepools. To get to this space, you drive through forest tunnels, and it feels as if you’re entering another dimension. My host was also kind enough to help me build a firepit so I could sit outside by the fire and do my writing with a glass of wine. This place is my go-to writing retreat, especially since there’s no wi-fi and had to use data to get my daily dose of the garbage fire that are Twitter memes. (I almost avoided the 30-50 feral hogs meme, but alas.)

[Read more…]

I’m Hosting Writing Workshops in Los Angeles!

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It’s official — I’m partnering with AirBnb to host writing workshops on select Saturdays in Los Angeles this spring!

This space is this gorgeous coffeeshop in mid-city. We’ll be meeting in the back room, a beautiful light-filled studio known as MiMoDa Studio @ Paper or Plastik that was also used as a ballet studio where Natalie Portman trained for BLACK SWAN.

I’ve been wanting to teach writing workshops in Los Angeles for awhile, but haven’t had the time. At the beginning of this year, one of my resolutions was to create safe spaces and communities for writers out here — and I’m so glad to be able to do it now in one of my favorite places.

I’m limiting each workshop to small groups to keep it small and intimate. Admission includes a free latte or coffee drink, a TV writing workbook I’ve created specifically for this writing workshop, and an hour-long seminar/workshop in the studio space followed by a half-hour of one-on-one discussion and work in the main cafe area.

I wanted to create a workshop that is accessible to everyone and group-oriented. I’ll adjust the subject matter to who’s attending and the level of experience of the group, as well as what people want to learn. Then, I’ll open up the floor to you and your ideas. We’ll move pretty quickly — which is why we’ll then move to the main cafe area to finish up our discussion from 4-4:30pm as to make sure we have time for everybody’s ideas!

More info can be found on the event page — I’d love to see you there! Get at me on Twitter if you have any questions!

I’m also going to be teaching some yoga classes for writers later this spring. Get more info about upcoming yoga classes and more here!

Hope to meet you at one of my events!

Writing Routines: A Holistic Approach to Crafting Your Weekly Writing Schedule

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If you think I’m writing these blog posts in part so I can spend my mornings browsing aesthetically pleasing photos of coffee and desks and people writing in dramatic lighting, you’d be 100% right.

Also, it’s January, so I’m on that Self Development Kick that we all get when advertisers are hammering into our minds how we can be better, and our new years’ resolutions haven’t faded from our minds for the next 11 months.

Okay, I say that but I love setting and achieving my new years’ resolutions. Maybe it’s my obsessive compulsion tendencies and love for color coding and aggressive goal-setting, but I just adore making elaborate goal tracking whiteboards and sharing my insane notecarding process on my Instagram.

as it turns out, if you write a pilot full of logic puzzles and mysteries, you have to figure out how all those logic puzzles and mysteries actually work

What Makes a Successful Weekly Writing Routine

When I was thinking about my most successful years, I realized that it comes down to how much control I have over my weekly schedule. If I have more flexible hours, I’m able to design my writing routine around creatively inspiring activities that feed into what I’m working on. If I’m struggling with a boatload of freelance projects, I find myself feeling creatively exhausted and my writing suffers.

The best weekly writing routines are holistic and well-rounded: an ideal schedule includes activities that are creative, kinetic, and reflective, and support your writing process so that you can hit the page feeling energized and inspired.

So, using my own trial-and-error, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to build your perfect weekly writing routine:

[Read more…]

Method Writing: Exercises to Experience the Stories You’re Writing

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I love collecting weird hobbies and experiences, and often joke that I’m a “method writer.”

It’s only partially a joke: I’ve been known to seek out adventures in the same flavor of what I’m writing. (See: this deep cut from my archives where I shot guns and learned about them six years ago for a novel I was writing. Baby Amy was — and still is — a die hard method writer.)

When I was writing a story about my hometown, I made the trek back to Middle of Nowhere, Arizona, and made a point of meeting up with as many old acquaintances as possible. I visited gun ranges to learn about what my characters would know about owning and firing a gun, I hung out with tumbleweeds in the desert and watched the sunset. (The sun setting in the desert is probably the only beauty I’ll admit exists in the wasteland that can be endless stretches of brush and plants that want to fight you. Jumping cacti, anyone?)

The stories I’m working on now are being continually reshaped by the experience I’m seeking out — and vice-versa. I make an effort to be a method writer, and it pays off.

I truly believe the more wildly we wander, the better our words become.

So here’s how I approach “method” writing. [Read more…]

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Amy Suto