TV writer who eats danger for breakfast
Every artist should have a code, a set of rules, to keep them sane in a city with more traffic than trees and way overpriced lattes.
I have three rules that I set for myself ever since I came out to LA, and they’ve governed every decision I’ve made out here. Here they are:
Daily practice will keep you sharp, so keep a notebook or a journal of daily ideas, freewriting, and inspiration on top of your script pages and other projects. [Read more…]
Back in the day, I wrote a guide for men on how to write female characters.
In a nutshell: like human beings. Complex, flawed, whole. Strong — but also weak. A spectrum, just like male characters have been written about for decades in film and television.
However, even though men should portray female characters as complex in their writing — should men elect to tell stories that are told from the female perspective, about the female experience? As storytellers, what should our responsibilities be when telling stories that are not our own experiences? [Read more…]
It’s the top of the New Year and I hope you’re as ready for this year as I am! Every year after Christmas I let my OCD tendencies take over and deep clean my apartment and get my projects in order by making a project calendar. I also get started on new scripts, so I thought I’d write this post about how to write a killer series bible for your TV show.
Let’s write stacks on stacks of final drafts this year guys, OK?
add some red string and I’m at serial-killer level of preparedness for this year
If you’re writing a TV show at the top of the year, I wanted to talk a little about writing a series bible. For those of you new to the world of TV writing, a series bible is the document that is like hey guys if we made a TV show about Wonder Woman saving us from the horrors of 2017 HERE’S WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE
spoiler alert: it would look like AWESOME
So what would you include in a series bible? [Read more…]
if slightly off-center muffins stress you out, this article is for you
In the past, I’ve written about how to balance writing while being a showrunners’ assistant or writers’ assistant, but today I’d like to tackle general strategies for stress relief so that you can maintain your creativity in any period of your life — during the holidays, in times of financial stress, or while anxiously waiting the return of FX’s LEGION (how am I supposed to pretend not having new episodes is not affecting my mental sanity??)
So. Here’s how to preserve those creative thoughts when they’re being attacked by stress hormones.
This incredible TED Talk changed the entire way I view stress: as a preparation for a challenge instead of a detrimental function of our body to be curtailed as much as possible.
Another study I was reading recently talked about how repeating the words “I am excited” in your head before a challenge (like a pitch or big meeting) can help turn nervousness into excitement. [Read more…]
Hey there readers, it’s Amy. Before you read this post, I just want to let you know that my outlook on the current state of the industry has changed, and I can’t in good conscience continue to advocate for the assistant path for writers. It’s part COVID, part an inherent sense of classism in the industry. For more, read my new blog post here about my advice for new grads and why I think writers shouldn’t go the assistant path anymore. I’m keeping these posts up just in case you disagree with me and still want to go this path, but I just wanted to be fully transparent and give you the best advice I know how.
-Amy
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I’m incredibly lucky to be working in an amazing writers’ room as a showrunner’s assistant, which even just a year ago seemed like a near-impossible job to get. As a graduate of USC’s screenwriting program, I knew I wanted to get into a writers’ room as an assistant but didn’t know how, nor did I understand the differences and subtleties between each of the roles.
So, just thought I’d do a quick post about these television assistant jobs and how to get them — things I wish I’d known a year ago. [Read more…]
