Desk of Amy Suto

TV writer who eats danger for breakfast

Day in the Life of a Freelance Writer

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san francisco cliffs
cliffs outside of San Fran

Hello friends! I’m back from doing some travel (San Fran for work, Tahoe for play) and also just moved into a new apartment with my best friend who also happens to cook the best Italian food you’ve ever tasted.

I thought I’d share a little bit about what my days are like as I’m in a weird hiatus period for the TV show I work on, which is more and more the norm for those of us who work on shows with short orders that don’t fit into the traditional, 22-episode broadcast television season.

When I’m not working in a writers’ room, I work on my own projects and moonlight as a ghostwriter. My bread and butter is ghostwriting people’s memoirs and helping them find the right words to tell their stories. I work for fascinating clients I can’t really talk about here, but they include accomplished lawyers, former professional athletes, and people dealing with great loss and tragedy and finding strength through their experiences.

Oh, and I also write blog posts and short stories and op-eds for various companies and publications, so I keep busy. What’s nice is that I only take on work I believe in, and every writing project I’m working on I love. I also get to make my own schedule, which is so important.

Here’s a day-in-the-life of what it’s like being a freelance writer/ghostwriter: 

//7am: coffee & planning the day

I have a Google home, so as soon as I wake up I tell it “good morning” and it turns on all my lights, my coffeemaker in the kitchen, and starts playing the news. (Creepy or efficient? Probably both but the faster I can get caffeinated the better my morning is.) It takes about 30 seconds of hearing about how much of a mess the world is in to get me to get out of bed and stumbling toward the coffee that’s waiting for me in the kitchen.

Coffee in hand, I immediately get to work plotting out my day. I use a BestSelf journal to track habits, record what I’m grateful for, and set my intentions and goals for the day. I’ve been using these for the past six months and love the pen-and-paper organization. I always have a mess of projects, to-do list items, habits, and other responsibilities I need to hold myself accountable to get done. It’s important to me to get everything I have to do on paper and out of my head so I can clear up brainspace for the work I have to do. [Read more…]

Working in Hollywood and the Cost of Ambition

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37th College Television Emmys at the Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)
37th College Television Emmys at the Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

In a whirlwind two months, I graduated from USC with a degree in screenwriting, won some shiny things from USC and from the Television Academy for the series I wrote and created, started full-time as an assistant to an awesome TV lit agent at Verve, and made some incredible new friends.

college television emmys television foundationYet not everything survived the transition into the real world, and I ended yet another relationship that crumbled in the face of my long hours and steadfast dedication to my career. It’s no secret that the path to becoming a TV writer is a long road that requires both the fortitude and portfolio to succeed in a sea of overqualified candidates, and while I’m in it for the long haul, sometimes the people I date see my love for my work as a limitation instead of a key part of who I am. [Read more…]

Inside the USC Writing for Screen and Television BFA Program

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USC undergraduate symposium CON nomination
Nominated for CON in the Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and creative work. Left: Jen Enfield-Kane, Audrey Emerson, Amy Suto

Because I’m graduating soon, it’s about time that the nostalgia hit full force. Tonight is my last USC class, ever, and it’s all beginning to sink in.

I’ve been doing a few panels for admitted screenwriters and have been answering a lot of questions about the program, so I thought I’d write about what it’s been like going to school here for the Writing for Screen and Television program. The program itself is harder to get into than Harvard Law, and I’m part of a class of something like 25 other screenwriters. Not everyone can handle the pressure of the program, and not everyone will leave still wanting to be a writer.

Coming out of USC, I’ve written four original pilots, two TV spec episodes (one comedy, one drama), three features, 50 pages of a novel, and over two hours of original series that were also produced.

2015-04-05 22.54.32
in a writer’s room with Jack Hackett and Maggie Admire for a short film

That’s roughly 860 script pages and 50 novel pages, and that’s not counting the dozens of short films, short stories, and writing exercises required for my classes.

I’ve won a few awards, am nominated for a College Television Emmy, and am slowly beginning to enter the professional marketplace with two of my low-budget features I hope to get made, so the program has been a success —  but abandon sleep all ye who enter here! The program is intense, your professors will push you to your limits, your classmates will tell you that you can do better, and you get out of the USC WST program what you put into it.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the classes I took and what my experience has been like:  [Read more…]

A Week in the Life: Showrunning, Writing, and Sleeping (Sometimes?)

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Since January, I’ve been inhaling coffee and painting my calendar red, as this semester has been the most insane yet: by May, I will have written 210 screenplay pages, produced over 120 minutes of the dramatic scripted TV miniseries CON, and will have met several career milestones, such as getting my first feature assignment, being nominated for a college television Emmy, and graduating from USC’s Writing for Screen and Television program (also known as the Writing on Zero Hours of Sleep program) and to top it all off still maintain some semblance of a social life.

On top of this I work two jobs — one at Verve (the Literary and Talent Agency that reps Meg Lefauvre, Colin Treverrow, and other amazing writers and directors) and the other as a Resident Assistant in Webb.

So if you see me on campus and I’m running to one thing or the next or typing furiously it’s because I’ve got to hit deadlines so maybe, just maybe, I can get some sleep — but it’s all worth it as I get to work with some of the greatest filmmakers at USC and do what I love.

amy suto con trenchcoat

which is wearing trenchcoats in 80 degree weather

A Snapshot of My Week

Saturdays and Sundays. On a typical weekend when I’m not on duty as an RA, I spend 20+ hours on set, helping keep things moving on schedule and make sure all the logistics I put into place with the help of our amazing producers and AD’s throughout the week (location contacts, crafty orders, shooting schedule, etc.) happens smoothly. On our show, we have a 1st AD who is in charge of the crew, a line producer help take care of the nitty gritty details, and us executive producers take care of all the paperwork on and off-set and deal directly with the Trojan Vision and film school administrators (and drive the golf cart!) [Read more…]

Miami Short Film: “Never Say Neverland”

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Screen Shot 2015-09-05 at 4.02.55 PMIMG_6411image1  IMG_6413

So some really amazing filmmakers in Miami are producing a short I wrote called “Never Say Neverland.” It’s a take on Peter Pan where Peter is a patient in an insane asylum under Dr. Hook’s care, and Wendy is a psychiatrist who tries to talk him out of his delusions of a place called Neverland.

Alexandra Mazza is producing and you can check out the project details here! 

This script is dear to my heart and I’m so excited to see it come to life. It never would have been made had Alexandra not contacted me, so this is one of those circumstances where it would have stayed in my drawer of scripts forever had Alexandra not reached out.

Looking forward to share with you the final product!

-Amy

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