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…]

Writers’ Life: How Your Examined Life Informs The Stories You Tell

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Photo by DJ Suto

Just like you are what you eat, you write what you live. While I believe that write what you know is a narrow way to approach the vast expanse of stories you could be telling, I do believe that our own experiences create a prism through which we see the world and write about it.

We can’t — and shouldn’t! — spend every hour of our days writing. But the hours we don’t spend writing still show up on the page.

Our examined lives shape our stories

Photo by DJ Suto

In my writing group, I recently dismantled the seven page outline I had written for my pilot — and rewrote it from scratch, with another character as the protagonist. This is in part because of the badass ladies of my writing group had helped me get to the point where I realized this was the best move, and in part because of what’s been going on in my own life lately. My hero went from the reclusive male protagonist to the live-wire of a woman whose life was a mess but is grappling with her priorities and how she approaches the world. I realized that my male hero was safe to write from: he was a reluctant hero, someone thrown into the story. However, the female character — as vulnerable and messy as she is — is the one who is actually moving the plot forward and putting everything on the line.

After going through a breakup, I realized that I was running from my feelings and the messiness of them — I had also been running from the messy character who was clearly my way into the story all along. So, I got vulnerable, and asked myself why I had relegated her to supporting cast for so long, and realized her story was the most dramatic, even if it was harder to tell.

I say “examined lives” because an unexamined life (aside from not being worth living, according to Socrates) doesn’t provide these kinds of revelations. As artists, we have to question everything. That’s when epiphanies happen: as things click into place after we’ve been moving the pieces around and trying to make sense of it all. [Read more…]

How to Write a Series Bible for Your TV Show

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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

What is a Series Bible?

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…]

5 Best Writing Articles of 2017 from AmySuto.com

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In 2017 I worked on two different TV shows, wrote lots of pages, and took far too many artsy photos of my cat.

my cat rika in a coma after the vet (2017; oil on canvas)

I also wrote some blog posts. If you missed them, here are some of my best articles about writing from 2017: 

How To Get Your Life Together as a Graduating Writer (A 5-Step Guide With Photos)

In which I tell writers entering The Real World (TM) how to meal prep and write like the wind. But mainly, taco bowls.

Writing the Half-Hour TV Drama

In which I make the case against “dramedies” and create one hell of an infographic to break down the form of the half-hour TV drama.

This post actually stemmed from a presentation I gave to the Z season two writers’ room.

 

Writers’ Assistant, Showrunner’s Assistant, and Writers’ PA (What These Jobs Are and How to Get Them)

Two years ago, I didn’t know anything about these jobs OR how to get them. Now, I’m more versed in that job search life, and have met a lot of different writers’ and showrunner’s assistants and heard their stories about how they got to where they are. So if you’re looking to get an assistant job, check out this post!

Good Books: Being Gritty, Successful, and Working Smart for Screenwriters

I love sharing book recommendations, and this book list is perfect if you’re looking for some motivation to kick yourself in gear for 2018.

How to Work with a Writing Partner (and not murder each other!)

If you’re looking for a homicide-free writing partnership, I’ve got some tips for you! I’ve been writing with writing partners for the past few years, and I even took a class on the intricacies of collaboration.

That’s a wrap on 2017!

Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more writing content in the new year!

How to Work with a Writing Partner (and not murder each other!)

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It’s a Friday and I’m going to meet up with another writer at his office like I do almost every Friday, mainly because I want to steal all of the butterscotch from the reception candy bowl (I’m not twelve, I promise you). I’m carrying a container of the very real, very ridiculous pizza flavored nuts brand Dee’s Nuts — I kid you not — that is integral to our plot. Okay, maybe not integral but like there is a sophisticated, layered inside joke throughout the script about this container of nuts and our main character just happens to be nicknamed Dee (like I said, I’m not twelve.)

We’re working on a pilot that, if you’ve had drinks with me in the past three months, you’ve probably heard me pitch to you in the same breathless tone of voice that I get when I describe why I love Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. (But don’t talk to me about any of the sequels. Just don’t.)

I’ve written some of my favorite projects with others: Jen Enfield-Kane and I wrote and were co-showrunners on CON at USC. Noah Suarez-Sikes and I have had a litany of never-produced yet incredibly lovely writing projects that we’ve worked on together (and hopefully will have another soon!) I’m working with Sandy Valles (an actress known for her role in CON oh and also QUEEN OF THE SOUTH) on a pitch based on an awesome idea her and her brother came up with.

I love television writing in part because of how collaborative it is: you get to play make-believe with other talented creatives. Together, you make something cool that people will hopefully turn into GIFs and needlessly complex Fanfiction for years to come.

However, this doesn’t mean that the writing process is a dream. Writing with a partner or in a television room means there are a lot of different perspectives and approaches to story — which can be great at certain times and a roadblocks at others!

So if you’re starting in a television writers’ room or are about to embark on writing a script with a writing partner, here are some things you should keep in mind so that you get along with other creatives and homicide stays on the page:  [Read more…]

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