{"id":43,"date":"2015-02-07T10:52:16","date_gmt":"2015-02-07T18:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/?p=43"},"modified":"2015-02-07T23:47:19","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T07:47:19","slug":"showbiz-101-a-tv-showrunner-explains-how-to-be-a-staff-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2015\/02\/showbiz-101-a-tv-showrunner-explains-how-to-be-a-staff-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"Showbiz 101: A TV Showrunner Explains How to Be a Staff Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Javi\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On Jan. 30, Javier Grillo-Marxuach<\/a>, a veteran TV writer and producer, shared some wisdom on Twitter \u2014 follow him @OKBJGM <\/a>\u2014 about the ins and outs of being a staff writer on a TV show.<\/p>\n

TV is one of the few writing endeavors\u00a0that\u2019s collaborative (or involves more than just one other partner). It does happen that one writer pens a whole show, especially in the U.K. One example is Catholic Julian Fellowes and his \u201cDownton Abbey,\u201d which airs in the U.S. on PBS (click here<\/a> for an earlier story I did on it for CatholicVote.org<\/em>). But on this side of the pond, writing staffs are the norm, headed by a \u201cshowrunner.\u201d He or she is the executive producer, often a writer, who is essentially the CEO of the small company that is a TV production.<\/p>\n

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and educated at Carnegie Mellon University and USC, Grillo-Marxuach worked on ABC\u2019s \u201cLost\u201d and NBC\u2019s \u201cMedium\u201d before becoming\u00a0creator, executive producer\u00a0and showrunner<\/a>\u00a0of ABC Family\u2019s \u201cThe Middleman,\u201d <\/a>based on his own Viper Comics title.<\/p>\n

Currently, Grillo-Marxuach is co-executive producer of the science-fiction drama\u00a0\u201cHelix,\u201d <\/a>airing on Syfy Channel, about CDC scientists engaged in a life-or-death struggle against a\u00a0genetically engineered virus altering the future of mankind.<\/p>\n

(Apparently, the current season two takes place in a quasi-religious cult on an island called St. Germain, which is not the same as the actual Catholic\u00a0Saint Germaine<\/a>, but instead the name of a legendary occult figure.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I originally published<\/a> these tweets on my Tumblr blog\/eclectic newsfeed, The Velveteen Hammer<\/em><\/a>, but they\u2019re a great first class in the reality of working in show business. A lot of young writers dream they\u2019ll be selling their own show right off the bat, but the more likely path is to work your way up \u2014 and one important step on the ladder is to become a staff writer on an existing show.<\/p>\n

BTW, here\u2019s a bit of showbiz lingo: A \u201cspec\u201d is a sample episode of an existing show meant to demonstrate both a writer\u2019s\u00a0talent and his or her ability to understand and reproduce the tone and style of a show. It\u2019s the noun derivative of the adverb form\u00a0\u201con spec,\u201d<\/a> which is an abbreviation of \u201con speculation,\u201d meaning work done without a contract or immediate expectation of payment, in hopes of either selling the work or leveraging it to get other work.<\/p>\n

For example, writer\/producer\u00a0Tim Minear,<\/a> who\u2019s worked on such shows as \u201cAngel,\u201d \u201cFirefly,\u201d \u201cDollhouse,\u201d \u201cWonderfalls\u201d and, currently, \u201cAmerican Horror Story,\u201d wrote a spec for \u201cThe X-Files.\u201d He did wind up doing a couple episodes of that show, but his spec was never produced (the fact that it would require a trained porcupine might have had something to do with it).<\/p>\n

Original TV ideas can also be written on spec \u2014 Marc Cherry wrote the pilot for ABC\u2019s \u201cDesperate Housewives\u201d when he was between jobs \u2014 along with movies, magazine articles and, most commonly, novels.<\/p>\n

There\u2019ll be more on related topics tomorrow from another industry insider, but here are Grillo-Marxuach\u2019s tweets in paragraph form, edited for grammar, clarity and mild profanity (incidentally, they\u2019re also a good lesson in basic humility and dealing with authority, two things that a lot of folks, Catholics included, could do better):<\/p>\n

A staff writer\u2019s first script is literally a spec for the show they\u2019re on (it\u2019s counted against pay), so they\u2019d better know how to write one. Pilots, short stories, plays, are nice ways to get TV writing jobs, but you KEEP the job by successfully mimicking your showrunners\u2019 style. That most agents\/managers don\u2019t encourage beginning writers to write specs feels short-sighted. Write a spec, even if just for practice.<\/i><\/p>\n

Showrunners who say they want only \u201cdistinctive\u201d voices are amateurs\/posers. By ep. 13, all a showrunner wants is to not have to rewrite. It\u2019s cruel: entry-level TV writers are told they get jobs for being \u201ca very special snowflake\u201d when the real work is mimicry and pastiche.<\/i><\/p>\n

Agents want original pilots because they can sell if you don\u2019t staff. Write one, but better be ready to play in someone else\u2019s sandbox. But know that you need to know how to write a show you didn\u2019t create, in another writer\u2019s style. Write the specs for your own education. Even if your agent won\u2019t read your spec or go out with it, write it! Showrunners want people who UNDERSTAND their job\u2026 and the job is this: write ideas your showrunner didn\u2019t have but liked, and write them in the way the showrunner would have if s\/he had!<\/i><\/p>\n

There is nothing more insulting to a staff than an entry level writer who thinks they are only slumming in television so they can \u201cfix\u201d it. Finally: being a staff writer is about surrendering your ego, knowing it is NEVER about you, good or bad. Make peace with that early, often. The two worst personalities in the room, the \u201cDr. No\u201d (I don\u2019t like that) who hates it but doesn\u2019t have a pitch on how to fix it, ever.<\/i><\/p>\n

As a staff writer, you may think you understand what\u2019s gone horribly wrong and want to lead the charge to fix it for the sake of the show. Resist that urge at all costs. Your job \u2013 and that of most staff positions \u2013 is sometimes to produce \u201cproof of lack of concept.\u201d Sometimes you have to give a showrunner\u2019s bad idea the best college try in good faith. It\u2019s not bullets; it\u2019s dry-erase ink. Acting like it\u2019s beneath you to take an idea out for a test drive pisses off your boss and is the fast road to being labeled \u201cdifficult.\u201d If the room decides an idea doesn\u2019t work, let the co-ep <\/i>[co-executive producer] break the news, they get paid very well to take that hit: they are your flak jacket.<\/i><\/p>\n

Your job on a TV staff is to express your showrunner\u2019s vision, not to insist on your own. Your showrunner\u2019s job is to articulate what Maya Lin called \u201ca strong clear vision\u201d that the staff can follow\u2026 but here\u2019s the bummer. Even if a showrunner can\u2019t articulate a clear vision, it\u2019s still your job to find out what you can about it and try to do express it. That\u2019s the Sisyphean task of a TV writer who is not a showrunner: it\u2019s their show for better or worse, there\u2019s no work around for that.<\/i><\/p>\n

And finally, if you don\u2019t like what your showrunner does, DON\u2019T VISIT IT ON YOUR STAFF WHEN YOU BECOME A SHOWRUNNER. The bad ones teach you more than that good ones sometimes. Our business is legendary for enabling abusers, that\u2019s not a blank check for you to \u201cget yours.\u201d When you get to the top. If you were abused or experienced shitty management on the way up, but don\u2019t stop the cycle, you are every bit as bad as they were to you. Staffs work in harmony when everyone knows their part clearly and plays it to the best of their ability.<\/i><\/p>\n

In short: whether you\u2019re at the bottom or the top, don\u2019t be a d*ck.<\/i><\/p>\n

Image from @OKBJGM on Twitter.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Jan. 30, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a veteran TV writer and producer, shared some wisdom on Twitter \u2014 follow him @OKBJGM \u2014 about the ins and outs of being a staff writer on a TV show. TV is one of the few writing endeavors\u00a0that\u2019s collaborative (or involves more than just one other partner). It does happen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2174,"featured_media":44,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,3],"tags":[12,13,14],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","category-showbiz-101","category-television","tag-helix","tag-javier-grillo-marxuach","tag-middleman"],"yoast_head":"\nShowbiz 101: A TV Showrunner Explains How to Be a Staff Writer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On Jan. 30, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a veteran TV writer and producer, shared some wisdom on Twitter -- follow him @OKBJGM -- about the ins and outs of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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