Novelists are writing for TV more than ever.
February 14, 2021 11:29 AM Subscribe
How it’s changing the industry “My editor broke the news to me that publishers’ profits, and therefore advances, were down, so most novelists were going to need two jobs,” Holman recalled. “I’d earned $9,000 on my writing the year before …. I needed one job that paid enough to live on.” Then she heard from a novelist friend who’d moved to L.A. and was making “big bucks” in an HBO writers room. “I decided to teach myself to write for TV.”
TV Show Writer Salary.
Average salary Los Angeles.
Still, a beguiling piece; anyone has further inside dope?
posted by BWA at 12:59 PM on February 14, 2021
Average salary Los Angeles.
Still, a beguiling piece; anyone has further inside dope?
posted by BWA at 12:59 PM on February 14, 2021
Feels signifcant that pretty much everyone the article talks about is/was already successfully published as a novelist.
Maybe off-topic, but related: So I'm a sci-fi/fantasy novelist, and earlier this year I had my first phone conversation with a studio exec. Haven't heard anything since, and I didn't really have my hopes up, but I did my research and he was legit.
The thing that really stood out for me in that conversation was when he told me the issue gumming up everything new in Hollywood is fear of risk. The flood of reboots and sequels and series is all about the money. There's no lack of creativity in Hollywood. The issue, as he put it, is that nobody at the top wants to do a deal they haven't already done before.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 1:14 PM on February 14, 2021 [10 favorites]
Maybe off-topic, but related: So I'm a sci-fi/fantasy novelist, and earlier this year I had my first phone conversation with a studio exec. Haven't heard anything since, and I didn't really have my hopes up, but I did my research and he was legit.
The thing that really stood out for me in that conversation was when he told me the issue gumming up everything new in Hollywood is fear of risk. The flood of reboots and sequels and series is all about the money. There's no lack of creativity in Hollywood. The issue, as he put it, is that nobody at the top wants to do a deal they haven't already done before.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 1:14 PM on February 14, 2021 [10 favorites]
...which is how we are going to get a GoT-ized Second Age of Middle-Earth
posted by thelonius at 1:27 PM on February 14, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 1:27 PM on February 14, 2021 [8 favorites]
It's not for everyone, though. Two quotes stood out for me.
"You write the novel you want to read. But you have to write a show that a whole lot of people want to see."
“I spent 2013 watching and rewatching the pilot for ‘Six Feet Under,’ with my iPhone stopwatch marking every beat change,” Holman said.
TV writing demands you write to the template. That's going to turn some people off. OTOH, like a sonnet or other poetic form, the restrictions can also inspire creativity. It will work for some, some will make it work, and others will find it frustrating.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 1:38 PM on February 14, 2021 [8 favorites]
"You write the novel you want to read. But you have to write a show that a whole lot of people want to see."
“I spent 2013 watching and rewatching the pilot for ‘Six Feet Under,’ with my iPhone stopwatch marking every beat change,” Holman said.
TV writing demands you write to the template. That's going to turn some people off. OTOH, like a sonnet or other poetic form, the restrictions can also inspire creativity. It will work for some, some will make it work, and others will find it frustrating.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 1:38 PM on February 14, 2021 [8 favorites]
A regular writing gig with benefits and health insurance? Who wouldn't want that? Used to be that journalism could do that for you, but... less so now.
I have a few projects in development and have written scripts (both spec and in active development), and as the originator of the idea under development, it's nice to be able to have a hand in what gets put on the screen. But it's also a hard fact that a) screenwriting and novel writing are two very different writing skills, b) novels are largely solo efforts (in terms of the writing) while everything in Hollywood is collaborative, whether you want it to be or not, and it's a very big adjustment to go from being the God of The Universe to just another voice in the room. Not every novelist is cut out for that.
(One solution to having a hand in if you're the novelist but not the screenwriter -- get an Executive Producer role. That way they have to show you the script, and they have to take the notes you give on it. But that does imply you have a good agent/manager/lawyer who can demand such things for you and get them got.)
I enjoy writing scripts and being part of a team but for the next while at least, novels are going to remain my day job, because among other things I've made the determination that for me, at least, it's better to be generating more potentially optionable material than it is to focus on one film/TV project for a few years. Also, uhhhhh, I'm sort of contractually obliged for a while.
posted by jscalzi at 1:42 PM on February 14, 2021 [40 favorites]
I have a few projects in development and have written scripts (both spec and in active development), and as the originator of the idea under development, it's nice to be able to have a hand in what gets put on the screen. But it's also a hard fact that a) screenwriting and novel writing are two very different writing skills, b) novels are largely solo efforts (in terms of the writing) while everything in Hollywood is collaborative, whether you want it to be or not, and it's a very big adjustment to go from being the God of The Universe to just another voice in the room. Not every novelist is cut out for that.
(One solution to having a hand in if you're the novelist but not the screenwriter -- get an Executive Producer role. That way they have to show you the script, and they have to take the notes you give on it. But that does imply you have a good agent/manager/lawyer who can demand such things for you and get them got.)
I enjoy writing scripts and being part of a team but for the next while at least, novels are going to remain my day job, because among other things I've made the determination that for me, at least, it's better to be generating more potentially optionable material than it is to focus on one film/TV project for a few years. Also, uhhhhh, I'm sort of contractually obliged for a while.
posted by jscalzi at 1:42 PM on February 14, 2021 [40 favorites]
WGA Schedule of Minimums. The production doesn’t pay your health insurance, you get it with your union, but if you don’t make enough money, you don’t get the benefits. And you pay union dues.
Roxane Gay has two shows in development, but that’s not a guarantee that either will be produced.
And not all shows are union. “Story producer” is a non-union writer, usually in non-fiction or reality based.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:10 PM on February 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
Roxane Gay has two shows in development, but that’s not a guarantee that either will be produced.
And not all shows are union. “Story producer” is a non-union writer, usually in non-fiction or reality based.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:10 PM on February 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
Not only novelists; didn't the Marxist public intellectual Laurie Penny move to LA for a writers'-room gig on a TV show a few years ago?
posted by acb at 2:12 PM on February 14, 2021
posted by acb at 2:12 PM on February 14, 2021
Meredith Marian’s not a show-business reporter—I wonder if she’s trying to sell herself as a TV writer?
Laurie Penny wrote one episode for a Netflix series.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:16 PM on February 14, 2021
Laurie Penny wrote one episode for a Netflix series.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:16 PM on February 14, 2021
It's not tagged "healthinsurance" but in these Covid times everyone's affected and everyone needs protection.
posted by k3ninho at 3:04 PM on February 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by k3ninho at 3:04 PM on February 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
The issue, as he put it, is that nobody at the top wants to do a deal they haven't already done before.
That's what I'm hearing as well, scaryblackdeath . Good luck.
posted by doctornemo at 4:05 PM on February 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
That's what I'm hearing as well, scaryblackdeath . Good luck.
posted by doctornemo at 4:05 PM on February 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
So if you're not a white dude from USC/UCLA or a white dude from USC/UCLA with parents in the industry, you need to be a bestselling author to write for TV. Okay.
posted by betweenthebars at 4:57 PM on February 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by betweenthebars at 4:57 PM on February 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
Also, most of the jobs linked on Ziprecruiter are non-union, contract gigs.
posted by Ideefixe at 11:58 AM on February 15, 2021
posted by Ideefixe at 11:58 AM on February 15, 2021
...which is how we are going to get a GoT-ized Second Age of Middle-Earth
I figure GoT was the Second Age, or maybe what was happening on the next continent over while Merry and Gandalf were searching for the First Cause.
posted by sneebler at 5:54 PM on February 17, 2021
I figure GoT was the Second Age, or maybe what was happening on the next continent over while Merry and Gandalf were searching for the First Cause.
posted by sneebler at 5:54 PM on February 17, 2021
So if you're not a white dude from USC/UCLA or a white dude from USC/UCLA with parents in the industry
Harvard grad Malia Obama to write for Donald Glover's new Amazon project.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:25 AM on February 18, 2021
Harvard grad Malia Obama to write for Donald Glover's new Amazon project.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:25 AM on February 18, 2021
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posted by Iris Gambol at 12:31 PM on February 14, 2021 [2 favorites]