I have a writer's group I'm a part of as a part of the Playwrights Union, a group of playwrights who live and work in LA. We meet once a month to read each other's work. It's usually just a fraction of the PU that comes out for this writers group. I never understood that. It gets me out of the house for something other than grocery shopping or the gym. And it keeps me honest in terms of my writing, although lately I seem to be doing okay on my own.
Today there were four of us who met and read work. I opted out of having work read this time because at the last meeting, I brought in pages that brought up a bunch of questions and started me on my next rewrite. So now that I'm 90 pages into this rewrite, I don't want to derail myself. I want to finish the rest of this rewrite and then I'll start bringing in pages again.
But at the end of the readings, we just sat around and talked. I know two of the writers well and another newer writer I hardly know. But we got on the conversation of writing for television, a topic I am all too familiar with. I am at a crossroads with TV writing, something I hesitate to talk about because I live in LA and everyone should want to work in TV. That is why I moved out here. But I'm tired of jockeying for a position in the hierarchy. I think that's the main job of the TV writer: to keep or establish placement in the hierarchy. And I'm competitive, so I understand the impulse. But right now, I just want to follow my passion for writing and put myself in a position that allows me to write.
One of the writers said that to be a writer in TV, you have to be willing to do anything to be a writer in TV. And I think that's true of any endeavor you're passionate about. You have to be willing to do anything. As a playwright, I think less is asked of you. That "anything" is not "everything." So right now, I'm just establishing stricter boundaries on what that anything is.
We talked about the difficulties of writing a pilot. How you have to be a student of the form. Read everything you can get your hand on. Look at scripts to see how they're paced and formatted. Write outlines. Write story bibles. Do all of these things to find out what the right pilot story is.
Gosh, I hope I get one of these teaching jobs. I'm going to be great at teaching TV writing. Oops. Sidebar.
And as I was talking, I got into the mechanics of it. It's a different, thrilling, exciting beast. I know I still love the storytelling aspect of it and I love that it's a different way to tell a story. But I am impatient with the business of it and the inherent unfairness of it. It's not fun when it's not working in your favor and you're knocking down doors. I prefer to return when the door being knocked down is mine. And that's not such a lofty goal. It's not a bad thing to say that I want to be in control. Of course, TV execs and agents and managers don't want to hear that. Especially, with someone who they feel should be kissing their asses. Listen, they've got the advantage in this situation.
But people also want what they can't have easily.
Like I've said before, I want to be somewhere where I can develop my work on my terms independently with huge resources. Right now, the shape that seems to be taking form, is one of a college campus that's interested in new work and wants to develop it. Then I'll be ready to take my work to festivals and other places. But I want to rehearse and workshop and fall in love with the process of working again. That's where my passion is.
And I love TV writers. I have friends that are very successful and very good at it. And they want it. They want it BAD.
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