by M.K. Lords

Getting into the groove with your writing is never as simple as waiting for inspiration to strike. It’s about doing the legwork: immersing yourself in the world of your story, rigorously exploring the minds of your characters and digging deep into the themes that move you. Only then can you tap into your creative mojo, on and off the job.  Nobody knows this better than TV Writer Speed Weed. Speed’s an industry veteran with 15 years of experience.

Speed’s sold pilots to HBO as well as AMC and worked as a staff writer, Co-EP and producer on top shows like Law & Order: SVU, Arrow and Haven. He’s also served as a Co-EP on 100 episodes of television.

If TV Drama Writing’s your jam, check out Speed’s upcoming TV Drama I Class starting on November 11 on LA’s East Side.

Speed took time out of his busy schedule to talk with us about his journey from playwright to TV scribe, hard-fought wisdom on surviving in the ever-evolving landscape of Tinseltown and what not to do on your first day of work as a TV Writer.

1. Tell us about your journey as a writer…

I spent all my time in high school and college on the stage or directing. I was a theater kid through and through. When my parents said they wouldn’t support me if I tried acting professionally, I went into other lines of work after college, but I couldn’t get the theater out of me so I started writing plays. Right before going to Yale Drama for playwriting, I found television, which is playwriting for our day.

2. You’ve worked on Law & Order: SVU which is one of the longest running procedurals in the history of television. What’s your secret for coming up with believable clues that drive your story forward and deliver a satisfying ending?

Actually the challenge there was coming up with new methods and motives for crime that the L&O franchise hadn’t done before. And given that they’d done everything, that was a challenge. I think I got the job because I pitched a mushroom poisoning over the political issue of water privatization. They’d never heard that before. Benson and Stabler were grounded as characters, so if they believed it, the audience believed it. I think that season we had one episode involving both twin-cest and fatal familial insomnia — both ridiculously rare things — but our characters cared so it worked.

3. You’ve also recently written on Arrow, a show that was adapted from a DC comic. What are some of the challenges in translating a comic book to television?

Arrow redefined comic book storytelling for the screen. The way the creators combined genre superhero storytelling with more relatable everyday character storytelling was novel — and very cool. At first, I found it very hard to do – characters fight bad guys and then have emotional scenes about how they feel. Then I realized it’s structurally very similar to opera. Action-aria. Not sure my co-writers appreciated the comparison.

4. You’ve also worked on Sci-Fi’s Haven. What was it like to jump on an original show (not based on existing IP) created by a team of relatively new writers?

Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn are wildly original storytellers and Haven was a dream job. To be fair to Stephen King, Haven was loosely based on one of his short-stories, but Sam and Jim built a whole world, taking very little from the IP. That’s the best-run show I’ve ever worked on.

5. Are there any constant lessons that apply to each writer’s room you’ve worked in that you could share?

Don’t be an asshole. Television is a cooperative sport. Originality is hard, so you need everyone feeling safe, supported and eager to participate. If you think you know better than everyone else, go write features.

6. You’ve also sold pilots to multiple networks. How do you come up with story ideas?

Ideas for TV shows come to me all the time. I don’t have to work at that at all. I have so many lists of potential ideas I don’t know where they all are. It doesn’t mean they’re good. It’s just, there’s a lot and they’re constantly coming. The work comes in testing them against the fundamentals of story. Can you make them work? Will they sustain? And the key to this (story 101 here) is character. All good story springs from character, so, once I sit down to work an idea, I spend a lot of time building characters.

7. And then, once you have those ideas, how can you make sure they hook executives?

I’m still figuring this out. There’s definitely a higher art to it. But I’ve seen people chase the “what do they want?” canard and it gets them in trouble. For now, I stick to what hooks me. If it goes to series, I gotta write in and defend it, so if I’ve lost my love for it, I’m fucked.

8. What’s the #1 rookie writer mistake a new writer can make?

Not knowing they’re a rookie. It’s okay to be a rookie. We were all rookies. I had a bitch of a time on my first show until a friend gave me a photo of a little boy standing next to his bike with training wheels. I posted that picture on my computer. I was a rookie, and I could smile as proudly as that little boy with my new bike.

9. What’s your advice to aspiring TV writers for breaking into the biz who want to have a long healthy career (great projects, less downtime)?

Believe in your voice. Write what you like/are good at (usually the same thing). And write a LOT.

10. What can students expect to learn in your class?

Fundamentals of character, structure and story for TV. These are not as obvious as you might think, especially if you come from other closed-end modes of storytelling (fiction, features) but they can be taught quickly and effectively. You need these to write a good pilot — and you’ll need them every day for the rest of your career.

Thanks so much Speed! Dive deep into character and TV storytelling structure with Speed’s master class TV Drama I Class starting on November 11 LA’s Eastside.

By Jeff Bernstein

As a TV Writer, how do you get staffed on an A-List ground-breaking streaming show out of the gate? It’s the million-dollar question every aspiring scribe is asking. TV writer Stephanie Kornick has the answer. Her first writing gig was a staff position on season four of Amazon’s award-winning series Transparent. Currently she’s writing a biopic about Andy Warhol’s Trans Superstar Candy Darling and adapting the novel Radiant Shimmering Light.

If you’re developing a series of your own or want to dip your toe into television writing, Stephanie’s teaching a live online TV 1 Class starting this Saturday, February 16!

We caught up with Stephanie by phone to discuss her work, creative process and experience working with one of Hollywood’s most celebrated and innovative showrunners.

1. How did you get your start in TV?

I was a summer intern in the Original Programming Department at Showtime as part of my graduate program. This led to a Writers’ PA position the following year on the TV show United States of Tara, which eventually led to more assistant jobs on more TV shows.

2. You studied playwriting in graduate school and wrote/produced the play “Small Talk.” Can you tell us a little bit about the play, the most important lessons you learned from that experience and how did it affected your TV Writing?

My background is in theatre so it’s always been my comfort zone. Working on Small Talk was an opportunity to see my work come to life – something that can take a while when you’re trying to break into TV or film. Theatre is more process oriented than TV or film, so it allows for space to rehearse and workshop the material with actors before it’s performed in front of an audience. Even then it’s still a living, breathing piece of work that is always evolving. I try to approach my TV writing like this by reading the dialogue out loud and letting the material talk to me.

3. What are your biggest influences (TV, plays, musicals, books, etc.) and why?

My favorite TV show is The Comeback. I love the discomfort and honesty in the tone. I also love the movie Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind because of the unique perspective and it always makes me cry. I love Charlie Kaufman. I love the musical movie Moulin Rouge because it makes my heart sing. And I love Waiting for Guffman and all things Christopher Guest. One of my favorite plays is The House of Yes. I really love a good dark comedy or a musical.

4. What’s your approach to writing a script and how do you keep those skills sharp?

It really depends on the script. I try to listen and stay open. Sometimes I do a lot of research. I am always working on multiple projects at once at various stages. I try to take lots of breaks and avoid too many social commitments. I also try to not overdo being on social media. I’m not a huge social media person in general . . . I’m just on The Facebook. But still, it can feel very distracting when you are creating.

5. What’s a common rookie writer mistake and how can it be avoided?

I think a common mistake writers make when they’re just starting out is to assume that their first couple drafts are their final drafts and that they are “done.” It’s an ongoing and ever evolving process. Don’t get too attached to your ideas, especially if you want to work in a writers’ room.

6. What’s the best advice you received early on in your career? 

Be patient. It takes time. And make friends with the assistants. These will be your people.

7. What’s something you wish someone had told you when you first started in TV?

Be in the world of Hollywood, but not of it. Enjoy the validations, the perks and all the fun sparkly things, but don’t get too attached to any of it because it all comes in waves. And you can always write yourself out of anything. That’s the beauty of being a writer. When things don’t go the way you think, trust that a lesson will present itself. Don’t take shit personally. Just enjoy it.

8. Your first staff writing gig was on Transparent. What was it like to work with Jill Soloway and what did you take away from that experience?

Jill approaches scenes and story from a place of feeling. They use language that relates to me in terms of theater: beat changes, playable actions, etc. That approach and focus was something I experienced in theater, but less in television.

In other shows I’ve worked on, it never felt like there was time to find the true motivation for the scene on set. It was often about the director trying to get his shot. But Jill made time for the scene to breathe. They create space to discuss the emotional context of the scene. What are the characters doing to get what they want? I had never seen that brought to the writers’ room before that.

9. You came up as an assistant and trained the assistants on Transparent. What are the most important skills to develop to get a first assistant gig and continue to move up the food chain to staff writer?

A lot of being an assistant is being a nanny for adults: putting the writers’ needs before your own. I was a good nanny and also a pretty organized person, so this helped me as an assistant. As an assistant, your role is to support the writing staff. It’s not about you and what you want and why you’re such a fabulous writer. It can be humbling.

But as a writer, I think you need a little bit of ego to make that leap from assistant. Hopefully not too much ego, but it helps to be confident in your voice as a writer and know what you add to room. But there is no one path or right way to get where you want to be. It has to feel right for you.

10. What are you reading/watching these days and why?

I’m reading the book Radiant Shimmering Light by Sarah Selecky because I’m a huge fan of Sarah’s (and I happen to be adapting it to a series).  I’m watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, BoJack Horseman, Kidding, Ancient Aliens on the History Channel, all of The Real Housewives, True Detective, The OA (I love everything Brit Marling does.). There’s so much great content out now. It’s hard to keep up.

11. You’re writing a Candy Darling biopic. How did this project come about?

The producers had Candy’s life rights and were looking for a writer. One of the producers, Katrina, had worked with my husband on a movie. He’s a producer and Katrina knew I was working on Transparent. She read a play I wrote and said, “You should come in and meet everybody on Candy Darling.”

They sent me a documentary. I loved it and came up with a loose take on the material. They wanted someone who was collaborative and open to suggestions. It was fun. I had a strong take and a clear vision, but I read the room. I wasn’t too locked into my version of the script. There’s no point of us having a marriage if it’s not right. It has to feel right.

12. You’re currently adapting the novel “Radiant Shimmering Life” to series. Tell us about this project.

We’re pitching it as a multi-season, one hour show. Initially, my agent read the book and said, “This is so you.” She was right. The next step was to give it my take as a TV show by figuring out what the logline, tone & pilot would be, as well as clarify where it’s going and answer the “why now?”.  It’s basically a regular pilot pitch. The book had just one character in first person so I created lives for the secondary characters and expanded on what the author had set up.

Thanks so much Stephanie! If you’d like to learn more about Stephanie’s creative process and get her help writing your pilot, you should check out her live online TV 1 Class starting this Saturday, February 16!

by Aaron Fentress

Welcome to the golden age of branding. An ever changing crop of social media outlets are available to every aspiring influencer with an internet connection to taut their wares.

In this rapidly changing landscape, one thing is sure: Copy is king. Whether you’re a blogger, entrepreneur, internet personality, bestselling author or celebrity chef, to harness the power of instagram or twitter you need writing chops.

Enter Heather Sundell, blogger, freelancer, copywriter, storyteller, creative writer, marketer, social media-lite and Head of Content at JoyMode. We caught up with Heather and she gave us the dirt on what it takes to be a successful purveyor of words that sell.

Heather’s teaching Blog 1 and Copywriting for us this fall!

1. You wear a lot of different hats as a writer, but where did you get your start? How did your blog help your career as a freelance writer?

When I decided to be an English major at USC, there were two tracks: Literature and Creative Writing. In college, I studied and wrote fiction, in addition to updating a Livejournal one of my writing teachers made us keep during a semester. I HATED blogging. I thought I was terrible at it, which made me not want to do it all.

After a couple of years away from it, and with the rise of bloggers, I immediately took to Tumblr because it wasn’t an echo chamber like other blogging platforms with which I had experimented. Tumblr is a social platform, you have people talking back. I’m a Gemini; I like social! I’ve always been an early and avid adopter of social media, so Tumblr felt like the perfect fit: writing and connecting with people. I started a personal blog under my digital alter ego, MissHezah, but quickly switched gears to start Terrible Twenties shortly after turning 25 years old. In the midst of a quarter-life crisis, After a while, it evolved into my platform to tell my story of coming into adulthood.

My blog helped with my career as a freelance writer in a few different ways. I think most obviously, practice makes perfect. Having a platform to write often was invaluable in not being afraid to create, and learn how to do it efficiently. As I mentioned, Tumblr and Facebook became critical in getting feedback for what I was writing, which helped me refine my topics and how I tackled them in real-time. I started to not only write what I wanted but what other people were interested in reading, which helped me send compelling pitches. Lastly, I think blogging helped me freelance because it created a community of other writers for me to tap into for support. Whether it was peer editing, or sharing contacts, having other successful blogger friends has been a giant advantage in breaking into a freelance career.

2. Where do you get the inspiration for your blogging?

I find inspiration mostly in my own life or observation of cultural moments and trends by reading articles. It’s also imperative to read other people’s blogs for inspiration on topics, formats, and promotion.

3. What skill-sets should aspiring bloggers master first? What do you think the elements of a great blog are?

A great blog has a VERY clear point of view. To achieve that, an aspiring blogger needs to identify an authentic perspective to own. That will help distinguish yourself as a unique voice, as well as provide a dependable lens through which all ideas can be filtered. Also, self-editing is super tedious and supercritical. By the time you’re done with a blog, you just want to get it out in the world, but it makes a huge difference to take the time to edit.

4. You do a great deal of live storytelling. How does storytelling affect and inform your copywriting and blogging?

I consider my storytelling training and practice as a form of cross-training for everything else. I learned early on that just because something sounds good written, it doesn’t have the same impact spoken, and vice versa. Storytelling is writing to be spoken and performed, so it needs to be written way more conversationally and casually than you would any other type of writing. Storytelling is also the art of telling personal stories, which can help bring a new level of insight and vulnerability to your blog, or angle to a copywriting project.

5. How is copywriting different from other types of writing? Is it? Should it be?

Copywriting is very different, most notably in the length. Truly great copywriting can say a lot in just a few words. A lot of copywriting in today’s advertising and marketing world lives on social media so it needs to capture attention and evoke an emotional response in a digestible length. It’s also different in that you need to effortlessly be able to weave a brand message into compelling creative writing, whereas most other types of writing don’t have any ulterior motives.

6. You’re the head of content for Joymode. What does that entail and how did you get that job?

At a startup company, titles don’t mean much; everyone does everything! For the most part, I head up all of our branding and creative content. I am helping to establish our brand’s story and come up with creative ways to tell it to our audience. My job ranges from content strategy to running our social channels and writing every line of copy that goes out. It’s super creative, and I use my writing skills in many different ways from writing presentations, to email marketing, and emotionally resonant creative campaigns. I was tapped to take the role because the founder and I had been following each other on social media for a couple years after I tried the service when it first began. I think the role is really a culmination of all the different positions I’ve held: communications, SEO, social media, copywriting, content marketing, and blogging.

7. What was your biggest struggle early on in your career?

The Recession! I graduated college in 2007, got two jobs in SEO and social media and then got let go into the worst economy. I might as well have had NO jobs. It took me a year and a half to find my way back onto a career path. In between, I moved from LA to Denver, then back to LA. I worked as a server at a tea house, the assistant manager of a hot dog stand, interned for free, and was an executive assistant at a branding agency. I’ll never take any job, big or small, for granted ever again.

8. What’s something you wish you had known when you were starting out writing?

It’s really important to surround yourself with other writers, particularly successful ones. I didn’t have any for a very long time, and it’s an isolating feeling. It wasn’t intentional; all of my good friends were focused on more professional endeavors. But still, there’s an inclination is to keep other writers at a distance because they’re the competition, or because their success makes you jealous. You must get over feeling miserable about other people’s success or being defensive about other writers, especially those who write in similar formats and topics. It’s easy to see someone’s good fortune on social media and feel angry at how easy it seems for that writer, but you don’t know the whole story of how difficult it was to get there. Writing isn’t just writing, it’s networking. You want the most successful people to be your best friends so that you can be successful too!

I think it’s also super important to call yourself a writer. I was hesitant to use that title for a long time because I didn’t consider myself a *real* writer. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Put it in your social bios and start telling people it’s what you do, and the opportunities will come!

9. What is your advice to aspiring copywriters? What do they need to demonstrate in their portfolio to get work?

Make sure you HAVE a portfolio. If you are not allowed to advertise certain brand work on your website, create a PDF portfolio you can send with your resume. Your portfolio should be diverse in industry verticals and in type (i.e. email newsletters, social media, blogs, web copy, video, etc). Most copy is digital, so try to showcase it in context. If it’s Facebook copy, show the entire post with the creative. Providing a short case study with each piece of creative is helpful for hiring managers to not only see your writing skills but also your ability to creatively problem solve for a client. The best copywriters are able to communicate a brand message both creatively and strategically.

10. What can students expect to learn in your classes?

My professional background in communications, marketing, content, and social media, combined with my freelance creative writing, storytelling and blogging experience allow me to teach a unique set of best practices that borrow rules and skills from multiple writing artforms. I let all writing inform my approach, which offers a multi-dimensional, on-trend, and actionable set of skills to any aspiring blogger. In my class, you will not only learn how to create the content, but how to ensure that it’s read and shared with a growing audience and following.

11. You’ve written for some big publications and done copywriting and content creation for some huge clients. Do you have any insights for our readers on how to create stories that are worthy of publication? How do you write the kind of copy that makes you stand apart as a copywriter?

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, jump on one that’s already on the move. You can create stories that are worthy of publication by reading stories that were published and taking note of why you liked it. Read the comments section. What resonates with people? What is a divisive topic that will generate conversation? Learn from other successful writers!

Same goes for copywriting. Pay attention to the ads in your social feed, commercials, billboards, and email marketing. What makes you stop and click? Keep a folder of copy you like as inspo.

Get your dreams off the ground with Heather this fall in her Blog 1 and/ or her Copywriting.

By: Aaron Fentress

Great characters are easy to talk about, but difficult to define. But that’s where Bronwyn Garrity comes in. She’s got an eye for characters and what makes them tick. And she’s had quite the career. We spoke with Bronwyn about her journey and got her thoughts on great scripts, great characters, and great writers.

Bronwyn’s teaching a TV Drama 1 for Writing Pad starting Oct. 7th.

1. Tell us about your background as a writer and how you made the transition from journalist and ghostwriter to television?

I think I always wanted to be a writer. At the very least, I wanted to work with writers. At first, I thought I might go into book publishing or magazines, and did work as an editor early on even as I wrote movie and music reviews on the side for Teen Vogue. My big break as a writer was with an essay I wrote about privacy in the digital age that was published in an anthology of essays and in “The Nation” magazine. After that, doors started to open, and I wrote for the LA Times, the NY Times, and Vogue, among others.

When a ghostwriter friend of mine realized he had taken on too much and asked if I’d write one of the books he had a contract for, I jumped at the chance, writing The Art of the Teese for Dita Von Teese in three months. The book captured the attention of the publisher who began reaching out to me for other projects. The work was fast and intense, but I loved immersing myself in worlds I would otherwise have no access to. Talk about material!

Around this time, I had an idea for a feature, and reached out to a friend I knew in the business. Together we sold the pitch and I was sure my career as a Hollywood mogul was made. Over the next five years we spent developing this feature and others, I realized how wrong I was and how endlessly these projects can drag on. It was crazy-making. Meanwhile, television was becoming a much more creative medium for women and I decided to try to break in. I wrote a pilot that incorporated some of the research I’d stumbled across in a ghostwriting project, and gave it to a few friends. One of them shared it with his agent at UTA who shared it with Shonda Rhimes. That’s how I got my first job in TV.

2. You have an impressive range of genres on your resume. What’s your approach to working on such a diverse array of genre’s and styles?

I think good characters are the same in any genre. Whether they are traveling through time or working at Newsweek in 1970, the best characters resemble you and me. Their hopes, dreams, fears all spring from the same places.

3. How do you refill your creative tank?

Reading books, traveling, hanging out with friends.

4. What piece of advice would you give to someone who has just gotten their first job in a room? Things to do, things to stay away from?

Go home and study the scripts. I made the mistake of believing I was hired because people wanted me to write the way I write when what I had been hired to do was to write in the voice of the showrunner. Why this was so hard for me to learn I don’t know. As far as being in the room, listen more than you pitch as a staff writer. TV is very hierarchical and many rooms don’t appreciate being dominated by “baby writers.” On the other hand, if you don’t pitch at all, you’ll be in trouble too. Read the room notes every night, even if no one else does, and come up with pitches before the start of the room every day. Then, if and when the conversation moves in the direction of one of your prepared pitches, toss it out into the room as if you’ve just come up with it on the spot. You’ll be viewed as “good in the room” and word will get around.

5. What was your biggest struggle early on in your career?

Figuring out how to pitch and disagree with powerful (often male) personalities without offending them. Given the hierarchical nature of television, this is tricky, especially for a woman. It was a muscle I had to develop in a high stress environment and I can’t say I did it well at first. Find a woman who does it well — who is strong but open and whom everyone likes — and then pitch and argue the way she does.

6. What are the top scripts that all aspiring TV writers should read?

I can only advise aspiring drama writers, but I love The Wire, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Weeds.

7. What was it like to write on “Good Girls Revolt”? What about “Grey’s Anatomy?”

Good Girls Revolt was a revelation. For the first time in my career I walked onto a set that was almost entirely female. It actually gave me chills. I loved the characters we wrote, and the showrunners Dana Calvo and Darlene Hunt who guided us and who always fought for what we believed was right in the scripts. It was a shock when the show was cancelled.

Grey’s Anatomy was my first job, and as a high-profile show with a huge writing staff and a roomful of big personalities, it was a hugely challenging experience for me. I’d never been in a writer’s room. I’d never been on set. I’d never worked with actors or directors. I was a deer in the headlights, and I made a thousand mistakes and embarrassed myself every day. But I learned so much and I’m grateful for the experience.

8. What are you watching these days and why do you think this show stands out?

There’s so much good television out there, my frustration is in not being able to watch it all. Some of my recent favorites are The Crown, Bloodline, Fargo, Fauda. I guess they stand out for me because the people feel real (with the exception of Fargo which I love for it’s off-kilter style).

9. What can students expect to learn in your class?

I think my strength as a writer is with character. Hook, plot and structure are all important in pilots, so we’ll do that, but without strong characters no agent is going to remember your pilot when they get back from lunch.

Don’t let your characters die on the vine. Work on them with Bronwyn in her TV Drama 1 starting Oct 7th.

By Jeff Bernstein

Getting a break in TV is tough and the statistics behind seemingly a direct career path that starts with a studio fellowship are daunting (.16% get into the ABC Fellowship).

TV Writer, Miguel Ian Raya has walked that path with persistence and an iron will, leaving behind a lucrative career as an attorney only to climb the development from the ground up, first as a PA, then as an assistant for Michel Gondry and eventually as an ABC Fellow leading to his first gig.

He’s worked on top shows such as ABC’s Once Upon A Time and Freeform’s Stuck In The Middle. As Fellowship Season approaches, we spoke with Miguel to get his take on the selection process.

Miguel’s teaching a TV Spec Class for Writing Pad starting on 10/7 in LA.

1. How did you get your start writing for Television?

It’s a long and circuitous route really. I actually started out with aspirations of becoming an lawyer and went to law school and received my law degree. I soon realized, however, that I wanted to have a greater hand in the creative side of the business so I ultimately went back to school again, receiving my MFA at Columbia University. At Columbia I wrote plays, musicals (including a couple that were produced), TV pilots and screenplays. After that, I spent a few years as an assistant, working for producers (Brian Grazer), directors (Michel Gondry) and in development (Original Film). During this time, I learned as much as I could generally about the business, but also specifically about writing. I also learned as much as I could about television and the business of TV – and ultimately use that knowledge and education in an actual position within the TV industry when Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz hired me to be their assistant on “Once Upon A Time.”

2. What was your time as a fellow for ABC/Disney like?

To this day, I still consider myself so lucky to have been chosen. Tim McNeil runs one of the top programs in the industry. He does that by having a highly scheduled, but also balanced workday for each of the fellows. ABC is a full-time program. And it’s one of the few programs to bring in guest speakers each day, set up one-on-one creative and executive mentors, foster new work from their writers during the program, and specifically work to get EVERY program writer staffed (and they also pay their fellows). Due to the program, I ultimately ended up getting hired for my first staff writing position on Freeform’s “Famous In Love” where I wrote an episode for the first season.

3. What’s your number one piece of advice for the fellowship application?

Don’t just know what you like or what you want to write, but know yourself. Specifically, know what makes you special and what sets you apart as a writer. Sometimes that specialness is easier for one person to identify than another, but it is important to remember that everybody has something. The trick is figuring out what it is, isolating it and making it shine.

4. How did you choose what show to spec for ABC and how did you approach it?

I chose “Grey’s Anatomy”. At the time, Greys was in its 11th (!) season and they were going through another creative renaissance and the show was (and is still) so strong. So there were so many rich places I could take my spec story from where it was already going thanks to their narrative. But I also knew that choosing a veteran show could show the judges that I could tell a compelling story for characters that have been on TV for over a decade (something still very important to network television and the executives that make these decisions).

In addition, my other sample, my original pilot, for the program was a heavily serialized fantasy show. It was a huge conceptual swing – and something very personal to me. So, I wanted to hopefully show the program judges that I had some versatility. And they would hopefully see I could do multiple things and work in multiple genres as a TV writer and not be pigeonholed, an important skill for success in the ABC program and for TV writers generally.

5. What’s been the biggest struggle in your career?

I think this is an evolving question for everybody. I sometimes think the business is a little like a video game in that each new promotion is like leveling up. When I was a PA, I wanted to be an assistant so badly. But when I got the chance, there were so many more issues and challenges and things I needed to learn – and learn quickly. Once I felt comfortable in that role, I just wanted someone to recognize me as a writer. And now that that has happened, it has also come with a new set of challenges.

6.In addition to an MFA, you have a law degree. How have these skills informed your work and career as a TV Writer?

When you are becoming a lawyer and studying the law daily, you have to develop analytical and critical thinking skills. It’s a sink or swim thing. But once you have these skills, they will always help – even outside of legal situations. In fact, I think they can also be applied specifically to every day situations that writers find themselves in during the course of business, whether negotiating a contract or something else, like pitching a story in a room. You always have to bring your “A-game” in what can sometimes be an intense situation, and law school gives you plenty of practice.

7. What piece of advice would you give to someone who has just gotten their first job in a room?

I’ve been a part of three as a write and a few as an assistant, and the one thing I can definitively say is that each one is different. First off, take a beat and observe the room. If this is your first job, no one is expecting you to lead, so you have that flexibility. Take the temperature and figure out what this room likes and doesn’t, both in terms of story, but also on a personal level. And once you’ve figured that out, know your place as a writer. Know what the room and the showrunner expect of you as a writer and deliver on that. I had an EP once tell me that as a young writer, on most shows, you are not expected to throw the touchdown pass, but you do have to make a block here and maybe catch a pass for 5 yards there – just move the ball down the field little by little, easy does it.

8. What is the most valuable piece of advice that a writing mentor has given you?

A mentor once told me that every TV writer has rough patches in their career, but the great thing about TV is you can always write yourself out of that slump – with new original material.

9. You’ve worked for some high-profile directors like Michel Gondry & Brian Grazer. What what did you take away from them?

Michel and Brian are very different people but they are both incredibly creative and incredibly successful at being creative. I think in a marcro-sense, each showed me that there is more than one way to craft and nurture a great story. And they are both exceptional storytellers.

10. What was it like to write on “Once Upon a Time”?

To be able to take these iconic Disney characters and contribute to their legends and their stories is really a once in a lifetime opportunity. But “Once Upon A Time” is such a standard-bearer not only in terms of the stories they have told over the years, but also in the way their room is run. Eddy, Adam and the rest of the staff are always about telling the best story and have refined the process over the years in ways that really extract that each break. And they were able to do that while providing a great environment for everyone on their staff.

11. What can students expect to learn in your class?

We are going to break a great spec for each of them. And we are going to do that by identifying who each student is and what kind of stories they want to tell because of who they are. But I hope the students who sign up for my class also know that having me as an instructor means getting someone who has experience at many levels, who has been a part of multiple writers rooms in both drama and comedy, and can offer insight and examples from a career in the industry that they might not find in other places or with other instructors.

12. As a writer who has crafted a spec that was good enough to get you into a great fellowship and has been on staff on several shows, what should aspiring fellowship applicants and staff writers keep in mind as they try to put together a great episode of television?

Well I don’t want to give all my secrets away before class! But I will say that if they are early in the process (as we will be in the class) and writing an original, to really to not necessarily know every beat of the story but to know why they want to tell the story, who their characters are, and what they want out of the story for their characters – both in the pilot and in the series. The latter will really help titrate how much you want to reveal for each character during the course of the pilot and how you want to reveal it.

If they are writing a spec episode, I think its so important to know the series you are writing backwards and forwards so that you can truly justify your spec as something that hasn’t been done before, but is also completely in line with the tone of the show – which can sometimes be a difficult bar to clear.

But also, don’t be afraid to take chances and be vulnerable. Competence won’t be enough for a lot of these programs. You are going up agains hundreds and thousands of applicants. You might write a really solid script, and believe me, we’ve all written them, but unfortunately that might not be enough.

13. You’ve written on both comedy and drama shows. What are the special challenges of each type?

A writing instructor at Columbia once told me there’s comedy in drama and drama in comedy. It sounds cliche but it’s also true. I think it’s just about knowing the person you are, and how much you want to tap into each – and then being able to rearrange yourself and your own mind for the kind of story you want to tell.

I will also say that while comedy shows can seem so light and fun upon a watch, the process of writing them can sometimes be incredibly daunting. You are telling jokes but more importantly you are telling a story and the two do not always go hand in hand. And if it’s a sitcom, specifically, both need to be top notch. But it’s also incredibly rewarding to see these stories really “play” when on set or in the finished product.

If you’re applying for the fellowships and are looking for that edge, check out TV Spec Class for Writing Pad starting on Sunday October 7th in LA.

By Jeff Bernstein

Comedy is tough and writing it is brutal. Just ask scribe Joshua Corey. He’s written on shows like ABC’s Speechless and Alex, Inc., sold a pilot to Sony, and won the 2013 Humanitas Prize for New Voices. We caught up with Joshua to discuss his creative process, hard fought lessons and what makes a great pilot. He’s teaching a TV Comedy Pilot Class starting Sunday 9/23 in LA.

1. How did you get your start in TV?

I began as a writers’ PA (the kid who gets the lunch) for Men of A Certain Age. They hired me because the creator and I went to the same college and probably because they felt bad for me (I pathetically wore a suit to the interview). Just by chance, I grew up on a car lot, and the show dealt with that world, so I was able to contribute stories right away. I made friends with the writing staff and they kindly recommended me for other assistant jobs. I worked my way up the assistant ladder from there, and five years later, I got staffed with my partner on a Disney show.

2. How do you and your writing partner work together?

We’ve been together for six or seven years. When you’re partners, you literally split one writer’s salary. That’s the major, major con. The pros are: you have a buddy with which to endure the brutal parts of the business; you have someone to bounce ideas and jokes off of – getting instant feedback on your jokes makes the writing process fun; you are twice as hirable, since you’re basically giving the studio a “two for one” deal.

My partner and I happen to have exactly the same sensibility, but slightly different work processes. I much prefer that to the other way around. Don’t work with a partner whose taste is way, way different than yours. And, if you’re mind-blowingly brilliant all by yourself, don’t work with a partner – did I mention it’s HALF the money? To end on a “pro” – speaking from my experience watching this process, not living it – when you get to the level of running a show, partners split the many, many duties outside the writers’ room, which is huge.

3. What’s your approach to writing a script and how do you keep those skills sharp?

We don’t write pilots before we’ve outlined them in great detail. Once there’s an outline, we split up scenes and take a crack at them individually, stopping constantly to eat muffins. Then we switch and I rewrite my partner as he rewrites me. We usually punch up jokes together and that is a long but fun process. Once we have a draft we like, we table read it, out loud, with friends who are also actors and some friends who are definitely not actors. Then we rewrite it again. And again. We keep sharp by constantly writing.

4. What’s something you wish someone had told you when you started in the biz?

You’re not writing your first pilot (or your first few) to actually sell it; you’re trying to showcase your ability and your voice to get your foot in the door so that you can then write something that will sell.

5. What’s the #1 rookie writer mistake?

Probably being so hard on yourself that you never finish something, or even get started; you can’t learn to write without writing. New writers often spend too much time and energy (sometimes years) on a single project before anyone else even sees it. You have to write something as best you can, get feedback, revise, then move on to something new. The runner-up would be showing your script to a professional when it’s not formatted correctly and/or contains typos.

6. Is there an aspect of writing that you still struggle with?

Many aspects. And I’m sure there are things I haven’t yet discovered I suck at. Right now, I’m trying to get better at being clear with my writing without hitting the audience over the head. In network TV, you often have to spoon-feed the audience the “lesson” of the episode, or spell out the plot twists. I’ve gotten good at that, but I’d like my own writing to be more subtle, which requires unlearning some of those habits. In short, I’m trying to learn to give the audience more credit, and trust that my viewer is smart.

7. What is the most valuable piece of advice that a writing mentor has given you?

Advice for first drafts: “Don’t get it right, get it written.” I think a prose writing professor gave me that advice in college, and I still regularly repeat it to myself.

8. What can students expect to learn in your class?

How to come up with a solid story for your pilot that can be broken down into simple, one-line beats, and how to use your pilot to showcase your own voice and worldview.

9. You produce a podcast as well, Just Kicking It with Josh & Kratz? How does this project inform your TV work?

The podcast is just for fun. When you work in a writers’ room, your job is to pitch ideas the showrunner will like. On our podcast, we do whatever we think is funny and no one questions it; no one gives us notes and there’s no network or boss to please. If you like stupid jokes and genre bending weirdness, Just Kicking It may be for you. But, really, I must warn you, it’s very stupid.

10. What do you think are the elements of a great comedy pilot?

A great comedy pilot features a world/perspective/character that we haven’t seen on TV before, tells a complete story, has comedy inherent in the concept, and has hysterical jokes told by actors who are funny.

If you have dreams of seeing your own show on HBO, check out Josh’s TV Comedy 1 Class starting Sunday 9/23 in LA.