How to Be a Freelance Television Writer
How do you break into the TV biz without any experience, and how do you get experience if you can't break into TV? It's a conundrum that has long vexed aspiring freelance writers. Fortunately, there are a number of creative ways to address this sticky Catch-22 by slowly but surely getting your name (and your ideas) known in the right circles.
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Things You'll Need
- Excellent writing skills
- Familiarity with screenplay/teleplay formatting
- Computer
- Internet connection
- Printer
- Paper
- Screenwriting software
- Subscriptions to industry trade magazines
Instructions
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Understand the craft of TV writing and how it differs from writing feature-length movies for theaters. To achieve this, you need to watch a lot of television, analyze its structure, and familiarize yourself with elements such as genre, point of view, plot points and A&B storylines. Book publishers, such as Michael Wiese Productions, are good starting points for building your library of screenwriting guides.
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Decide what kind of TV show you most want to write for. Whether your interests gravitate to sitcoms, documentaries, crime dramas, soap operas or after-school specials, you need to familiarize yourself with the content, structure, pacing and budget to the point of being an expert. If you want to write for a series, for instance, you'll need to know the characters' personalities as well as you know your own family so that you can predict with accuracy how they would react in any new situation.
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Start writing spec scripts for existing TV shows. A spec script is a writing sample that demonstrates to a prospective agent or producer that you understand the medium of TV, the rudiments of formatting, and the specifics of the show itself (Examples are core characters, locations, recurring themes and relationships, what brought the players to their current juncture.) A spec script can also be a completely original concept with your own characters.
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Position yourself where the TV opportunities are. That usually means a move to Los Angeles or New York. If you do become part of a regular writing team, your fellow team members and your boss are going to expect you to be on call for script meetings and readings. While the Internet has significantly broadened the opportunities for freelancers to get their work noticed, there are still aspects of the trade that require substantial face time. This is one of them.
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Get feedback on your spec scripts. This can be accomplished by submitting your spec scripts to writing contests and/or online experts such as HollywoodLitSales.com who provide industry notes regarding originality, character development, dialog, pacing, structure and overall marketability. One of the best and most reliable sources for contest information can be found at websites such as Movie Bytes.
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Research and write feature articles for industry trade magazines and online publications that specifically focus on TV topics. The secret of this strategy is to not only demonstrate that you are an expert in your field, but also to get your name into circulation. Actors, directors, producers, agents and other writers read these publications voraciously to stay abreast of what's going on in the entertainment industry.
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Attend writers' conferences and workshops. There's nothing more energizing than being around your peers and listening to what the industry pros have to say. If there are speakers you especially like, this provides you with an opportunity to follow up by letter a week or so later.
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Investigate writing opportunities in cable and at your local access station. If there is one thing that the various industry strikes in Hollywood tend to bring about, it's the revelation that audiences will always find alternative ways to entertain themselves if Prime Time television is suddenly nothing but reruns. Besides, whatever you can create and get produced on a local level is all part of the portfolio that shows you know what you're doing.
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Get an agent who can do the legwork of finding you freelance writing assignments while you're busy writing those spec scripts and magazine articles.
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Get a job at a TV studio. Even if you start out as a lowly assistant who runs errands, you're still going to be on the lot, on the set, and soaking up everything that is going on.
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Familiarize yourself with the extensive resources available through Writers Guild of America West. Another excellent source of networking opportunities (and opportunities to pitch your original concepts) is InkTip.
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Tips & Warnings
Do research on where particular productions are shot. If, for example, you discover that your favorite TV show is produced by a company that operates out of your own state, you won't have to move. You can either watch for production company names in the credits at the end of the show or go to the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), type in the title of the series, and all of the pertinent information will pop up.
Every state in the U.S. has its own film commission. Most of these were set up to facilitate the filming of TV shows and movies, and coordinate such things as location rentals, street closures and auditions for extras. Be sure to register with them so that you can stay in the loop on who's doing what and create networking opportunities for yourself.
Don't rule out international production companies as a potential market for your work.
If as part of your magazine writing, you branch into interviewing industry professionals and celebrities, there's no telling whose path you are going to cross.
Freelancers can also open doors for themselves by doing spec scripts for older TV shows that are now in syndication. Just make sure you pitch them to the production company that originated the series.
If you get an assignment to interview a prominent TV producer for a publication, do not take along copies of your script and turn the interview into your own personal pitch session. Focus all of your attention on him, write up a fabulous article, and follow up in a month or two with a separate query.
Never hog a speaker's time at a writers conference. You will only annoy them by doing this.
Never send out original scripts without first registering them with WGA or the U.S. Copyright Office.
Resources
- Photo Credit Photo by Jordan Dakota
