After a long day of note-taking and just trying to absorb all the story being broken, like trying to drink from a fire hose, it’s interesting to think about what was absorbed (lessons for the craft, not just story volume). It’s also interesting to think how my primary job as note-taker and story-absorber/compressor is different than being a writer. Does this hinder my writing skills? Or just give me a different skillset?
Does it matter what medium?
I find myself at an interesting place in my writing career where I’m working by day in my dream medium’s environment: a drama TV show’s writers’ room - learning endless amounts about how to craft great TV (though not actually writing it myself for the show). Whereas outside the show, I have an opportunity to continue working the feature space - while actively working on various commissioned podcast projects and video essays. Not to mention, I write once a day on the blog here (and attempt to write fiction when the inspiration strikes during an open window). It’s a pretty diverse field and sometimes I wonder if I’m doing myself a disservice somehow by spreading it out like that. Would I benefit more if I trimmed all the fat and focused entirely on one medium (TV)? Or does adapting to the constraints of one medium teach you transferable lessons for another? It’s hard to say. Reading into my own proclivities, in a different part of the brain, I like to read multiple books at the same time and usually they couldn’t be more different than one another. Right now I’m reading a contemporary collection of Japanese fairy tales, a period piece adventure story, and a collection of essays about climate change and war. I tend to just pick up whichever one strikes me that day. Perhaps giving myself the ability to pivot between mediums in the same sense will produce the best work — not that I can choose so willy nilly, there are deadlines and writing schedules, but perhaps the psychology is the same for me. Something I’ll continue to think about.
Show Learning Process
As the show moves along at a high speed, I’m just trying to retain some of the torrents of knowledge I’m experiencing day in and day out. One thing I’m noting here to remember later, especially because it was similar to my previous show experience, is the general process through which the room seems to be unraveling the story:
1) Talk through the entire show, the main character arcs and rules of the world – see what organically comes out of the discussion, find the blind spots wherever they may be - lots of unintended world-building comes out of this. (more or less, Day 1)
2) Go through main characters’ episode arcs, putting down a sort of one liner description of their change/experience per episode. We did this on a big grid.
3) Start brainstorming events for the episode next to be written (not necessarily knowing which event goes where within the episode - or if it may even be between 2 consecutive episodes).
4) Turn those events into big sticky notes – color coated by plot/character grouping – start to re-order them into actual outline shape on the big board.
5) Let it sit for a day, then run through it again to make sure it all makes sense, lines up, themes coalesce, suspense is kept at a maximum - and details are added, logic issues are fixed.
6) Move on and repeat for next episode
(and once the episode is done being beated out on the board collectively, it is assigned to outline stage for a writer to work on, outside of room hours. The outline basically turns the beat sheet into a 10-15 page prose treatment where all the details are figured out, there’s a real flow and vision for the episode, and maybe even some preliminary dialogue bits (or placeholders) are written in).
On Being a Writers' Assistant
I have to say this start to my writers’ assistant gig is very different than the last. For starters, I had more than a day’s notice before starting (almost not actually, but the room didn’t end up starting until a week after I got hired which is relatively luxurious). But in terms of the room, we really dove in head first into the story with three (almost four) already existing episodes and a series bible. I discussed in the earlier post how this show is entirely original, huge world-building, etc. while the last one was a well-documented true story that unfolded over a short period of time. Anyways, the room started basically by going through the entire season, figuring out each character arc per episode, before we just dove right into breaking episode 104. At this pace we’ll be sprinting through the story, with outlines coming alongside each newly broken episode as we keep moving forward. It’s neither better nor worse than the last show, which was much slower and methodical (but also with more ready-made story yet fewer writers). As a writers’ assistant, it’s hard to know how to be most helpful to the showrunner, the writers, and generally be in unique service to the creation of the show. The last show was incredibly research/fact-checking heavy, on top of the usual notes/outlines/character document creation. I wonder if this one will be more purely organizational, creating a Silmarillion of sorts for the show - (history, rules, geographic progression even) and tracking each character’s epic arcs (some of which might end up lasting decades and decades across the show). We’ll see. I just wanted to write it out here to let it resonate a bit more. Tomorrow I’ll post a document I’ve been working on which, to me from what I’ve seen so far, breaks down the essential process of how showrunners break a story with a room and move into writing the episodes.
My Die Hard - Video Essay
Welcome to the party, pal! Hope you enjoy :)
Reflections Early Into the Gig
It’s been a whirlwind start to the gig. We started the first day by getting three new drafts of Eps 101 - 103, I hadn’t ever read a version of 102 or 103 so there was a lot to catch up on. Speed reading and note taking until lunch, then we met in the room until evening. This show takes place in such a huge world, I love the rabbit-hole discussions that come out as a result - but at the same time its jarring, coming off a previous show that was not only based on a true story, it needed to be grounded in every detail from police procedures to timelines. That show was all about finding as much drama and surprise in between the cracks of a very well documented true story. This is the diametric opposite, it’s about restricting the big action and world-learning just enough to fit in a ton of original and surprising character arcs. I think my series documents for the show will end up being very different… To return to this thought-line shortly.
Psychological Explanation of Anti-Semitism
I came across this short but extremely concise and articulate theory behind exterminatory prejudice, written in the wake of the terrible Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. The article is written by social psychologist Amy Cuddy. She explains how certain high-status minority groups are seen in “cold” and “competent” terms. They’re looked upon negatively, even enviously, because of their success. This situation isn’t dire in times of societal stability or general success, but when things are chaotic, heated, or undergoing a depression - the “cold” and “competent” feelings turn dire and rageful - they’re seen as causing the issues and taking any chance of success away from others. The academics in Cambodia. Jews in post-WWI crushed Germany. Tutsi’s in Rwanda. The list goes on. What’s both odd and additionally horrible to me is that times in America aren’t brutally difficult. They are indeed more politically charged, more hate-filled, but the economy is on the rise for the most part. So the fact that this horrible attack came during a time of relative prosperity is really terrifying. Speech and social environments can be just as potent as economic downturns in regards to stoking violent hate, it seems.
Bushido
Secondary post-thought came to me, as I finished Bushido: Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe last night. It’s a fascinating read by a man with a fascinating historical perspective. He became an agricultural / economics student in Japan, and converted to Christianity, before leaving the country to pursue more in-depth studies in America. He eventually went on to have a distinguished academic career across the globe while eventually getting into diplomatic relations. He died in 1933, so had witnessed Japan’s foray into modern imperialism and conquest, and constant government reorganization, but did not witness the beginnings of WWII. At one point he took a leave from teaching at university (some say due to a panic attack) and during his “downtime” and recuperation he wrote a book, Bushido, that ended up becoming a huge hit. He wrote the whole thing in English and basically geared the experience towards white western eyes — every step of the way he finds either Christian or western-historical references and analogies to help “translate” the thinking of Japanese traditions to a contemporary western audience. Nitobe relies most heavily on European Medieval traditions of chivalry and knighthood to compare to Samurai and their code of Bushido. Overall, it’s a good brief overview of the various components and ideals behind Bushido — not at all how or where it came from, or the subtle traditions it created, or contradictions it carries. What’s interesting to me is that he seems to be aware that his western audience assumes they are superior (and thus their own traditions and ideals are superior) to the Japanese (this was a time of immense racism of course, even eugenics) - and so he uses their own hallowed stories and traditions to be turned on their head — to crystallize the beliefs of those stories and then illustrate how the Japanese believe in similar rhetoric, but tenfold more intensely. He also uses his discourse on Bushido to explain certain cultural traits of the Japanese that people, you can tell from his introductions, made fun of or were alienated by at the time. And through his explanations he almost subtly, implicitly concludes that if you did indeed think this trait or practice of the Japanese to be odd or stupid then you were just missing the hallowed meaning behind it. It’s almost as if Nitobe wrote this as a sort of catharsis, or perhaps he respected their racist nationalism and sought to meet them on their terms - it’s hard to say. But either way it’s an interesting historical read and gives a broad definition of Bushido (and an accurate, beautiful prediction as to the future of Bushido as well - at the end). The next read for me will be The Demon’s Sermon on Martial Arts which came out of the time period that truly invented and crystallized Bushido in Japan.
Follow Up
Okay first day on the job was a bit of a false start because it was really just me and the showrunner’s assistant opening up the office and getting the logistics’ train moving. The writers (and rest of the staff) will arrive on Monday when the room will open in earnest. I’ll report back then on everything, but in the meantime will be rushing to complete my latest freelance podcast commissions before things get truly busy… Will look forward to sharing those podcasts when they are complete and on air.
First Day on the New Job
For my future self’s sake, I wanted to record my thoughts here as I start the first day of my second writers’ assistant job. First, I should appreciate that all this happened in 2018 — it’s the year I made the jump into the writers’ room on UNBELIEVABLE in January. It’s the year I got married, in June, right as that room closed - and then went on honeymoon to Portugal. It’s the year I worked entirely full-time writing freelance for the first time (short form scripted for digital, video essays for GammaRay TV, podcasts, and some freelance development & coverage work for a TV company as well). It’s the year I co-wrote a horror feature with a close friend, and his agents + manager submitted it out for consideration (that’s all still pending). It’s the year I wrote my go-to pilot, BIG SKY COUNTY, which helped me decide to leave my previous representation and search for a new team. That pilot also helped get me meetings around town, through the use of the connections I made while I worked at Miramax. I participated in the NYC @ Midnight speed writing competition (and will continue to do so this year into the next), and also wrote a new short story that’s getting consideration at a few journals — the first rejection it received came coupled with some great words of encouragement. I’m also generally proud to have seen a ton of new movies and read many new books - and written about them here. It’s been a busy year and since my knee-jerk tendency (as is the case with many writers) is to downplay, self-deprecate, and anxiously nudge oneself to have gotten more done and try harder for the future - I wanted to give breath to the other side of the mind. I will try harder, of course, always trying harder — but I will also take stock and appreciate what’s been accomplished as well.