After years of struggling in Hollywood, trying to break in as a screenwriter, writing script after script, taking classes, and dealing with rejection, you finally get hired on the staff of a new television show and you finally made it, right? Here’s how you will get fired after 10 weeks when your option is up. And I see this happen all the time with young writers. Most young writers feel it’s their job to help make the best show they can, right? That sounds normal. Wrong. That’s not your job responsibility. Your job is to help the showrunner make the best version of the show that he or she wants to make. That means they decide the tone of the show, the characters that inhabit the universe of the show, the types of stories they want to tell, and how they tell it. It’s not your job, right? So your job is to get on their page and not to argue with them. I see so many well-meaning young staff writers thinking they’re helping when they’re actually just digging their own graves, right? So for more tips on how to make it into Hollywood and how to be a better screenwriter, follow me here, @MichaelJaminWriter.
