the graveyard of scripts that got me staffed

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I recently let it slip (publicly, on instagram) that I wrote 8 scripts before THE ONE that helped launch my career. That's 8, not including Specs, if memory serves. I honestly may be forgetting one. There's a trend going around on insta called "My museum of failures," and sure, I have plenty of those, but I don't consider my scripts failures, even if they never went anywhere.

Something my mom told me years ago, when I was in a particularly challenging internship, was "There may be bad experiences, but no useless ones. Because every experience teaches you something."

That's how I view my early work. Each script taught me something, about craft, my voice, my taste, what I want to write. It was all useful, even if it wasn't my best work, and even if it never sees the light of day. So, I thought I'd give you the lowdown on what each script taught me.

New Girl Spec I wrote in college: Showed me how fun it was to play in the worlds I already knew and loved, and made me want to switch my focus to screenwriting instead of development! This was my first exercise in writing something that wasn't my original idea -- I wasn't a fanfic girlie, really -- so, I had practice getting in the mind of the show to build a story. I broke so many spec rules (it was set in a ski lodge??), but I do think I did well with the character voices and storylines, which was a huge win for me.
Sitcom Pilot Co-Written with Classmates: Taught me about diplomacy in collaboration and how to find a good TV Premise! Ideas similar to our project have been developed by major studios multiple times. Which normally would be a bummer, but to us, it was a sign we were on the right track!
Newsroom Spec: Who doesn't want to cosplay as one of their favorite writers? I grew up on The West Wing and my Newsroom spec was an exercise in using a personal experience to fuel a story for the first time. It certainly wasn't perfect, but I got the gratification of being able to tell a story the way it felt like it should be told, within the container of an existing show, which was a rehearsal of what I could contribute to a staff, if given the chance. I caught the bug!!
1/2 of an F Scott Fitzgerald Adaptation Feature -- This was a class assignment and technically we only had to write Act 1, which I thought was dumb... how was I supposed to learn how to structure a feature if I only have to write the first 30 pages??? I wrote up to the midpoint I think, but ultimately my source material left something to be desired. I did learn how to expand a shorter story into something bigger to fit the medium I'm writing. All-in-all, this class did help me prepare for the IP focused world we live in!
Nonlinear Romance Feature - this was my senior capstone project and was a challenge in finding authentic emotionality on the page, without making things feel melodramatic, and telling a story nonlinearly. I think I should have mastered telling things linearly before I made them more complicated, but if there's one thing about me, Imma make things more difficult than they need to be! This script will never see the light of day, but I was incredibly proud of it when it was finished. I remember how gratifying it felt to finish a WHOLE MOVIE! I still can't believe it haha.
YA Period Drama set during the Freedom Summer: This was the pilot that kicked my A** structure wise. It was a massive ensemble and hard to juggle all their plots. I broke and re-broke this multiple times until it finally clicked. I also got some pretty off-the-wall feedback from a writers group and this was the first time I remember ignoring a note, because it was frankly BAD, and trusting my gut on my own story. Once structure was down then I got to focus more on dialogue. The story made sense, but my dialogue was still too on the nose. I learned the magic of subtext, and was able to get this into good enough shape to earn an ABC Studios Fellowship.
A YA Dystopian Series: This was wild ride, but it's where I got the best writing advice ever when it comes to pilots, which is that the huge life-changing plot twisty episode cliffhanger you're working up to.....should probably be the inciting incident, or at the very least the midpoint. I learned a lot about efficiently setting up a series and pacing information in a mystery, and just learning how to get to the point faster, rather than obfuscate for dramatic effect. A series similar to this got produced a few years later so again I felt like my instincts were good and I should keep going!
Legal Procedural about 3L law students: I wrote this as an experiment because I wanted to learn how procedurals worked, and it was while I was working for a procedural queen (loved that job), and I wanted to apply what I learned from her to my own work. I loved this pilot and these characters. I ended up finishing it because an Agent urged me to (more "bankable" in their mind) but it really helped me understand that even though I could write these kinds of stories, it wasn't that fun for me in the long run. At least not in a straight down the middle procedural drama, kind of way. I reworked the idea into a workplace comedy. Way more fun.

(This really helped me realize hard Drama wasn't really my thing so I pivoted)
The Bold Type Spec: This was just pure joy and is when I felt like I was starting to get the hang of this TV writing thing. Wrote it in less than a month for a fellowship application and 2 of the story lines similar to what I wrote ended up in future seasons of the show! Again, a sign that I was on the right track, and able to accurately pitch stories that fit within the world of the series.
Shorts! Sooo many Shorts. -- I wrote a ton of shorts, mostly as an exercise, but the one that got me into Project Involve was inspired by my most embarrassing moment in my middle school life, and Carrie.... take that for what you will. I had a lot of fun playing around with how to depict the specific editing style I wanted on the page, using PreLaps and intercuts. Was super fun to write.
A 1/2 Hour College Dramedy I rewrote 4 times. And when I say rewrote, I don't mean cosmetic changes, I mean I wrote 4 completely different versions of it. This is where I learned the difficult lessons: "If you don't know where you're going, you won't know how to get there." And I instituted a hard "Must Blue Sky" rule for myself to avoid so much unnecessary rewrites. I also think this was a lesson in emotional/psychological distance. When you're too close to a story, finding the objectivity needed to see the full picture to properly break it can be a huge challenge. I decided to shelve the project until I found some more perspective on that time in my life, to dig back in.
Soapy Dramedy Set in the Music Industry: This was a fun project to do but did teach me the challenges of a premise pilot and how to efficiently set up a story that has to start from scratch within the pilot. I was studying a lot of 4 act dramedies like Younger, to help me break this structure, which was so helpful. This was a world I loved, but overall I just don't think I had a personal connection to it, which is why it fell flat. It helped me hone my comedic sensibilities though.
Veep Spec: Wrote this on a dare lol. As I was developing my comedy voice someone mentioned that they thought I could never write raunchier or more cynical, "mean" comedy like in Veep, for example. And I said, "Watch me!!" And I wrote a Veep Spec. I had a friend on the show read it over and gave me some notes to make it even closer to the voice of the show -- mainly # jokes per page, changes like that. This spec got me an interview for my job at Crooked Media, and a staffing meeting so... yeah write specs! They're still useful!
Light 1 Hour set in the High School Academic Club world - This is when I took the most basic advice of "write the show you want to see." I felt like nothing on screen really captured the pressure high schoolers had in the aughts to do well so we could get that promised American dream amidst financial collapse. I wanted to write ruthlessly ambitious high schoolers in a way that felt accurate to my experience, and differed from what was on TV at the time. The first draft was set in 2008 and I was later advised to bring it present day, which I did. This was the script that got me signed.
1/2 Hour Workplace Comedy: Once I felt like I had THE one hour sample that really fit my voice, I wanted to write a 1/2 hour as well. I wrote a workplace comedy set in a historical re-enactment theme park in Pennsylvania. I wanted something hard comedy and silly, but still represented my nerdy sensibilities, and this did.

That last one, I wrote after my 1 hour sample, kind of while I was revising the 1-hour. It was enough to show my voice to my reps, but ultimately the 1-hour was the stronger sample of the two, so that's the sample we led with when I started going out on meetings (the water bottle tour).

It got me staffing meetings on both 1/2 hour and 1 hour shows and we still send it around today!

I am sharing this just to show you that there's no short cut to finding your voice or the "ONE" script that will launch you. Every script you write is a learning experience, and you're bound to evolve with practice and life experience.

The only way to become a better writer is to write scripts, finish them, get feedback on them, revise them, and then do it all again. That's it.

While I largely figured most of this out on my own and with a group of fantastic writer friends who supported me, as a teacher, I do try to shorten the learning curve a bit and help writers not have to go through this journey alone.

If you want to write an original TV Pilot good enough to be your first portfolio-worthy sample, I am helping writers do just that in TV Camp.

TV Camp is a 12-week online cohort style program where I teach writers how to write an original TV pilot from Idea to Draft, with consistent feedback and support throughout the entire process.

If that sounds like something you'd be interested in, then jump on the waitlist to get exclusive perks, the best price, and all the details about the program!

Just click here to be added to the waitlist!