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Working in a Hollywood style writer’s room with a show runner herding a team to write stories... that must be a crazy experience. I don’t think I could do it. Like the transition from solo programming habits to shared git repos where the team owns the code, but harder.
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Some takeaways: - Rooms like this work best for problem solving and brainstorming additional details on a story that already has good bones - Most pro Hollywood writers are far better on character and scenework than structure
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Also, a big one, scheduling matters massively. Some networks run the writers room in parallel with shooting, some do all writing up front. Later is WILDLY preferable. Once prep and shooting starts, showrunner is constantly torn away for production questions. Can cripple a room.
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In parallel is the tradition Broadcast Network way to do it. You get like 2-3 episodes in and then production starts. I think it made more sense when shows were episodic rather than serial. Less need for coherent throughlines and more possibility for individual writer autonomy.
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Also for the Networks the biggest cost of any show (by far) was the opportunity cost of the air time. Production costs paled in comparison (let alone writing costs). So shows got canceled a lot or pivoted after initial audience reactions.
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On the Network show I worked on, the experienced writers knew we were doomed after seeing the ratings come back for the first 2 episodes (we went on to make 10 before getting officially canceled).
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Yeah. In addition to my world building research I was in the writer’s room from the beginning (before most writers, actually), participated in helping structure episodes and co-wrote one episode (owned its outline development in the room and wrote the first draft of the script).
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