Midwest Writer in LA • Writer & WA: TBA Netflix Series / WPA: YOU S4, THE AFTERPARTY S2 • Disney Fellowship Finalist ‘24 • MGR: Kate Prentice & Doorie Lee, 42
For my birthday, I'm sending out my yearly ask. Before the strike, I wrote my 1st professional script for Netflix's SPLINTER CELL as a Writer's Assistant.
Today: I'm stating my goal of becoming a Staff Writer.
A🧵on how I'll be a valuable asset in the room. Resume below. 1/
Labor unions have been winning the public opinion war on social media. But with the SAG news, studios will start pushing back hard & on a different platform: their news networks.
Be prepared for CNN, MSNBC, & others to be used as bullhorns against the labor movement. 1/
Thank you lot coordinators
Thank you Strike captains
Thank you vendor donors
Thank you WGA NegCom & WGA staff
Thank you SAG, IATSE, & Teamsters
But thank you to every single writer who made PreWGA writers feel included
You won more than a deal tonight
You won a stronger Union
Very happy to announce starting this week, I will be a Writers’ PA for an Apple+ TV show!
My writers’ room journey finally begins. Thank you for your tweets, retweets, & DMs over the last 1.5 years. I wouldn’t have been ready without you all. Beyond incredible grateful.
Thrilled to announce I’m the new Writers’ Assistant on S2 of the upcoming Netflix anime SPLINTER CELL. I’ll also get to write an episode, my first ever!
My dream of writing for TV has become a reality & there isn’t a more perfect team I get to do it with. Grateful & stunned.
8 years ago, I realized I wanted to be a writer.
Today, I start writing my first-ever paid/professional script.
What a journey it’s taken to get here.
But we’re not done yet.
We don’t picket for a job.
We don’t picket for the IG pics.
We don’t picket to meet celebrities.
We don’t picket to shame those who can’t.
We picket bc our livelihood depends on it.
We picket bc your friends’ lives matter.
We picket bc no one will fight harder for you than you.
A pitch I made in the room was praised by the showrunner AND a talented acquaintance asked out of the blue to read two of my scripts.
Today was a fucking good day.
I’ll never forget it took agencies & management 3 days to say they were with us publicly.
But I’ll never forget Verve & Gersh were on the lines Day One.
Not dropping off donuts.
Not paying for some kid to drop coffee.
They were on the lines.
I saw it.
And I’ll remember it.
My two cents? They are out there. We’ve seen them out there. You’re just not gonna report on that.
Because you aren’t for the labor movement.
But even if they weren’t out here, that’s fine. This fight isn’t for them. It’s for us: the barely scrapping-by majority of the unions.
Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Rami Malek signed a letter stating they were prepared to strike, but none of them have surfaced chanting at studio gates. Leonardo DiCaprio said he stood “in solidarity,” but has yet to stand for any in-person protest.
#RickandMorty
voice actor Spencer Grammer says she didn't make enough to qualify for the
#sagaftra
health insurance the first year of her child's life even though she was on a popular TV show at the time
#greek
Actors open up about the
#actorsstrike
:
@JessMarieGarcia
Because you follow instructions! They tell you to dress professionally and no one else listens. I dressed like I was on the West Wing and ended up not just the very first juror selected but picked as foreperson because of the way I dressed. Rude.
HBO has promised the "Euphoria" cast it will come back to them on Oct. 1 with a solid plan to begin filming Season 3 in 2025. The shoot, if were it to happen, would last 25 weeks, and the season will likely be reduced from eight episodes to six.
After a month of manager meetings & offers, I'm thrilled to announce I'm officially repped at 42 Management!!
Thank you
@roadmapwriters
&
@Coverfly
for your guidance, Christina Irion for the connection, & everyone here for supporting me these last 2 yrs.
Now let's get to work.
My parents let me know I can move home if I needed to, but I'd have to give up trying to be a writer & get with reality. 11 years is long enough.
My struggle is the same as everyone's here. But receiving an ultimatum & having to consider it: I've never felt a low like this.
Part 2 of YOU (Netflix) Season 4 is out & on Episode 9, I spotted my name:
My FIRST-EVER screen credit!!
Writers’ PAs may not get to see their names on screen, so this truly means so much to me. Thank you
@serathegamble
for including me as a part of your brilliant show.
With everything going on, I totally forgot to announce: I’m no longer a temp. I’m officially part of the
@YouNetflix
S4 team as their Writers’ PA.
I now await your Joe jokes.
Clear & Simple:
The Negotiation Committee protected the writing profession today. And by doing so, my dreams to write TV professionally, as a career, remain possible.
Writers are here to stay. And for that, I am eternally grateful.
@SpencerAlthouse
That was hilarious, you right! My fav is still the one where they glow up Amal Almuddin while “her husband” wins a lifetime achievement award. I laugh every single time.
WGA Writers: if you go to Swingers, please consider bringing a support staffer with you.
They can’t take advantage of any WGA/SAG discounts during the strike. So this kindness would be an incredible bright spot in a very bleak situation for too many PreWGA writers right now.
Since people are leaving Twitter, I should mention
@jelenawoehr
& I run a writing community server for nearly 4 years called WGA Virtual Mixer (which hosts multiple events, channels, & great discussions). Hit me up for the link, it’s a great community.
I'm struggling & facing moving out of LA soon, but a friend reminded me I love teaching & I should take a leap of faith.
So I spent late nights building a few syllabi & setting up an online store to create Zoom writing classes called TELEMAZING COURSES.
Wrote until 3:30am last night but it’s done. I’ve finished my 6th script in the last 13 months.
So before the 90 rewrites begin, I’m taking the day to celebrate the accomplishment. I really am most proud of this one.
I came home to 2 large packages with my name on them. I didn’t order anything.
Turns out an industry member (who’d like to remain anonymous) sent me a massive care package, a $100 Target gift card, & an insanely kind note: just as an act of kindness.
I’m still in shock.
The urge to quit writing to start a TV studio and hire you all to rates above LA's low-income threshold so you can have comfortable lives and never worry about getting fired for profits grows every day.
Every. Freakin'. Day.
Calling all PreWGA writers!
We’re throwing a
#PreWGA
DAY on 5/25! Let’s showcase our solidarity by picketing together @ Paramount (1p-5p).
Then come to our flagship MIRACLE MILE MIXER @ All Season (6p-10p), where 2 Pre-WGA writers will win $100 worth of groceries! A small🧵
1/
It was truly a dream job. I got to watch brilliant writers & genius bosses, pitch in the room (once really well), & even saw my last name in a script. What more could I ask for?
I’m sad my time there has come to an end. As I look for my next gig, I hope it’s as amazing as this.
For those who got rejections today, my “losing” script made me a Disney Writing Fellowship Finalist, got me multiple generals, & has been liked by showrunners.
Normal to feel disappointed, but they not seeing your value is on them. Keep getting better. Your wins are coming.
While I truly appreciate the kindness A-listers are offering here, it’s also setting a horrific precedent of studios holding out for union millionaires to solve the problem for billion-dollar businesses.
These are not complicated feelings. These are clear feelings of watching yourself be marginalized once again.
A movie about disenfranchised people is not enough anymore. Their voices should be telling their stories.
Yesterday was my last day as the Writers’ PA on YOU. I met insanely talented writers, worked alongside genius assistants, & got an education in writing during production. It was incredible. I’ll never forget this.
Can’t say where I’m headed next yet, but you’ll know when I can!
We ran 20 deep @ every Paramount gate.
@deans_coffee
handed out free coffee.
A PreWGA writer Portia watched the Neutral Gate.
@jelenawoehr
got to speak to close out the picket.
And then... this pic at All Seasons after.
#PreWGADay
was a colossal success. 1/
Picket
#16
@ CBS Radford.
#WGAStrong
Saw so many amazing people today that I sincerely loved seeing, but honestly, the picture is all I’m gonna say today.
2022 has been an incredible year.
I won a pilot script contest.
I got endorsed as a writer by Coverfly.
I signed w/ 2 managers @ 42 after multiple offers.
I landed my first WA gig on a Netflix anime.
I wrote my 1st paid, professional episode of my career... for Netflix! (1/3)
Just came from a date that turned into a networking session.
At one point, she literally handed me her pitch deck (on her phone) and asked for thoughts.
I don’t even know what to say anymore.
Can’t go into it but I’ve never been more livid in my whole life. I’ve been crying all night.
Know this: your POC friends are being abused at work. Mentally. Financially. When you get a job or promotion, we get less & HAVE to fight to be valued equally & survive.
& we lose.
10 years from now, we’re all gonna be making our shows/films & posting “caught my friend’s premiere on Netflix” or “saw my mentee’s Cannes debut” or “ran into an old friend at the SNL finale”.
Soon, we’re gonna be living the dreams we have right now…
And I can’t fucking wait.
Today was my first day temping as a WPA for Netflix’s YOU S4. Only here for 1-2 wks, but thrilled to start & more thrilled to find an incredibly kind & welcoming room of writers.
I’m very thankful for my 2nd gig in a room… & yes, someone did make a Joe joke. But only one.
I read a tweet that got me fucking heated, so I’m just gonna say this once:
If you’re taking the time & effort to write a script, I don’t care how good it is. You are unique. You are special. You may need help to make the script stand out, but it matters. You matter.
Period.
My parents weren’t against my career in TV. Just more “you could have been a doctor”. But once I got my 1st job, they were good, despite having no understanding of my world.
My mom calls yesterday “have you watched Tick Tick Boom?” I say yes. “I think I understand you now”. 1/3
I saw this with the George Floyd marches: news outlets would portray disobedient rallies & people when TikTok, Twitter, & IG showed on the ground evidence of peaceful rallies with out of state racists coming in to ruin that image. News outlets never corrected their coverage. 2/
8 years ago, I realized I wanted to be a writer.
Today, I start writing my first-ever paid/professional script.
What a journey it’s taken to get here.
But we’re not done yet.
Taylor Sheridan says he might quit TV if the WGA
#WritersStrike
compels studios to staff shows with a minimum number of writers: “The freedom of the artist to create must be unfettered…”
Just learned my STRANGER THINGS spec was THE STUNT LIST'S most downloaded script with 65 downloads in its first 24 hours!!
Thank you to everyone who read or will read! I'm truly grateful to you all, this means a lot.
You can read my spec (+ info) here:
Thrilled to announce my STRANGER THINGS spec is on the STUNT LIST!
This spec was personal, so this distinction means a lot to me. In an industry where specs are often overlooked, I’m very grateful to The Stunt List for this honor. Thank you.
So I’m officially looking for a job
As a BIPOC Y.A. writer, I’m looking for any way into a writers’ room: WA/SA/WPA. With a strong sample, exhaustive resume, & producing exp., I’d be a dynamic asset to a room. More below & thank you in advance for any support opportunities. 1/
There’s so much disrespect on YA, yet if someone brought back a show from their youth, the masses would want it yesterday.
Preteens shouldn’t have to go from Nickelodeon to HBO. They learn so much about growing up thru YA & deserves content ABOUT themselves. It’s essential TV.
I was at Five Guys when a man ran in and screamed “IF YOU PARKED YOUR CAR ILLEGALLY, TICKET GUY IS COMING!”
The amount of people who bolted out of the place…
This man is an unsung hero. A proper gent.
A dark knight.
Jelena & I have talked about doing what we can to ensure PreWGA writers don’t lose our comradery with WGA writers after the strike.
I’ve chatted with WGA writers about attending our event after the strike ends and will continue to do so. Some have already come during.
Hello younger WGA and PreWGA writers. If you’re fearful of the loss of camaraderie when the strike ends, I encourage you to start some shit. No, seriously. Start a recurring mixer. Start a writing group. Start a discord (or join
@jelenawoehr
’s). Take charge.
Watching brillant ppl having to leave LA… it’s repugnant.
We were strong before. But we must hold stronger now.
For assistants.
For PAs.
For support staffers.
For writers.
For Alex.
For each striking human forced out of LA.
After this, we must win.
We must. For them.
I want an America where you can be proud of your dad and never be shamed into how you express it.
You want family values? It’s right here.
I roll with Gus.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s son, 17-year-old Gus, wept from the front row during his dad’s Democratic National Convention address, shouting at one point, “That’s my dad!”
I’m thrilled to be selected as
@NetworkISA
’s Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2023! I’m incredibly honored by the distinction & thank everyone who helped me get here. To become a part of this insanely talented group is truly a fantastic start the year.
Studios:
There are tons of great originals out there. Take a chance on us, attach us to known showrunners, keep our shows up for more than a year, watch us grow into experienced writers, let us help the next crop of writers rise up, rinse, repeat.
You’ll hit more than you miss.
My goal last year was to write my first feature & make it worthy of submitting into the Nicholls Fellowship.
Today, Nicholls hit their max applications & I didn’t submit bc I couldn’t afford the entry fee.
Really proud of the work I put into my feature, but today really sucks.
Since we're talking queries, I wanted to share my stats via
@roadmapwriters
submitting me since August, with some recent sends from
@Coverfly
:
111 Submissions
42 Never Responded
30 Still "Reading"
29 Rejections
10 Meetings
7 Offers
And this week: 1 Selected Manager
Stay tuned.
Thrilled to announce my STRANGER THINGS spec is on the STUNT LIST!
This spec was personal, so this distinction means a lot to me. In an industry where specs are often overlooked, I’m very grateful to The Stunt List for this honor. Thank you.
I have the best community on Earth.
Thank you to everyone who shared my courses across socials, sent me to specific people, donated classes for me to give away. I'm eternally thankful.
8 days after I opened my courses, I made enough to stay in LA for one more month. Thank you.
I'm incredibly honored & thrilled to be officially named a
@Coverfly
Endorsed Writer today. Already have some great high-level requests & looking forward to more throughout the day.
Thank you to the development team for this distinction and kind recommendation. Just blown away.
I just had a great meeting w/ my managers & I already have my first post-strike general on the books.
So I want to shout out my managers Kate &
@dooriesstories
for being on my team & so stoked to be moving forward.
P.S. They didn’t ask what I wrote over the strike. Not once.
As for us, we shall stay vigilant: Picket when you can, take physical & mental breaks, listen to captains, share tips for the long haul, & fight against misinformation.
I said keep calm & carry on until we knew SAG’s decision.
Now we know.
Time to suit up & strike back. /end
We're throwing a
#PreWGA
& SAG PRE-MEMBERS DAY!
We invite all non-union & SAG-Eligible actors to picket w/ us PreWGA writers on TUESDAY 8/15 @ Disney, then join us later for a combined mixer @ All Season. Stay tuned for more
RSVP here only for the mixer:
I was interviewed for a digital magazine & it came out today.
I talk about how I got into writing Young Adult, my work during the strike, & my advice to emerging writers:
@baddestmamajama
It hurts me so much more when YA shows gets cancelled, so this is another level of disappointment. Kids didn’t deserve this, especially since it’s already done!
I’m literally doing everything in my power to get rid of this mindset.
This is why I co-run the pickets. The mixers. The communities.
To prove we aren’t here for anything else but to fight alongside the WGA.
I don’t know what else I have to do.
A producer friend tried to repeat the “young writers on the picket line are just there to network” line to me & I’ll say what I said to him
1. That’s not true.
2. Even if it was, as long as they’re withholding their labor & walking a picket line I don’t give a shit about why.
Conflicts drive the news, so studios will use them to divide & pull middle America & government officials to their side. I truly hope our higher ups have a plan to counteract this aggressively & early. I have faith in them in the days & weeks to come. 3/
I want to seriously thank everyone who helped me out with day-long jobs over these last weeks. I can officially say May is no longer my last month in LA.
I mean, now it’s June so far, but look: we are celebrating little victories today.
She says: “If I react, he gets what he wants.”
Those words ring in my head a lot this week.
My “Keep Calm & Carry On” statement isn’t lip-service to me. That’s literally how I was raised. Idk, guys. Tonight, I just really love my Mom. /end
I finally did it. On this edit, I got down 20 pages and I’m officially, for the first time, within acceptable pages for a feature.
109 pages.
Wow. What a feeling.
Congrats to all the Disney Program winners!! I was a Finalist this year, so I can say unequivocally every single name on this list deserved to be selected.
As for me, the only thing to do is to move forward. So I say sincerely: “It was an honor to be nominated.”
Thanks to
@roadmapwriters
,
@Coverfly
’s endorsement, & my
@NetworkISA
win, I landed 6 manager meeting this week & 2 have already officially offered.
So if you’d like to rep a first-gen African-American YA writer from Indiana, this is your last chance. Taking mtgs next week.
I'm incredibly honored & thrilled to be officially named a
@Coverfly
Endorsed Writer today. Already have some great high-level requests & looking forward to more throughout the day.
Thank you to the development team for this distinction and kind recommendation. Just blown away.
In my feelings today. I'm on socials seeing assistants & coordinators of stuck companies on expensive vacations, @ exuberant birthdays, or close up at TSwift concerts.
Yet us support staffers are struggling to pay rent.
It's clear the studios CAN pay us. They just won't.
A must-read for WGA writers.
When my time at AFTERPARTY ended, 3 writers asked to read me. 2 EPs on another show offered career help. They all acknowledged the broken Support Staff ladder & did something about it.
WGA members MUST follow this example for creativity to live.
Dear WGA TV writers in writers rooms with a broken Assistant-to-Staff pipeline: this is going to be hard to hear because our best intentions have have fucked over an entire generation of writers trying to break in, there is a behavior that needs to be stopped.
A serious thread:
Bob Odenkirk responds to certain stars wanting SAG waivers to allow them to promote their films.
“Don’t. It’s a strike. Strike. You lose. We lose. Everybody loses. That’s tough shit.”
(Source: )
At Universal today, a driver tried to drive through our picket line and our WGA Captains were NOT HAVING IT!!! They made sure we were safe while ensuring this guy made the worst decision of his life.
Captains are the fucking best. They make us safe and have our backs.
I’m completely & utterly stunned to announce my script KNIGHT’S PHOENIX was the Grand Prize Winner for ISA's Action/Adventure Competition!!
🤯
Thank you
@NetworkISA
for this incredible honor, congrats to Genre Winner Jeff Meyers & the finalists, & I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING!
Celebrating a bit today.
I did a meet & greet this morning with two amazing showrunners who at the very top of the Zoom said I was doing everything right & way more, so this maybe the best start to a Monday I’ve had in a while.
A new script I wrote just got curb-stomped by the ppl at the top of my reads list.
So that stung.
But now I see they were tough not b/c I suck, but b/c I don't. As we improve as writers, ppl's standards of our work rise. So if you were to work on a weakness while trying a... 1/
Reservation Dogs is the most important YA show of the last 10 years, and I will die by that statement. Give them what they deserve.
Stranger Things/Cobra Kai were Outstanding Drama/Comedy noms before. It would be historical erasure to not include Reservation Dogs as well.
I’ve gotten a few apologies on the news, but Sony’s gonna try to sell it elsewhere. So until they officially say it’s done, NO SAD POST FROM ME YET!!
#SaveTheAfterparty
Thank you to the 250 writers who came last night, to
@babsamiga
sponsoring 450 tacos & sides, & to all the WGA members who came, esp
@BlutmanMark
,
@citizen_giacita
, &
@AlexRubinWrites
for speaking to the press.
Thank you for celebrating w/ us.
We love this community so much.
Within two days, I received two industry pro requests and a very kind review from a Co-Creator/Executive Producer of a recent broadcast network series.
What is my life right now?!
Very much appreciate the love for this script!
#OriginalsBureau2023
Very proud to say my award-winning script THE KNIGHT'S PHOENIX has been selected for The Stunt List's
#OriginalsBureau2023
.
Honored to be mentioned among some incredible writers. Thank you
@AshLazerWrites
,
@ditty1013
, & their team for the recognition.