Film Courage: What are you learning inside of these [writing] programs?
Niceole R. Levy, Screenwriter/Author: They all are structured a little bit different. I would say in
general the big takeaways are first of all you're going to write a new piece of material and you're
going to do it with professional mentorship. This is going to be getting notes from people who give
studio and network notes to real professional writers all the time. It's a little bit different
than your writer's group giving you notes or your friends and it gives you a sense of what that's
like when you're on staff, when you're developing to get notes from those kind of professionals.
Hopefully you have a great new piece of material to help you secure representation and to go out
for staffing. The programs will also prep you for staffing in terms of executives coming in
and meeting with you and liking you. They'll consider sending your name to their showrunners
that they're working with who are looking for new writers. Also you get practice in how to handle
meetings with showrunners, how to go through a general meeting because like I always tell people
when I got in the CBS program I would have treated a showrunner meeting like a regular job interview
because I had no idea what it was. It is very much not that. It is really just go in and have
a conversation with someone because the truth of a meeting a general meeting or a showrunner meeting
is that they already like your writing. That's how you got in the room. Now you're there to
show who you are to be your best self to make them laugh if you're doing a comedy to tell interesting
stories. If you're doing a drama that's tied to your experience whatever it is and show them that
basically you're a nice normal person you're not going to make their life harder and they wouldn't
mind being in a room with you for 10 12 hours a day and that's half the trick is just being able
to go in and be relaxed and do those meetings and so that's a big element of almost every program
is teaching you how to handle that that prep and how to get ready for those meetings what are the
key benefits that TV writing programs offer I mean first of all it's that that experience of
meeting some executives meeting some managers to get practice for how to do those kind of meetings
and also introductions right I got my first agent through an introduction from one of the programs I
got my manager through an introduction from one of the programs so that helps you find representation
if you don't have it I met tons and tons of executives some of whom have become close friends
over the years from that those writing programs so you have that connection base that you start
to build out it gives you a cohort of writers to be your support system as you build your career
because you need people to if something crazy happens in the room you need someone to be like
on on your break texting going what is this craziness that just happened is it just me or
is this crazy and they can be like nope that's crazy just remember take a deep breath it's all
going to be fine or to get advice on things when you're you're stuck on a story point
and you're scared to go to the showrunner and you can have a friend who's like no it's better
go ask the sharing before you make a mistake in the script like do it
those kind of things and then it's also just the the community that you start to build I
hate networking it's like one of my least favorite words I used to hate when they would be like we're
having a writer's mixer and I would have to go and full disclosure I still hate the idea of them
what has happened over the years though is that I would force myself to go I would be like just go
for an hour just go for one hour and then talk to a few people and you can leave and because I have
done that because the writing programs so often co-mingle and have crossover you develop this
whole network of people that you are friendly with and who you like and who are interesting to talk
to and you build this whole community so when one of my friends becomes a showrunner and it's like
I need a great BIPOC mid-level writer who do we all can respond to that because they just reach
out to their people and then we all are like oh this person this person's great I'll have
I'll get a script and send it to you and we can support each other and help each other as we all
grow through our careers so that's honestly one of the most valuable things that comes out of it
and you're kind of with them for life so to speak a little bit yeah it's like the my
class of from CBS and from NBC we're all still in touch we're all still very close
we celebrate each other's wins we commiserate over our losses it's it's it's your little TV
family that you build and then as you build your career every room you go to you're going to meet
people who you want to know for the rest of your life it won't be everyone but there's going to be
people in every room that you're like now you are stuck with me
do you think you would have broken into television had you not gone through one of these programs I
don't think I would have to be honest I think I had tried everything I could think of outside of
the programs and the one thing I had not been able to do was work as an assistant in television and
because I put myself through undergrad and graduate school and had very hefty student
loans I just couldn't afford to I did not have the support system to allow me to make what assistance
make and then also keep a roof over my head and so that was just never going to be a thing I could do
and even when I tried to do it people were like you have a master's degree you cannot be
a PA [production assistant] and I was like no no I can I really can trust me I will make it work and
they were like no we're not gonna we don't believe you so that opportunity wasn't there and I think
were it not for the programs i'm not sure how I would have ever made it happen I mean I would have
continued to write certainly would it have been enough to finally get a door to open I don't know
had you been tempted to leave your master's degree or even your bachelor's off a resume
so there's some survival jobs here in la they pay some pretty good wages do you think they
felt you were overqualified and it scared them away yeah yeah absolutely and and for me like
the job that I was doing the day job as much as I hated it it allowed me to survive and
it allowed me to pay all my bills and pay on my loans and keep a roof over my head
and so it was just like look this is the way it's going to be and
it could have there it was that push-pull of yes I could have taken the master's degree off
my resume but so much of what I had learned about how the business worked I had learned
because of that master's program because this was before the writing fellowships right
so I was also cutting down the sense of experience I had so it was like i'm just
gonna try it and they'll say yes or they'll say no and they always said no but i'm still here anyway
what advice do you have to other writers who are considering
these kinds of programs my biggest advice is when you're when you're thinking about what to submit
whether it's a spec or a pilot I think CBS might be the only program left or Viacom might be the
only program left that's requiring specs much to my dismay but whatever it is you're submitting
if you were going to be identified by one piece of writing that's the script you submit because you
only really have that one shot and then the next year if you didn't get into any of them
you have to have the next script that is the script that you would want to represent you so
that's why I say you always have to be writing because you always need new material
even once you start your career people will have read the two samples that you
broke in with and so you have to have new samples to send out places so always be writing and when
you get to the points in those applications where they ask you there's always either essay questions
or a video element and it's like what do you have to contribute to a writer's room really
think about what your life uniquely offers to your storytelling it's not about how much you love TV
it's not about how you've dreamed of being a writer since you were a kid it's about I have gone
through x y and z in my life and not trauma just experiences you've been through it can be that you
you lived in 17 places because your dad was in the military or that you love to hike and you've hiked
seven of the craziest places in the world to hike whatever it is that's special about you
you want to bring out in those questions and that response because that's the stuff that people are
looking for it's like what's the special sauce you bring into the room because almost everyone
and I do say almost because not a blanket statement almost everyone who wants to be
a TV writer loves TV so it's like why you and that's the question you're really answering.