Film Courage: What were you doing the first six
months before you were accepted into the TV writing program?
Niceole R. Levy, Screenwriter/Author: I was working on my baking business. I had developed
a a brochure of all the different types of special things that I could do and I was going to go out
to some wedding fairs and try to drum up business, doing favors for weddings and I was in fact at the
kitchen baking all day to go to a food show came home and got the email saying “Congratulations,
you're a semi-finalist for the CBS writers program. Please call and schedule your personal
interview.” So it was really a crazy what the universe was she's too good at the cookie thing
we have got to pivot back and put her where she belongs and so you rented a kitchen because that's
how you could get it sort of permitted to to yeah yeah was long before there was any thought
of allowing people in LA County to bake from home or cook from home to sell it and so Pasadena has
its own licensing requirements and all that so I had to do all the research to figure all that
stuff out had to figure out how to get the right insurance I mean it was a lot but I toughed it
out and figured it out and got my business up and running and then Hollywood was no change of plans
how many TV show scripts and pilots had you written before you were hired oh goodness I think
I have this officially written down somewhere I want to say that I had written 12 specs
and I had four Pilots and the last spec I wrote was for Person of Interest and I finished it a few
weeks before I got my first TV writing job so it turned out to be the last one I ever had to write
and how long how many pages are let's say a normal spec most specs you want to I mean most TV scripts
in general especially back then range anywhere from 52 to 60 pages you really want to try not
to go over 60 because it's a big ask on the reading time nowadays if you're on staff some
shows come in much shorter our scripts on SWAT 46 pages so you have to be really very specific
about the word choice you can get it all in but also keep it to a minimum but yeah so anywhere
from 52 if it's a drama script if it's a comedy script it's usually right around 30-ish pages
what key factors played a part in you being hired I think one of the big ones was my life experience
so I broke into television working in cop shows and I had put myself through my undergraduate
years working as a police dispatcher and I would work graveyard shifts and then I would get off at
7:45 in the morning drive to school go to school all day come home and sleep go back to work and
thankfully I was allowed to do homework at my desk when nothing was happening so that's the
only way I got through it and that experience was always appealing to people who make those
kind of shows and broadcast television as we know those shows are very prevalent and I could talk
about things that were real and that pertain to those stories and so that was a big calling card
for me was being able to to bring that real life professional experience in it was also important
that I was a black woman that I could speak to matters of inequity for our characters that we
were writing that I could talk about what it's to be a black woman who's the only black employee in
a play that I could talk about those things and I was willing to share those stories in the room
and then that I was prepared that I had written and written and written and written and had built
my muscle to the point that someone was okay she's ready to do at least the basic part of this job
because you will only get stronger and get better as you continue your career but you have
to there's there's such a line between writing a decent script and writing a professional script
and it's really about the the passion and the fluidity that you can put on the page that it
starts to feel a little cinematic that they can picture it when they read it and it's not just
she walks to the door it's she walks to the door and it dwarfs her and it's you're conveying a real
image with it so you learn all that by writing and by sharing your work with other writers
the biggest mistake that I think newer writers make is wanting to hold other scripts really close
and not let other people read them but you only get better when other people read it and say to
you I love this idea and this character is great I got a little confused through here because I
wasn't quite sure why the character was doing this or why we went to this place suddenly and you take
those notes and you go back and make it better because that is TV writing that is the rest of
your life if you want to write TV as people will give you notes you will go make changes you will
turn it back in even if you're the showrunner the studio and the network get to give you notes so
you will take their notes you will unless you're one of those writers who declares you never take
notes but I do not know many of those that existed yeah okay yes yes there are there are some of them
and I'm okay you do you but I take I take good notes I take good notes sometimes there are good
notes what do you think is more common for a new writer in a TV room to want to hold back some of
their work or want to hold back their personal experience and maybe not speak to what their
life was because they don't want to offend other people in the room or make them uncomfortable
yeah I think that they're kind of part and parcel of the same thing I think new writers in our
writer's room have to learn that balance of when do I speak when do I not speak and some of it's
just literally the timing of it right figuring out your window to say the thing you want to say
how to do it without cutting off another writer how to do it without crapping on somebody else's
pitch even if you don't it right but to be able to be hey that might work also what if we did Bloody
blah so that you're not sideswiping them you're just saying here's another idea and internally
you're because I don't that idea or you're being additive or you're inspired by what someone said
and you're oh my God I love that also could we add this to it and then maybe it gets better or
maybe your suggestion gets pushed to the side but you made your suggestion and a lot of new
writers are very intimidated when they get to the writer's room and it's a lot especially if
you are say on a broadcast show with 10 other writers I'd estimate eight of those writers are
pretty solidly experienced and so it's just Fast and Furious of story pitches and this and that
and what if we did this and great let's have the character move here and let's use this setting
and it starts to be overwhelming and so the advice that I was given that I pass on to all new writers
is try to say something you think is a value in the morning and something of value after lunch
in the beginning that's all anybody's going to expect of you in fact they will be real impressed
that they got those two things because you're a staff writer and those people all understand
that they all know this is new to you they all know you're trying to find your footing
so you don't have to come in and sit there in silence unless you have a showrunner who's told
you that the staff writers are not supposed to speak and it does happen but in most rooms
you're so scared to speak that that's why you're not speaking and so you need to find your voice
and speak you also need to be careful not to try to dominate the conversation and take over you
need to pick up on the social cues of when the showrunner's yeah I don't I don't know
about that and stop talking and let someone else pitch something you may come back to your idea
but if you keep pushing it's going to cause some friction in the room so it's it's really learning
that is is the first several weeks for any staff writer is trying to figure out how this all works
and when do I speak and when do I pull back I'm a big proponent of having a notebook in front of you
because as you have an idea you can write it down and if someone else is still talking a
you won't forget it and B because you have it writing down you're not panicked about getting
it out and if someone else pitches the same idea before you do at least you can take comfort in the
fact that you were on the right track but it's also a lesson in right your idea was right so
you can pitch it it's fine and take the chance and Pitch it in terms of the personal stories I think
good writers rooms Foster an environment where writers feel safe to share their stories and by
good writers rooms I mean safe writers rooms places where the showrunner has said up front
this is not a place where we bully each other this is not a place where I'm going to tolerate that
kind of behavior everybody's opinion here matters at the end of the day I'm going to decide what
we're doing so you don't even need to fight about it because it's so to me and that allows people
to feel safe saying I did have this experience when I was a kid where I got lost for a day and
my parents because that's a vulnerable thing to talk about right but it may help the story and
you want your writers to feel safe to help build the best story toxic rooms rooms where showrunners
yell and scream at each other nobody in that room is giving their best nobody is telling their best
stories because they don't feel safe and so to respond to that kind of behavior everybody pulls
back a little bit and it's and you should because you need to protect yourself in that environment.