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writing recap of 2014, goals for 2015

Oh my god, I haven’t posted in so long! A lot has happened, so let me try to catch up.

At the midpoint of the year, the end of June 2014, I was feeling pretty good about things. I was in the CAAM Fellowship, and I was so fortunate to get an amazing mentor in Kourtney Kang. My day job was stable, and I was working on a new pilot.

I’ve continued to teach writing online. I love it!  I got to meet so many wonderful, talented people. Several of them did very well with their scripts, including placing in Scriptapalooza, the Austin Film Festival, and the CBS Writers Mentoring Program.

In August, I had a meeting with some agents at ICM. They had read my pilot, and they were nice to enough to chat with me. It was just an introductory meeting, but they said they liked my writing, and would read the next thing I wrote. They said these days, you need multiple pilots. One sample isn’t good enough. I pitched them the pilot I was working on, and they seemed to like the concept. I asked when would be a good time to send them something by. They said Dec, or Jan at the latest.

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interview: Raf Esparza, NBC Late Night Writers Workshop

interview: Raf Esparza, NBC Late Night Writers Workshop

I met Raf back when I was a fellow in the Nick program. He had taken a meeting with Karen Kirkland, and she introduced us. When I heard that NBC was starting a Late Night Writers Workshop, I thought Raf would be great for the program, and it was no surprise to me when he got in.

Congrats on having been chosen for the inaugural Late Night Writers Workshop! You seemed like the perfect candidate because you’ve been doing this for a while: you worked on the Tonight Show as a coordinator, submitted jokes, and you perform a late night talk show at Flappers Comedy Club. How did all that help you write the material you submitted?

Hey Kiyong, thank you so much for the nice words (please do not cash the check I gave you to say said nice things, it won’t clear until the end of the month).

For me, the Late Night Writers Workshop was the cumulation of all the little things I’ve tried to do for the past five years—including my time at The Tonight Show and the creation of my own late night talk show Early Late Night.

At The Tonight Show I learned the discipline needed for a successful writing schedule and the ability to persevere through constant rejection.

Writing monologue jokes is a pretty thankless job (even when you do get paid). You spend hours of your time researching, sifting through news articles trying to find the best takes on the day’s headlines. The minute my shift would end, I’d sit at my computer and force myself to write for at least another hour. After a full day of work, I’d be tired as hell—but sticking to that routine was something that I knew would one day pay off.

I didn’t get a ton of jokes on at the very beginning and would often get discouraged—until one day one of the most prolific writers at the show (an awesome writer named Jon Macks) shared the following statistic: for every 100 jokes you write, 1 will get on air.

Now just take a moment to really think about that number. 1. For Every 100.

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interview: MysteryTVWritersAsst

I follow @MysteryTVWrtrAs on Twitter. Apparently we’ve met before, but I have no idea who it is, and I know nothing about this person’s gender/ethnicity/age. I’m not even sure whether this person works in comedy or drama. We got chatting one night on Twitter, and I asked to do an interview. This person’s anonymity allowed for some candid answers about being a writers’ assistant.

What’s a typical day like as a writers’ assistant?

Every day is different. But a typical day is keeping your ass in the seat and taking notes. All the other writers get up to pee, you stay in your seat. Have an important call/text, redirect it to your laptop. I now have carpal tunnel due to many hours over many months with an indecisive Showrunner. It sucks, but it’s the path I chose.

How should someone go about trying to get a job as writers’ assistant?

My story: I was a PA on a show (how did I get that?…there was a listing for a PA gig on the studio website). While the other PA’s would take the long runs for the mileage reimbursement, I would get to know the writers by doing the short runs.  Eventually the writers’ assistant was let go, and they needed someone ASAP…ME!!

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CAAM Fellowship: mentor update

Last week I got to go to San Francisco for CAAM Fest, and got to meet the other fellows. Check out the bios and the work of my super talented, accomplished fellows!

http://caamedia.org/filmmaker-support/caam-fellows-2014/

Since getting accepted into the CAAM Fellowship, I’ve had several discussions in trying to decide which mentor to try to go after. Should we go after a writer, a producer, or an executive? If it’s an executive, should it be someone in current series or development? We ended up picking someone who is a writer and Executive Producer. We felt like that role was the best one that could help me. The person we picked is high up and it’s a stretch, but why not at least try, right? Karin reached out to contact the person on my behalf, and I’ve been waiting to hear back.

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