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Recap: Scriptnotes Live with John August and Craig Mazin, July 25th, 2017

By Staff · July 27, 2017

By: Britton Perelman

On Tuesday, July 25, screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin hosted a live show of their podcast, Scriptnotes. In a packed auditorium in Beverly Hills, they welcomed three guests for an evening discussion about television writing.

John and Craig were joined by Megan Amram (Parks and Recreation; The Good Place), Tom Schnauz (Breaking Bad; Better Call Saul), and Matt Selman (The Simpsons), all of whom, along with being very amusing panel participants, offered interesting insight into their work as writers.

Here are key takeaways from the night:

On the TV writers room experience.

If there’s one thing to be learned from the event, it’s that no two writers rooms are the same. Megan, Tom, and Matt all work in vastly different writing environments on their respective shows and, while the process they go through is similar, it also varies in many ways.

Whereas Megan and the staff of “The Good Place” work to figure out where the season will begin and end so they know the story arc and production can begin shooting, Tom and the staff of “Better Call Saul” have much more flexibility because they break seven episodes before anything is even filmed. On long-running “The Simpsons,” Matt actually runs one of two writers rooms, in which they’re more focused on coming up with good material and never give story or character arc a second thought.

They also discussed the fact that TV is shifting to focus on shorter seasons, which has an odd effect in the industry.

“The thing that’s amazing about TV is that it’s like little movies,” Megan said. “It’s a really fun way to think about it.”

“Movies are turning into TV, and TV is turning into movies,” Matt echoed later in the show. “[Better Call Saul] is essentially a giant movie they make every year … but they show it in 10 chunks. You write it, you shoot it, you edit it, and that’s a giant movie.”

On your first day in a writers room.

While Megan jokingly admitted that she cried after she left work on her first days in a writers room, it is helpful to have tips about how to act when you finally get your foot in the proverbial door.

“Hide your fear,” Matt advised. “You are just there to be super positive and super helpful … it’s not your job to save the day or be the hero.”

Megan also stressed the importance of having the right attitude. You’re new and there to learn, so be there. In the beginning, observe the room and learn the dynamics. In many ways, ignore the instinct to “make yourself heard,” and, instead, show up early and prove that you actually want to be there. Others will notice.

On how an episode comes together.

When pitching ideas in a writers room, you have to only care if the final product is good.

“If you get in a room, don’t shoot down other people’s ideas,” said Tom. “There will be bad ideas — I pitch horrible ideas, the boss will pitch horrible ideas. You have to have a safe room. You have to be able to have the freedom to say something stupid that might lead to something good. Because that happens all the time.”

Matt then explained that, when he and the Simpsons staff members are brainstorming ideas, it doesn’t matter who originally pitched something or what that turned into — all that matters is that they create a good episode.

During the brainstorming process, it’s crucial to have alternate options if you don’t like someone else’s idea. Megan explained that it’s not enough just to say you don’t like something, you have to be able to pitch another idea or a possible solution, too.

She also stressed how important it is to stick to the outline you’re given. After weeks of story discussions and analyzing plot points and mapping out the arc of a story, deviating when it comes time for you to write an episode yourself will only hurt the show and the rest of your writing team.

Breaking an episode can be a tedious process, but Matt put everything into perspective when he said that, even on “The Simpsons” (which is going into its 29th season this fall), they never run out of stories. And there’s a very simple reason — they tell the same emotional stories with their characters as in the first season, but the situations are always changing.

On getting started.

In the final part of the evening, audience members asked their own questions of the panel, which ranged from wonderings about studio/executive notes on scripts to managing 16th century dialogue.

Somewhere in between those two topics, all five members of the panel gave advice for writers who are just starting out, still working full-time jobs in the hopes of one day seeing their script make it to the screen.

“You just have to do it,” Craig said. “It’s not fun … the worst part is the starting, especially when you come home and you’re tired and miserable. But once you start, if it’s hard to stop then you may have a shot here.”

“You always want the first version you do to be great,” Matt said. “And, at any skill level, it almost never is. You have to just suck it up and use that first version to find what’s truly good about it, change it, and make it better.”

“Really focus on the character’s journey through the story, and try not to start with a story and then find a character to tell that story,” John advised.

“When you’re writing anything … it should be about something you care about,” Megan said.