NBCs Writers on the Verge

Dancre

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Someone had sent me a fb link: https://www.facebook.com/writersontheverge?fref=ts in which the NBC TV studio was looking for new writing talent. What got me was the 'no experience necessary." So I wrote to them and asked, is that right? Yeap. IT's right. No experience necessary. So why is it that a prof TV studio is looking for writers who's only requirement is you need to know how to use a keyboard? Call me naïve, silly or just plain snobby, but wouldn't a TV studio WANT someone with writing experience? Shouldn't the writer at least know how to create characters, plot, etc? Or is that stuff now not needed?

THey also started to give writing tips 101 that the newest newbie under SYW should know. and yet the folks on the FB page were excited to get these tips as many didn't know them. Again, I"m scratching my head. NBC wants writers who don't know you should start a scene with action. Is this how the TV studios are now? Writers who have no clue how to write? Sigh ... No wonder I hate TV.
 

Dancre

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chompers

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Looks to me it's more of a mentoring program, not NBC putting out a want ad.
 

Dancre

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But wouldn't they want people who at least have an idea on how to write? It take years to learn to write, not just a few classes. I understand that it's a mentoring class, but still, shouldn't one at least know the ins and outs of writing? You can't learn how to write well by taking a few classes.
 
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Which is why they have the submission process. You submit a spec script and it's evaluated for admission. Sounds more like "no experience writing for television" is necessary, as in you don't need a job in the industry to be considered.
 
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Dancre

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Which is why they have the submission process. You submit a spec script and it's evaluated for admission.

That's like saying, we are looking for a guitar player for our band, no experience necessary. Try out and if you're good enough, we'll teach you how to play like a rock star. I see now why I hate TV. When someone like Stephen King writes an episode, he blows everyone out of the water. You can't learn how to write with three easy classes. It doesn't work that way.
 

Dancre

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Which is why they have the submission process. You submit a spec script and it's evaluated for admission. Sounds more like "no experience writing for television" is necessary, as in you don't need a job in the industry to be considered.

I asked them if they preferred people with writing experience. They said, No and then posted writing tips 101 that every writer should know and most who were signing up didn't know. It seems that their requirements are you must know how to use a keyboard which doesn't make one a writer.
 
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benbradley

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I asked them if they preferred people with writing experience. They said, No and then posted writing tips 101 that every writer should know and most who were signing up didn't know. It seems that their requirements are you must know how to use a keyboard which doesn't make one a writer.
So they're looking for keyboardists?
 

cornflake

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But wouldn't they want people who at least have an idea on how to write? It take years to learn to write, not just a few classes. I understand that it's a mentoring class, but still, shouldn't one at least know the ins and outs of writing? You can't learn how to write well by taking a few classes.

I guess. I have no idea. THey don't seem to care about writing experience, period. As long as you can pound on a keyboard, you're in.

Pretty much every network runs one of these.

They want people who can write, yes, hence you have to be admitted. These are *extremely* competitive. I know people who've taken expensive, extensive classes to polish the scripts they use as submissions.
 

Dancre

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Pretty much every network runs one of these.

They want people who can write, yes, hence you have to be admitted. These are *extremely* competitive. I know people who've taken expensive, extensive classes to polish the scripts they use as submissions.

Thanks, Cornflake. From the way it sounded, I was under the impression that anyone could get on board and the fact that they had writing 101 tips made me question them. I'd love to try out myself, but I'm such a control freak that I have a feeling if I was accepted the producers would walk me to the boarders, hand me a bus pass and say, bye-bye. Not to mention I support the Tea Party, love Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh. Yeah, I'd make it alright. LOL!!!
 
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frimble3

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'No experience necessary' is not the same as 'We'll take the first guy past the post, regardless of experience'.
Is this not like a giant slush pile? I imagine every would-be scriptwriter who sees the offer will apply. They pick the ones who look the likeliest. So, although it might say 'no experience necessary', people with experience, or at least, skills, will be likeliest to be picked.

I would imagine it's like open submissions at a publisher that usually requires an agent. A chance to see if they're missing anything.
 

cornflake

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'No experience necessary' is not the same as 'We'll take the first guy past the post, regardless of experience'.
Is this not like a giant slush pile? I imagine every would-be scriptwriter who sees the offer will apply. They pick the ones who look the likeliest. So, although it might say 'no experience necessary', people with experience, or at least, skills, will be likeliest to be picked.

I would imagine it's like open submissions at a publisher that usually requires an agent. A chance to see if they're missing anything.

Exactly.

They don't require any experience. If you can write an amazing script off the bat, you may get in. It is, however, extremely competitive. As I said, most every network runs one of these, people prepare their entries ages in advance, plan what to use as entry material, etc.

Same as the slush pile. There's someone sending in something no one has ever looked at that's so brilliant it'll get noticed. There's certainly the possibility someone who just dashes off a submission will win a spot, but there are a lot of entrants and many are skilled and prepare assiduously.
 

Dancre

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THat makes sense. Thanks. I still don't think I would like to do it unless I was really behind the characters and the story. I hate giving up that control that comes with novel writing.
 

cornflake

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THat makes sense. Thanks. I still don't think I would like to do it unless I was really behind the characters and the story. I hate giving up that control that comes with novel writing.

The most that'd come out if it would be a job. That's the end goal for pretty much anyone entering. You don't have control over the characters or story in any television situation, unless you're Sorkin or the like, and even then.

These programs are test units to maybe find someone to give a job to. I've heard it's quite rare that happens as well, rare as it is to even get a spot to begin with.

I suppose it's theoretically possible someone's submission would end up getting looked at for actual production but a. that'd be akin to getting hit by lightning while holding a winning lottery ticket while riding a unicorn, and b. even if it was looked at for production, then greenlit for pilot season, then actually produced for pilot season, then actually picked up (and to each of these steps see above unicorn-riding and add stuff that's REALLY unlikely), you'd still be one of ten people writing it.
 

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Kiyong Kim has an excellent blog where he writes about his experiences in the various network writer training programs. Other writers who done these programs share their experiences too. Many articles on WotV:

https://kiyong.wordpress.com/category/02-nbc-writers-on-the-verge/

Nickelodeon, CBS, Warner Brothers, NBC, and Disney-ABC all have writers' training programs. (FOX used to, but last I heard it was in limbo.)

These programs don't so much train writers as they do polish them, find them jobs as apprentice writers on their TV shows, and introduce them to the right people - executives, showrunners, experienced TV writers, and so on.

If you're not already a really good TV script writer, you won't make it past the first round of the application process. The writers who get into these programs always have several years of writing experience behind them, and many are graduates of elite film schools or university writing programs.These writers also typically have a few years of experience working in Hollywood, before they even apply. Disney used to require applicants to get letters of recommendation from Hollywood professionals as part of the application process.

Marc Cherry, creator of Desperate Housewives, went through the Warner Bros program. Jane Espenson did the Disney Fellowship. Many other successful TV and film writers have done the same.

The training programs are partly positive PR - to show that these mammoth corporations, who depend on the public's goodwill, are open to new talent, especially women and minorities.The websites for these programs are put together by the corporate wing of whichever network runs the particular program. Like anything put out by any corporation ever, the promotional copy on the websites doesn't tell the whole truth. Corporate wants to put as positive a spin on the process as possible, so it will never say that TV writing is more competitive than the NBA or the Olympics. Corporate would never say, Feel free to apply if you want, but remember, less than one tenth of one percent of you are talented enough and persistent enough to have long writing careers.
 
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Jamesaritchie

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Here's more from them. A 'how to write' graph. http://prezi.com/gdkzqpgpfpsm/writing-for-television/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy again, REALLY?? It took me 14 years to learn the stuff I've learned and now I'm teaching it and sold my first novel, so how in the world does any producer at NBC think it would take a few months to learn the ins and outs of writing???

Not everyone takes fourteen years. Two months after I sat down to write my first sentence, I'd sold five short stories to major magazines, had an agent, and sold my first novel.

A person who spends enough time reading and thinking already has a wealth of experience, and if he has the talent to go along with it, things can happen very, very fast. I've known many writers who succeeded wildly as fast as they could sit down and write something.

This program is like anything else. Some won't learn at all, some will learn slowly, some will learn fast, and a few will catch on immediately, and this program is valuable experience in and of itself.