How do I become a television writer if I don’t have any contacts?

I get asked this question a lot…but it’s disingenuous, since I’m a
TV writer/producer and whoever is asking me that is really asking me to either read
their script or to invite them in to pitch. So, theoretically, they already
know somebody in the business.
 
They’re luckier than I was when I got started. I didn’t know
anybody in the TV industry. But I got in. How did I do it? Everybody’s story is
unique. Most of those stories, however, share one common element. You have to
put yourself in the right place to get your lucky break. And it’s easier than
you think. 

The first thing you have to do is learn your craft. Take
classes, preferably taught by people who have had some success as TV writers.
There’s no point taking a class from someone who isn’t an experienced TV writer
themselves. 

You’d think that would be common sense, but you’d be
astonished how many TV courses are taught by people who don’t know the first
thing about writing for television or who, through a fluke, sold a story to Manimal twenty years ago and think that
qualifies them to take your hundred bucks. Even more surprising is how many
desperate people shell out money to take courses from instructors who should be
taking TV writing courses themselves.

There’s another reason to take a TV writing course besides
learning the basics of the craft. If you’re the least bit likeable, you’ll make
a few friends among the other classmates. This is good, because you’ll have
other people you can show your work to. This is also good because somebody in
the class may sell his or her first script before you do… and suddenly you’ll
have a friend in the business. 

Many of my writer/producer friends today are writers I knew
back when I was in college, when we were all dreaming of breaking into TV some
day. 

A writer we hired on staff on the first season of Missing was in a Santa Monica screenwriters group… and was the
first member of her class to get a paying writing gig. Now her friends in the
class suddenly had a friend on a network TV show who could share her knowledge,
give them practical advice and even recommend them to her new agent and the
writer/producers she was working with.

Another route is to try and get a job as a writer/producer’s
assistant on an hour-long drama. Now only will you get a meager salary, but you
will see how a show works from the inside. You’ll read lots of scripts and
revisions and, simply by observation, get a graduate course in TV writing. More
important, you’ll establish relationships with the writers on the show and the
freelancers who come through the door. Many of today’s top TV producers were writer/producer
assistants once. All of the assistants I’ve had have gone on to become working
TV writers themselves… and not because I gave them a script assignment or
recommended them for one. I didn’t do either.

 The first step towards getting into pitch a TV producer for
an episodic writing assignment is to write an episodic teleplay on spec.

By that I mean, a pick a show and write an episode for it.

Although there are some producers who prefer to read screenplays, most showrunners, agents, and network executives want to read an episodic teleplay. Even if your spec feature script
has acceptable levels of dialogue, characterization, and structure, people thinking of hiring you will still wonder “yes, but can he handle my characters? Does he understand the four act structure?” An original piece can demonstrate that you have a strong voice, but it doesn’t show whether or not
you blend that voice with ours. Can you write what we need without losing whatever it is that makes you unique? That’s why we need to see your talents applied to a TV episode. To someone else’s characters. To someone else’s voice.

How do you pick a show to spec? Easy. Pick a show you like. Odds are, if you’re thinking about trying to become a TV writer, you already know what show you want to spec — you just don’t know you know. It’s the one you watch every week, and when it’s over, you find yourself thinking: That was pretty good, but wouldn’t it be cool if —"
   
Don’t worry about what’s hot and what’s not – choose a show you feel a connection to, one that you “get.” With some exceptions: 

a) Try
to stay away from syndicated or basic cable science fiction shows like Andromeda or Stargate. Or even a basic cable drama shows like Strong Medicine or even my show, Missing Not because they aren’t good shows, but because most showrunners and network executives don’t watch them. They wouldn’t know whether a Farscape or Wild Card spec was any good because they’ve never seen the shows.

b) Also
try to stay away from first-year shows, unless they are big hits. Otherwise, by
the time you finish your spec, the show could be cancelled already…and your
script will be useless. No one is going to read a spec for a show that was
cancelled after 13 episodes…or 22.

Many writers feel compelled to write a Sopranos or The Shield simply because they’re  “hot” shows. That’s great if you have some kind of feel for the shows — but if you don’t, you’re not going to write a good Sopranos no matter how fine a writer you are.

What shows do you look forward to? Which world would you like to live in? Which characters would be happiest living in your brain for a few weeks? That’s the show to write.

What you’re going to be writing is a typical episode. It’s not your job to write the show you think it
should be; it’s your job to write the best possible version of the show that is. You need to prove that you can mimic the style and feeling of a show while still letting your unique voice and
vision shine through

Let me underscore this again. You want to write a typical episode. You don’t want to write a
“mythology” episode that delves into the deep backstory at the heart of the series. If it’s a show that derives much of its conflict from the sexual tension between two characters, you don’t write the episode where they sleep together. If it’s a show about people lost in space or on an island, don’t
write the episode where they find their way home or get rescued. If it’s a show about a fugitive on the run for a crime he didn’t commit, don’t write the episode where he proves his innocence. (And don’t ever, ever, ever write a spec “cross-over” with characters from another series, movie, book, or animated
cartoon).

What you’re trying to prove with your spec is:

1. You’re not illiterate. You know how to write.
2. You know how to write a script in the proper format.
3. You know how to structure a scene.
4. You know how to structure an act.
5. You know how to tell a story.
6. You understand the four act structure.
7. You can craft a story that serves the franchise of the show (ie a story that could only be told within the conceptual framework of that particular series)
8. You can capture the voices of the characters.
9. You can capture the story-telling style of the show.

What you aren’t trying to prove is how clever you are, or how much better you’d be writing the show than the people who are already  writing it.  Your goal is to write an entertaining, tight, typical episode of the show that illustrates your professional skills…not your
amazing style and unique voice. While TV producers are interested in your voice, what they really want to hear is how well you capture their voice. Your job as a TV writer to is channel the showrunner’s vision, not your own. 

And as soon as you finish writing that terrific spec, start on another for a different series, preferably
one that’s the opposite of what you’ve just written (ie a procedural and a melodrama). Because the first thing a TV producer will ask after reading your spec is…

Does he have another spec I can read?