Non-News That's Good News

It's been a whirlwind 24ish hours for me here in L.A. But before I get ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning.

Many of you know that I applied to a number of TV writing fellowships at the end of May. I worked long and hard on a spec script of "Modern Family" and submitted it to Warner Bros., NBC and ABC. It was a long shot of a pipe dream, but it was good practice and I came out of it with a great writing sample at the very least.

Over the last couple weeks I heard back from (or didn't hear back from) the NBC and WB programs informing me that I had not been chosen as a semi-finalist. But as I said, the odds were always stacked against me and I didn't really have much hope of breaking through. The WB fellowship alone received over 1,700 entries. Of those 1,700 only 8 (4 comedy scripts, 4 drama scripts) are being chosen. For those keeping track at home, that means less than 0.5% of all applicants are chosen. With odds like that, I was hardly devastated. I know my script is solid and I don't need a lottery to tell me that.

Now only the ABC program remained. The creme de la creme. ABC is a full year long program (twice as long as WB and 4 times as long as NBC) that sets their participants up as "Program Writers" on actual working shows. Consequently, it's the only program that pays its writers. $50,000. Naturally their selection process is a little more involved than all the other programs... combined.

ABC was the only program to require, not one, but TWO letters of recommendation from "Industry Professionals". They require applicants that get through the initial round of eliminations to submit TWO additional writing samples (one pilot script and one miscellaneous script). They then narrow those down to the Semi-Finalists, who are run through a phone interview. From that interview, 30 Finalists are chosen to take part in a 3 day "gauntlet" of interviews. Day one is a mixer with all the finalists and various executives and producers. Day two is one-on-one interviews with program executives, the people running the program. Day three is a panel interview with program executives, shorunners and producers. From that, 8 writers/writing teams are selected (4 comedy, 4 drama again).

It sounds intense but remember; ABC is putting these rookies into their actual working writer's rooms. They will be participating in their shows. They need to be sure they're picking writers who are not only talented but good, personable and fun people too.

So why did I explain all this? Because yesterday evening, around 6:20 p.m. PST, the ABC Writer's Program emailed me to ask for additional writing samples.

Wow! That was exciting news... for about 15 seconds. If you'll recall I said that the program asks for two additional writing samples. A pilot, which I had. And a miscellaneous, which I did not. Not really. I had a couple scripts lying around but nothing newer than a year and a half old, and none that were comedic (as my spec and pilot were comedic, I figured it would be best to stay on that track). And the cherry on top? All additional materials were due by 4 p.m. this afternoon. Less than 24 hours after the email was sent.

What was I gonna do? My crappy older stuff wasn't ideal and was mostly in need of extensive rewriting to come close to an accurate representation of my current skill level. I didn't have time to fix those if I wanted to. I have been working on a drama pilot for a while but it's not even ready for me to write pages. Even if it were I didn't have time to write a 40-60 page drama script (something I've yet to even attempt).

I was desperate. All those hours on that script. Was it really gonna end this way? ABC wanted more of my material and I just didn't have any? No. I may very well not make it into the program, but I wasn't about to let THIS be the reason I don't get in.

It was clear what I had to do. I had to write something from scratch. I had about 18 hours until I had to have my materials in and I was gonna have something. Racking my brain I remembered a series of sketch ideas me and my roommate had been tossing around all week. We had just finished watching "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and were toying with the idea of doing our own sketch comedy show to post online and maybe generate some exposure.

That was it! Sketch comedy shows have writer's rooms too! Sketches are legitimate television writing!

I quickly set to work on the sketches. Most of the ideas were nothing more than concepts or funny images that hadn't been flushed out into full sketches yet. But this wasn't pitch time, this was sink or swim time. So I plowed ahead and by 6 a.m. I had written 8 sketches totaling about 19 pages in length. I took a quick snooze while my mom and brother looked the pages over and gave me some feedback. When I woke up I got to work on making revisions, as well as signing and scanning the various release forms that needed to accompany my writing samples (I also had to fill out a form that included web addresses for my social networking presence; apparently they want to look over my facebook page).

In the end I got them all sent off with time to spare. Now I'm pretty much falling asleep at the keyboard but I wanted to let you all know about my exciting 24 hours. For those wondering; yes, I am actually quite happy with how the sketches turned out. I thought they were all funny and that's about all you can ask for in sketch writing. Beyond that, I think a collection of straight jokes will pair nicely with the more dramedy spec and pilot I submitted. And I think it may help me stand out as I doubt many others submitted a sketch packet as a writing sample. Under the circumstances, I don't see how it could have gone better.

It's also encouraging to know I'm capable of that kind of production in a very short time when pressed. It's a confidence that will come in handy when I'm actually a working staff writer someday and my livelihood depends on me writing 20 pages in a night.

Now, this is still non-news in the end. They're likely asking hundreds of people for additional materials. All it means is I made it past whatever initial screening processes they use to thin out the herd. But it's still good news. I'm not out. I'm a tiny step closer to a spot in the program. And I got two more strong writing samples into the judges hands, which can only be a good thing. Whatever happens next is out of my control, but at least I was able to pick myself up off the mat and stay in the game when I had to. Thanks be to God.