Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast

The Netflix drama series created by Ava DuVernay and famed football player Colin Kaepernick explores Kaepernick's high school years and the experiences that led him to become an activist. Showrunner Michael Starrbury talked to Write On about how the writers' room was assembled: "If you put good people in the room together, and they really care about what you're trying to accomplish, then good things will come out of it. I wasn't really looking for 'TV writers;' I was looking for people who could write TV."   Michael goes on to discuss what it takes to have a career in writing. "Have your own goals. Don't let anybody gas you up and tell you that you're doing great when you have your own measurement for greatness… I can't control the yes's and no's in Hollywood, but what I can do is I can make adjustments for myself in order to reach my goal."   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!  

Chucky is back! Everyone’s favorite killer doll is soon to have his own TV series on SYFY, and writer Kim Garland talked to Write On about what it took to get on the writing staff: “I sat down one weekend, and I watched all seven films in a row, just back-to-back-to-back. I binged it hard, and a lot of it was I really wanted to take the full journey and compress what [creator Don Mancini] had done in 30 years."   Kim goes on to discuss why she thinks Chucky has remained popular as a character for so long. "I think part of what's so fun is [Chucky] is this guy who has given up on trying to go back in a human body and is fully embracing the doll, but it's still a person in there that's living and evolving and changing."   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!  

Mike talks to Write On about his work as a mentor and the founding of his organization Black Boy Writes: "I have 11 mentees; they're all great, and they all span different genres. [We're] just breaking that myth that Black people are monolithic, we can only write one thing or we all experience the same thing, when that’s not true. We live varied experiences, and we write many types of things."   Mike discusses getting his first writing job with Issa Rae, and gives advice for the aspiring writer. "You have to remember that you're only as good as your last writing sample. You're only as good as your last project, so you have to keep the momentum. You have to keep writing. . . if I wasn't writing all the time, I would not have the opportunities that I have now.”   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!  

Sera talks about the latest season of the hit Netflix series starring Penn Badgley as the obsessive and murderous Joe Goldberg: "We [gave] ourselves total permission to go in a new direction. This is not one of those premises that you can repeat in the same way for more than one season. We knew when we were making season one, we will never be able to tell exactly this kind of story again because now the viewers are onto us, and this show is only really fun if it's surprising, so we're forced to step outside of the previous box every time."   Sera goes on to talk about how she goes out building a writers’ room: "I really like building a room where people come from dramatically different writing backgrounds… I think of the Tetris as being about finding people who are interesting and different and have really different points of view about the world, and then put them all together because they're going to have a really rich discussion about this subject matter."   The third season of You is now streaming on Netflix.   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!  

Gloria talks to Write On about her process for choosing a writers’ room. "For One Day at a Time, we wanted a heavily Latino room because we were doing Latinx storylines, and we wanted to make sure that we were specific because it was a Cuban family, but also, it was great to hear from all the other Latinos in the room that were not Cuban that were like, 'Oh my God, my family did that too!'"   Gloria goes on to discuss what makes a good TV staff writer: "Ultimately, if you are on a staff, you are there at the service of the showrunner. You are there to help them make the show they want to make, so how can you help them? What idea can you give them so that we can all go home? What thing are you going to do that's going to crack it? I think once that became crystal clear, everything became much, much easier for me."   Gloria’s new series, With Love, will premiere on Amazon later this year.   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!  

The Hulu series starring Michael Keaton takes viewers to the epicenter of America's struggle with opioid addiction. Creator Danny Strong talks about putting the show together in the midst of the pandemic: "One of the ways that I dealt with [having a virtual writer's room] was that I just started doing my own outlines, so I would be showrunning and working as a writer's assistant at the same time, and it would sort of confuse the staff. They'd be like, 'Are you sure?' and I'd be like, 'Hold on, I'm just writing this down!'"   Danny goes on to discuss how he crafts stories based on real life. "A technique I use in nonfiction dramatic storytelling like this is that there are scenes that are there as a conduit - a fictional scene - that's there as a conduit to get true facts out. So the goal of the scene is to get real, true information out, and yes, if the scene is fictionalized in order to do so, it's fine because at the end of the day, what the scene is about is a truthful concept, idea, something along those lines."   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!  

TV and feature writer Eileen Jones talks about her career with screenwriting coach Lee Jessup. Eileen Jones made her entry into screenwriting through the Warner Brothers' Television Workshop, which led to being staffed on the TV series Lethal Weapon. Eileen has since moved into feature films, penning the original female-led action western Highwayman after participating in the inaugural Lucky Exports Pitch Program. She is currently writing the female-led spy movie Marks for New Line Cinema, The Safran Company, and Hodson Exports.   Eileen talks about breaking in, sustaining her career, and how to stay inspired: "What makes you excited? What is going to be fun for you to sit down and write every day? I've certainly had experiences where I wrote a script where I was like, 'This is small, it's really personal, I just need to write it, so I'm gonna do it,' and that's been valuable. But for me, now, I'm really thinking about, 'How do I have that meaningful conversation with as many people as possible?'"   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!  

After suffering a stroke, Judith Albright moves into a historic nursing home, where she begins to suspect something supernatural is preying on the residents in this Amazon Original Movie.   Writer-Director Axelle Carolyn talks about how her personal family experiences shaped the story: "I saw my dad and my granddad both go to nursing homes, and I saw how it changed them, and it changed the way that people look at them and speak to them, and I think that when people address you a different way, you become someone else." She goes on to discuss the horror genre and the films that inspired her to be a filmmaker. "It was a combination of David Cronenberg's The Fly, which kind of taught me the power of characters and emotion in a horror movie… and Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator, and it just felt like working on that set would have been the most fun thing in the world."   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!  

Taylor Orci is a TV and screenwriter known for their work on Vida and the Emmy-nominated series Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts on Netflix. Taylor is also known for creating the web video ‘Bitchy Resting Face’ that went so viral it got the term in the dictionary!   Taylor talks about how they navigated their writing career and forged their own path: "If I followed all the well-intended advice that people looked me straight in the eye and said, 'I'm trying to help you,' I wouldn't have a job right now. I wouldn't have a career." Taylor goes on to discuss the need for more diversity in the industry, especially in positions of power: "You need to have more queer people and POC people occupying levels of authority… from mid-level to upper level to the executive level and beyond… We need to be seeing more representation and more butts in seats because different decisions are going to be made when you have those people in the room."   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!  

The feature comedy is about an aimless ne'er-do-well who becomes a tour guide in a historic estate and winds up befriending the manor's resident ghost. Co-writers, directors and brothers Justin and Christian Long talk to Write On about collaboration. Christian says: "We happen to agree a lot creatively, so there's usually not a lot of conflict. We definitely have different approaches as people in that Justin… has a really big personality. I'm a little more reserved, a little more shy, so it takes me a minute to open up to people."   Justin talks about how writing the movie helped reconnect him with his brother: "I was working in London and kind of lonely, it was kind of a lonely job… [collaborating on the script with Christian] was a way to feel like I was back with my brother, and it was an easy way to bond from a distance, and it always made me laugh to get these scenes from him, and then he would get my scenes, and he'd punch them up and make them better, and I would try to make his better, and that's kind of how we worked."   Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write On Podcast on iTunes!   Now available on Google Podcasts!