Eighteen Months In

It’s been a tough staffing season this year:

• The show I was freelancing on just found out they aren’t coming back. It was a network one-hour, very high profile, so this isn’t just bad news…it sucks.

• The showrunner I know at a similar show that was picked up just let me know that they’re fully staffed at my level – I had to delete a reflexive “Guess I’ll just pray someone doesn’t work out” response.

• My powerhouse agency dropped me as politely as they could have…which means they gave me a glowing recommendation to a smaller boutique.

• Had an ultra-lame (on my end) meeting yesterday for a new Fox one-hour. The creator was cool, interesting, had great energy, and is a damn fine writer. But I was so geeked up, I’m afraid he may have drowned in the deep pool of desperation I left behind.

• My Mom finally lost her battle with cancer after three years in March…two days after my daughter’s first birthday.

So things could definitely look better on paper. My past inclination would have been to consider folding up my tent and finding a nice, thoroughly-unfulfilling job in customer service that can provide health insurance for my kid.

But I know how success is measured in Hollywood – and it ain’t by the yard. Of course, I know people who’ve blown up overnight but this is super-rare, almost like finding money floating down the street. Nice to hear about (and even better to experience) but never something one should count on.

Instead, I look at where I am relative to November 2008 – zero hour for my journey. And, seeing what I have now as opposed to then, is striking.

• Cancelled or not, I worked on a network series last year. Had it been picked up, I would have been in position to interview for a permanent staffing gig. This is huge in a way I didn’t anticipate – the showrunner actually references it when he’s referred me to friends at other shows. Having him say, “We were ready to bring him into the room, if we got a pick-up” is a massive vote of confidence from one pro to another.

• My original series is almost ready to pitch – and the producer I developed it with is so high-end that we’ll be pitching to the head guys at HBO, Fox, and Showtime. He’s also started talking to director/friends about possibly attaching to the project. The entire list is Academy Award-nominated and/or winners. Which still stuns me to contemplate.

• After establishing a relationship with Showrunner #2, we have an open dialogue. I love their show and think I can wedge myself in the door if any opportunities ever pop up. If nothing else, they have my A sample and it came from another showrunner. So my intro couldn’t have been better.

• My new agency liked my samples and were thoroughly impressed with how I ended up at their door. Staffing seasons in the future will be a very different exercise than the past two with my former reps – I finally feel like I have someone who hears my voice. Again, this is huge.

• I have a ton of samples now, some pretty good. I try to write for eight hours a day during the week and, if nothing else, I’ve been able to evolve my writing in the last eighteen months to a place where I’m comfortable tackling just about anything. What’s up “Fringe”? How you living “Leverage”?

• I’m a known quantity to at least four network showrunners. Two of them don’t have a show right now but, when they do, they know my name and my writing. And I have an open line of communication to the other two – one of whom brought me in for a meeting yesterday.

• The producer on my original pilot is friends with the EP of a huge ABC drama – and he just told me to use his name to get my sample on her desk. Probably too late in the season to get staffed up. But they gotta hire freelancers and, at the very least, I’ll be on their radar from here on out.

• Should things not work out with my new agent, my old guy is more than willing to take calls on my behalf – which is far from ideal, but waaaaay better than having no one at all to send your stuff out. His name and agency will give me legitimacy as long as he’s there.

• Plus more positives that I just can’t see today…

Bottom line: no matter the speed, if you bust your ass and work every connection you can imagine, you can move forward. It just may not be as fast as you’d like – but, then again, I know I’m gonna appreciate the hell out of my first staff writing gig!