My understanding is soap writers do write scripts for up to two or months ahead. I remember reading McTavish did that. Basically they make like a 6 month plan. I think Cady McClain mentioned that when she returned to AMC in 2005

Edited November 3, 200718 yr by AMC Zendall Fan

Only Wendy??

Jealousy sure has come to SON in November.

Jealousy sure has come to SON in November.

Only not the one you expected?

Edited November 3, 200718 yr by Sylph

Only not the one you expected?

Well, that's the element of surprise, isn't it?

Well, that's the element of surprise, isn't it?

During the past writer Strikes in 1981 and 1988

The soaps continued production. Some had actors writing others hired non union writers to continue the show

Im sure they will go this route again.

They could and should, but will they? Sadly, I do not think so.

The list is so long that it is not funny. I am sure a handful of non-WGA members would jump at the chance to write for any of theses shows, and to expose their work to a new audience. How many people know about the work of Robert Alexander?

Over the course of a year, daytime HW are guaranteed at least one million dollars a year. Passanante...a millionaire...for writing crap?

The only thing they care about are profits. But that quest has robbed their intelligence. They are working on a flawed and outdated business model that desperately needs to change. Many of these shows should air no more than four times a week.

During the past writer Strikes in 1981 and 1988

The soaps continued production. Some had actors writing others hired non union writers to continue the show

Im sure they will go this route again.

Over the course of a year, daytime HW are guaranteed at least one million dollars a year. Passanante...a millionaire...for writing crap?

One million dollars a year?

Wow.

YRBB, search for a topic called Writers' Salaries. There you'll find all about it.

During the past writer Strikes in 1981 and 1988

The soaps continued production. Some had actors writing others hired non union writers to continue the show

Im sure they will go this route again.

I think they will too. There's alot of actors that can write scripts too. I do know some AMC actors have been known to write their own stuff a time or two.....

Here's the address:

http://cust9328.ipslink.com/~soapoper/boar...amp;hl=salaries

I think they will too. There's alot of actors that can write scripts too. I do know some AMC actors have been known to write their own stuff a time or two.....

Oh, Mary Masters for ATWT... But I think she's a member of the Guild so she won't write... We'll see.

Thorsten Kaye could write for AMC, damn that man can write

I wouldn't be shocked if network peeps wrote stuff either..........

CRAP!!!!

It's a shame the soap writers have to strike because it seems like the main issues have nothing to do with them! Soaps don't have DVDs or air on new media.

Is DAYS even still selling episodes on Itunes? That's the only new media I can think of.

Actually, Toups, daytime has more to gain/more at stake in these negotiations than ever before. Coastal Dreams, for instance, was written non-WGA, however advertising was sold, actors were paid under AFTRA contracts, directors et al., under DGA. As Passions moves to the web -- that's new media. Episodes that are streamed online in full via network websites earn ad revenue. If you watch Grey's Anatomy on abc.com, there are commercial breaks -- and it costs abc nothing to mount the show on the web. Those ads are gravy.

Daytime is being eroded on network tv. It will eventually disappear. This year there are 50% fewer writers working on daytime than there were last year. The future of the serial drama a/k/a soap opera is on the web, on the cell phone, in new media.

I realize there are a lot of people out there who think they can do better than the wga writers who are working so hard to produce daily content 52 weeks a year. One thing you should know, many, many playwrights and novelists are given shots through the daytime writer development programs. It's not the same skill as writing your own characters, spinning your own limited stories with beginnings, middles and ends. There are arcs but no ends. And these are never your characters. Your voice as a writer must meld with the voices of the others, with the voices of the characters, with the established voice of a show. Whether you agree with the direction your show is taking or not. It's a particular skill that is not as easy as it seems from the pov of the couch and the keyboard. A soap script writer must churn out around 90 pages a week, every single week, sometimes 180. A play can take someone years to write. And then, when you turn in that script, you turn right around and start the next one.

There absolutely are extremely weak links in the soap writing community. Plenty of hacks, I agree. And it is infuriating. But that does not mean it is easy to find new blood.

Believe me, the striking writers will be starving in short order. Not the headwriters. But the rank and file. Nobody wants this. And in this lousy economic climate, nobody would be striking unless it were absolutely necessary.

The internet is being positioned as the new television. This wouldn't be happening if the 6 corporations who own the networks had not already done massive feasibility and profit/loss studies for over a decade now. Ten years ago I was a graphic designer temp, and I worked on Disney's confidential new media study. They're conclusion: they stood to make billions in the new media market. What I'm saying is, there's nothing new about new media. It's just ready, now.

So I just spouted off, but the truth is, this is daytime's fight as much as it is anyone else's this time. A lot of people are in denial about our future, but serial drama is moving off the tube and onto the laptop. It's a done deal. So in order for the form to grow and thrive, a mechanism needs to be put in place to keep the good writers writing. Otherwise, well, they can write blogs and sell ads of their own. Who needs the aggravation?

Hope that's somewhat clearer...

/\

Damn....thanks for that insight! You make some great points.

Thorsten Kaye could write for AMC, damn that man can write

For Agnes's sake, I hope he's a member of the WGA.