Writer's Strike Thread

[dragonflies]

Whatever At least AMC would be WELL WRITTEN for a change

Anyways, I have alot of mixed feelings about this strike, I won't voice for risk of offending too many people.

[bellcurve]

Zach and Kendall would be well-written. Everyone else, I'm not so sure about. BUT...I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

(P.S. Enjoyed Thorsten on PORT CHARLES, pre-arcs. My vendetta against Zendall has nothing to do with him or Alicia Minshew.)

Air it out...that's what the board is here for! Even if I *DO* disagree with you.

Besides, I love all this strike talk. Much more exciting than any daytime drama.

[StephanieLover17]

I will write days, i dont know if i am old enough. I am only 18 but i got some good ideas. Like have Chelsea getting a stalker and getting her admitted into a Mental ward with the stalker still tormenting her and Nick.

Continue the stephanie/max/morgan triangle and have some fun scenes with all 3. I would kill Lucas off and bring bryan back as a different character because i hate to lose bryan because he is such a great actor.

I would focus alot on Chelsea Brady. I would backburn the brady vs dimera story by only have it on 2-3 days per week while Chelsea's story is on 4 days per week.

I would head to corday's office and offer to write days. I can come up with some good scripts and interesting storylines but i am sure the strike would be over by end of January, if not I would write days until its over.

Chelsea would be the star on days, a stalker is setting her up by getting her admiited to a psych ward but he still gets to her by sneaking in, then some part in the story, i would have the stalker kidnap her and take her far away to a castle in europe where Nick has to track him down and rescue Chelsea.

I would also focus on Stephanie alot too, give a reason for her personality change like She was raped pre-Jeremy.

I would have Sami dump Lucas and fall in love with EJ Wells all over again, give them some playful scenes.

Give Bo and Hope a Huge Story like having them find out Zack is really alive.

Make Jett the Serial Rapist

but i think this will be straighten out by January.

[Sylph]

With that mingled syntax and bad spelling, I'm not sure they'd hire you.

[bellcurve]

LMAO.

Well, there's always a revival of SWANS CROSSING to consider.

[exwriter]

Marie Masters is indeed a wonderful writer, but she's a guild member, and she wouldn't cross the picket line.

Here's the problem with actors writing for their shows.

Writing dialogue for one's character is one thing. And some actors actually do that well. Far fewer than you'd think though. Because much of their writing is caught up in making themselves look good, making their character look heroic, etc. and ends up being to the detriment or downright obliteration of the other actor in the scene. To act well, you look through your character's eyes. It doesn't help your performance (unless you're a very special kind of actor) to think too much about the big picture.

Writing dialogue and storytelling are different skills. You need both to write a television show well.

An actor's job is to bring life to his character and to see the entire canvas from that one point of view. If you put a gaggle of actors in a room to write scenes together -- you'd end up with the tower of babel/babble because everyone would want the last word. The writer is the one who decides who gets that, and that craftsperson can't do so from inside any one character's mind. You'd get monologue after monologue after monologue about losing the little red wagon in a rainstorm when they were five years old. Not joking -- I've seen it happen.

It's a rare actor that can step outside of that approach and craft a storyline, much less, three in a day, six at a time, five days a week. There are those that can do it. But there's a big difference between Tuc Watkins coming up with a fantastic funny line for David, and Tuc Watkins solving the Which Man For Dorian Problem. (I say that with all love for Tuc.)

The trick with writing a soap is keep all the balls in the air, all the time. As you all know, this doesn't always happen. I blame a lot of it on certain networks' insistence -- okay ABC -- on telling stories via focus groups. The focus groups and TVQ scores are used to decide who/what/where is frontburnered to the exception of anything else. And the inherent problem with focus groups in my opinion is -- well -- first of all, I used to lie to get into focus groups because they paid you 60 bucks cash off the books, so I'd say whatever I thought they wanted to hear. But that's not my main problem. Our job as writers is to tell a new story, a new twist, a new way -- one that hasn't been seen before. A fresh take on an old story, perhaps, but focus groups only ask questions about what's already been seen. When I read online message boards and people want certain couples back together or whatever, well, fine, but my job is to give you something you haven't expected. Even if it's just a fresh take on a scene. But I'm talking the big stuff, story arcs, relationships, issues.

As long as the storytellers are hobbled by suits with statistics, they cannot tell good story.

I mean, look at the primetime auteurs. Look at Marc Cherry, Dick Wolf, Tom Fontana, Shonda Rhimes, David E. Kelley, Josh Whedon, the Lost dudes, David Chase, Larry David, John Wells, the list goes on. Those writers pitch, they're given the green light, and they tell their stories their way most of the time. There's a unifying voice. Their bosses trust that they've hired a creative mind. That's the difference.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

^I wonder how different Y&R would be if Bill Bell were still alive (a lot different, I know). He never listened to CBS or Sony and always did his own thing. Pretty sad that we don't have anyone with that kind of power in daytime anymore.

[stenbeck212]

What I'd like to know is what made TPTB think the autonomous vision wasn't working in the first place. Competition from cable and the internet wasn't the reason to kill Maureen Bauer. I don't see how focus groups can have the amount of power they do while emails and letters from the rest of us are useless. Fan opinion is there whether they solicit it or not.

[Toups]

Yes, thank you much for clearing things up and for the insight! So as soaps move onto new media, the writers have to fight right now or else they're going to get screwered over more in the future.

[Toups]

Don't get me started on focus groups! I just can't believe people (Frons!) use them to make decisions. Oy!

[Sylph]

Weirdly, I managed to misspell her name, but nevermind... Do you know why hasn't she been writing anything for soaps from her last amazingly brief stint on ATWT? I enjoyed her scripts.

[Josh]

I will write "Guiding Light" seriously, I'll write it!

[stenbeck212]

While fair treatment is ideal, soaps have the most to lose from prolonged negotiations. And I won't be any closer to owning a complete dvd set of ATWT in 1986.

[Kubla Khan]

I'm not sure and it should be checked, but I believe that scabs can no longer write for soaps, as they did twenty years ago. If I understand correctly, nowadays they can only write if the entire production is non-union, meaning no actors part of AFTRA, no directors part of DGA, etc.

[exwriter]

True. There are mechanisms in place to find and fine scabs. They will, as they were last time, be banned from all future WGA work. Also, hefty fines were levied in '88 -- we're talking in the tens of thousands per person -- for scabbing. Those people were fined far more than they made. Also, the truth is, scabs get no respect. TPTB are not grateful to be baled out. After all, they're all in unions, too. Better to write your own project, put it out there in your own non-union way, say, on youtube. The venues are out there if you've really got the guts. There's absolutely nothing stopping you. You want to write for soaps, pay your dues the way the guild writers have. Write plays, write spec scripts, write. If you are any good, you'll rise to the top.

A strike is not an opportunity to take peoples' jobs. That makes you a scumbag. And if you're non-union or a scab, you'll just be a broke scumbag.