PREMIUM CONTENT - Supernatural: Peace of Mind

This month’s premium post is all about writing for TV. Specifically, my first TV script.

I started out on the long-running show SUPERNATURAL as an assistant. The new showrunner took over in Season 12, and I was brought on to assist him with meetings, pitches, keeping the room, etc. But, as it had already been on the air for eleven years, it pretty much ran like a well oiled machine. Unlike other TV rooms you hear about, with chaotic schedules and erratic bosses, we had something of a luxury in the TV business - TIME. Me, especially. While I took my job as assistant seriously, I found myself with loads of time on my hands. 

So, I wrote. And read. And talked to our writers. And, most importantly, I had then read what I wrote. The first draft of the first pilot I gave to our writer’s assistant John Bring was… not very good. But he gave me some stellar notes. And then I gave it to one of our writers, Davy Perez. And he gave me some amazing notes. And then I gave it to Steve Yockey, and Meredith Glynn, and Bob Berens. All writers on our show, all higher levels, before I gave it to my boss, Andrew. 

But those weren’t the hurdle. The real hurdle was our executive producer, the man with decades of television under his belt: Bob Singer. 

Andrew encouraged me to give Bob the script. In fact, it was Andrew that told me when to do it. “Bob is bored,” he IM’ed me one day. “Give him your script now.” I panicked. Smashed all the keys in my IM to my boss. 

But I’ve never let fear stop me. 

So, I went into Bob’s office and asked if he would read a script of mine. He agreed. So, I printed it out and gave it to him. 

That’s truly how I got my first episode of TV. Being afraid, and doing it anyway. And writing, writing, writing, writing, writing. 

But that wasn’t the end of the process. Let’s focus on a specific scene from the episode I wrote.