Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
In show business, they say that its all about who you know.
Well, youre in luck, because now you know Priyanka!
I moved to L.A. five years ago to follow my dream of becoming a TV writer.
The dwindling jobs and now the strike have me pretty dejected about my current prospects.
Our stories, finally!
Notjustendless regurgitation of IP.
I teared up looking at show credits.
Most of the shows were never green-lit.
So I spoke withOlga Lexell, an organizer who is also one of my favorite people online.
Humanitas is doingGroceries for Writers gift cards, prioritizing writers early in their careers.
The MPTF has ahotlinefor anyone in need of financial assistance and is affected by the strike.
Local IATSE chapters have Good and Welfare funds that are set up for financial aid.
The Inevitable Foundationoffers cash grantsto disabled screenwriters on strike.
You need stuff done; hire people.
Pay them $30-$35 an hour.
Redistribute the wealth and tide someone over.
Even if you might only hire part time, share an assistant with a friend!
Pay that good old residual money forward, and tell your pals to do the same.
I will be watching you closely, and you do not want me disappointed.
How are you going to spend this pause?
A day trip with a friend?
A self-taught new interest?
Reconnecting with a family member?
A romance you never had the guts to pursue?
What are the other pillars of your life?
While the gears grind, you might move back home if you need.
you’re free to take a weird job.
you’re able to ask and apply for help.
And like dont worry about your resume right now.
A work stoppage is not a hole in your work history, its a correction.
Youre not running out of time.
There are rewards for being agoodwriter, and those will come.
We are flying over a dramatic speed bump, to be sure, and uncertain when it will end.
But its still a speed bump, not a wall.
I dont know how long they plan to wait each other out before they come back to the table.
The studios have all the leverage, groaned a manager to me a few weeks ago.
The studios have all themoney.
But writers create the shows and public sentiment is on our side.
Do I trust the AMPTP to do the right thing?
I dont trust anyone who wakes up focused on a stock price.
But I do have faith in Hollywoods outsize obsession with optics.
And its not going to get better.
The thing theyve underestimated is that werewriters.
We are used to creating entire worlds out of thin air.
Our day job is hoping dreams into being.
We are intense, fiercely united, and more than a little crazy-eyed.
They are risk-averse, replaceable, and in the wrong.
And they all know it.