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02/19/2007: Not Just a Brainshower


Do you have someone to brainstorm with? Someone who is willing to just idly toss around ideas with you in an unstructured setting without time pressure? Dinner with creative friends talking about stories is probably the closest you're going to get to simulating the actual writers' room experience.

I have two close friends I acquired in the ABC/Disney writing fellowship. They were there on the "feature side" of the program while I was on the "TV side". To this day, they're my closest friends, willing to play endless games of Scrabble and accompany me on slot-happy Vegas vacations.

They're also brainstorming fiends. I always try to take the start of an idea to Vegas with me, because I know that by the end of the weekend they'll have helped me turn it into something real and workable. My friend Kimberlee is an expert at cutting to the heart of a story and asking the hard questions that make me figure out *why* I'm telling the story. It's like taking an idea to a therapist to figure out its hidden motivations. Having your own personal story doctor is as good as having a medical one. Unless you have literal pneumonia.

If you've joined a writers' group or enrolled in a class, try organizing some after-class dinners. See if you click with any of the other participants. And be generous with your help on their projects too. Don't hold back on your ideas or make sly suggestions about how they can pay you back with a staff job once their spec pilot is a show. Give your suggestions freely, and take your only pay in the form of the ideas they'll contribute to your projects. If you can get that kind of dynamic set up, you'll have a resource you can draw on for years and years.

Lunch: avocado, blue cheese, sourdough roll