JaneEspenson.com

I know from your letters, gentle readers, that many of you have ethnic and cultural backgrounds that aren’t currently overwhelmingly represented on the writing staffs of television shows. Does this help you or hurt you? Well, probably a little of both. “Diverse” writers are under-represented precisely because they haven’t been hired. On the other hand, there are some efforts being made to fix the sitch.

The ABC/Disney program, for example, has as one of its stated goals, “to employ culturally and ethnically diverse talent.” Also, show runners can get a financial break for employing diverse writers. If this is you, I recommend that you mention your background on any application for a writing program, and I also recommend that you mention it in any cover letter to a prospective agent.

Does this mean that you straight white males should despair? Not at all. And to answer a question in a recent letter, there’s no need to fake a disability or a sexual preference. I think that could be a very dangerous, although quite possibly hilarious, route. And it wouldn’t help anyway. I am told that there is no financial break for show runners employing writers in those groups.

There may be a few new doors now open to some writers, but that doesn’t mean that any of the old doors have closed. ABC/Disney encourages diverse applicants, but also has admitted many white writers, including straight white male writers, in the past.

This is a very hard business to get into. The hurdles are high, the open doors are few, and the metaphors are mixed. Anyone who gets hired can be assumed to have talent. So I encourage *all* of you to look for any open door you can find. And once you’re in… stretch a hand back through and help others follow you.

Lunch: a chicken-cheese omelet and a waffle