To become a Staff Writer on a successful TV show

Okay, this is a recent dream. A short term dream you could say. The sad truth in the pursuit of our dreams we still must pay the bills. Juggling those two apples is an art in itself. So here, now, 3 years after graduating film school (where has the time gone?), the backlogged bills and loans that got me through school are now taking their toll (literally). No Fun! Anyway, I've been working various day jobs for the last year, writing and producing reality and non-fiction TV mainly. I could say bad things about these jobs, I could say good things about them. But what I will say is that they are NOT my dream. They are just jobs and they pay the bills, barely. Soooo, that said....it was in this context from which this latest dream sprang.

I want to be a staff writer for a successful television show.

Which one you ask? I don't know. I enjoy many of the HBO shows, I've seen Mad Men (have no idea what its about), I like comedies (not sitcoms, more Ugly Betty, or Family Guy, or some new great show I don't know about yet). Maybe one of these.

But really, it doesn't matter too much. To tell you the truth 90% of the shows on TV I find terribly or moderately boring. I would prefer to write for the 10% I enjoy, but I'd take a job at the other 90% if one came up. Because its a job, a very well paying (in most cases) job that affords a pretty comfortable lifestyle. And that's just what this dream is all about, getting a good job.

I realized for me to achieve my primary dream to make films that inspire then I have to have my finances taken care of. It is reallllllly hard to be a broke filmmaker...it takes money, serious money. Not just to make films, but to survive in between films. It takes a long time to get projects off the ground, an average of 5 years. So I'm going to have to be earning money from somewhere, it might as well be from writing TV shows. At least I'm writing stories, which is the cornerstone of all film and television.

Okay, to all you pessimists out there (why are you on this site anyway?), writing for TV is no easy thing. There are hundreds or thousands, or hundreds of thousands of earnest writers out there trying to break their way into TV. The competition is FIERCE. And the Hollywood job market is SHRINKING. This is NO EASY TASK. Yeah, yeah, I know all that. Thank you for raining on my parade.

But that is why I'm posting it here on this website, this is my dream right now and I am already starting to move closer to it by announcing it to the world. So thank you for listening.