Writer’s rooms
Interesting article in today’s NY Times called “Focus, People! There’s Work to Do”. Here’s the lede:
“Writers’ rooms are as idiosyncratic as writers themselves: a system of organization has to be devised to keep track of plots and characters. Some writers prefer lots of stress relievers to play with during their usual marathon script-writing sessions; others like to stay as focused as possible. Food — what’s permissible, when and where it can be eaten — has to be negotiated. And often the sensibility in the room ends up being reflected on screen in the finished show. Here’s a look inside the rooms where the staffs of five of this season’s acclaimed series ply their trade.”
The shows they feature are the CSB sitcom “How I Met Your Mother, “ Showtime’s “Weeds,” the Fox drama “House,” the FX series “Damages,” and our old friends at HBO “Flight of the Conchords,” which we featured previously here.
Interesting to note how prominent those 3x5 inch index cards are, especially with the lads from New Zealand. We’ll discuss those tomorrow in Part 5 of “How I write a script.”
The NY Times piece is both fun and informative, so I recommend it.