The Writers Assistant Network is teaming up with Roadmap Writers for the third annual WAN Writers’ Workshop. It’s a FANTASTIC opportunity for ten amazing up-and-coming writers to workshop their material with top showrunners and other well-established creatives, then get read and very possibly REPPED by of agents and managers at dozens of major companies.
The ten winners will meet for 12 weeks to workshop each other’s scripts. Each writer will be matched with a showrunner and/or other well-established creative who will come in as a guest to give detailed notes. Last year’s guests included showrunners, show creators, and other EP-level writers from “Jessica Jones”, “Lizzie Borden Chronicles”, “Twisted”, “Alphas”, “Elementary”, “24: Legacy”, and many more.
Once the scripts have all been workshopped and are in tip-top shape, they will be sent out to dozens of agencies, management companies, and production companies. Half of the 2016 winners were repped by the end of the program — at companies including Abrams, Bellevue, Chemical Imbalance (Matt Bass), and Gotham Group, among others — and unlike other programs that send the winners out and never talk to them again, WAN and Roadmap keep pushing winners to reps and other execs well after the program is over because we CARE about our winners.
As when putting together a modern TV writers’ room, writing teams will be treated as a single applicant. Diversity of backgrounds among the participants will be a priority.
Seven of the ten spots are assigned to writers currently working as writers’ assistants or other support staff on TV shows. One spot is reserved for a writer in Roadmap Writers top tier program. Two seats are open to anyone — INCLUDING PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE LA AREA. Two years in a row we had one person Skype in for our weekly meetings. One was in Mexico and the other was in North Carolina.
**Note that Roadmap Writers who are not in Top Tier should apply as “General Public”.**
THE WRITER’S ASSISTANT NETWORK is a professional networking organization for writers currently working as TV assistants — script coordinators, writers’ assistants, showrunners’ assistants, writers’ PAs, and so on. Twice a year, WAN throws massive mixers where hundreds of assistants come together to network and get to know one another. In 2015, WAN launched its first Writers Workshop to find the strongest voices currently working in assistant positions — as well as a couple of writers not working in those positions — to help give them the resources they need to reach the next level.
