I would not have my career without having gotten the chance to prove myself with a freelance script on season six of Lifetime's Army Wives.
It was my second season on the show as a writers' assistant, and the first show I'd ever been on that had gotten renewed. Knowing that I'd been in the room and knew the show, my showrunner gave me a shot. The room supported me as I came in with pitches, worked with me like on any other episode to break the story. When I was sent off to write my outline and then script, my showrunner assigned a wonderful CoEP to shepherd me through the process.
And it went well. Well enough that when Army Wives was renewed for a seventh (and, ultimately, final) season, I was promoted to Staff Writer.
Unfortunately, the practice of assigning freelance scripts has largely disappeared thanks to streaming and short orders. In fact, the MBA specifically exempts streaming series from requiring a freelance.
But just like with our pay, I believe we can do better than minimum — and we owe it to WGA members and to future WGA members to do better. It is time to bring the freelance script back in a big way.
Like like with inclusion, in TV we do not need to wait for the AMPTP to codify doing the right thing in the MBA. We shouldn't wait for the AMPTP to agree. We can do the right thing ourselves — because, in TV, writers hire writers. The bulk of people in support staffer roles want to become writers. They are future members of our Guild. A freelance script gains them access to associate membership, gives them a credit, and lets them prove themselves. It's an on-ramp to a career as a writer and WGA member, and we need to make sure that on-ramp is available.
So, first and foremost, freelance scripts should be going to people on support staff. But I think we can go a step further.
Per the long subhead of this issue page, I believe we can use TV freelance scripts to help feature writers, too. One of the main impediments feature writers experience when trying to cross-over into TV is that they do not have room experience. A freelance script helps solve that.
Another thing a freelance script can help solve is maintaining healthcare eligibility. During my first season of Army Wives, one of the two freelances was assigned to an experienced writer who was going through a dry spell and about to lose their coverage. The freelance script helped them stay on healthcare for another year. One freelance script will not always get you all the way to coverage (I believe only an hour-long network prime-time script will do that by itself), but it can certainly help.
And, given that having previously worked with someone is one of the best ways to be read and hired for staffing... this can help showrunners get exposed to new writers without having fully staffed them, and can help writers expand their working network.
Now, I'm not going into this naively. I know there is a huge impediment to this: short orders. The math of assigning scripts is hard. When you have an eight episode season and two CoEPs on staff who are contractually obligated to write two scripts... that's half the season, gone. And you still have lower-level writers who need scripts. But just because something is difficult doesn't mean we don't try. One way a showrunner I worked for managed to assign multiple freelances even on a limited order cable show was by only putting their name on one script per season. They were, of course, still rewriting everything. I suppose they felt they were making enough money from EP fees. I'm not saying this is the only way to do it, but it is a way to do it.
What I'm proposing to facilitate all this is a new, internal Guild database for freelance assignments, and those seeking freelance assignments. TV writing is, unfortunately, becoming increasingly itinerant. We can't ignore that reality. We have to provide tools that effectively respond to that new reality.
If you are on the verge of losing healthcare, you can check a box that, after verification, pushes your name into a higher priority list. I want that to be optional, as I understand putting that information out there can be a blow to the ego — I've been off of healthcare, so I know it's not fun to admit.
I'm sure, like with everything else, there will be more writers applying than assignments available. Meetings and pitches will surely be competitive — that's the reality of our careers.
Like with the Staffing Submission System, all this really requires to work and to help Guild members is showrunner buy-in. We need our most powerful members to step up.
At the end of the day, I believe this is something we can and must do to provide Guild members, and future Guild members, with more access to opportunity and experience.
