FROM THE DESK OF
Amy Suto
Hello! 👋 I’m Amy Suto, a published author and freelance memoir ghostwriter. Subscribe to my newsletter & writing job board here!
Good Books: Being Gritty, Successful, and Working Smart for Screenwriters
As writers, the only part of our career we can truly control is our output. How productive can we be? How can we write more pages in a day? How can we optimize our creativity and enrich our storytelling?That's why as part of my Good Books series, I'm exploring how we can work smarter -- without adding six more cups of coffee to our day.
3 Tips for Getting Organized and Motivated after a Setback (Writing in Hollywood)
We can't control a lot of aspects of writing in television, but what we can control is our own mindset and how we approach our work. By investing in a sense of humor, a positive perspective, and some organizational habits, we can re-route ourselves and get back on track no matter the setback. So, here are six ways I reset myself and my goals after a setback:
Writers' Assistant, Showrunner's Assistant, and Writers' PA (What These Jobs Are and How to Get Them)
Learn the difference between writers' assistant, showrunner's assistant, and writers' PA -- as well as how to get these jobs in a television writers' room.
Writing the Half-Hour TV Drama
I hate the phrase "dramedy."Every half-hour TV show that isn't quite a comedy has been given that title. NURSE JACKIE? WEEDS? TRANSPARENT? GIRLS? Dramedies, despite the fact that the spine of these shows are unequivocally dramatic.
Writing Through Fear
It's been a year since I graduated from the USC screenwriting program, and in that year I've learned a number of lessons: there are a number of dinner recipes out there that don't include pasta, perfection is not attainable, decaf coffee is a cruel joke. The most important lesson of all, however, is how to write through fear.
How To Get Your Life Together as a Graduating Writer (A 5-Step Guide With Photos)
The other day I was lucky enough to return to USC and speak on a panel at the film school about how to survive senior exit programs like First Pitch and the realities of the post-grad world.As someone who is just a year out of school and have found employment in the industry as still making time to write while at my agency job, I'm qualified to Pretend to Know What I'm Doing (TM).
How to Network Authentically in Hollywood
If I had to pinpoint what my catchphrase is this time in my career, it would probably be along the lines of "let's get drinks!" I've been enjoying meeting new people at various companies around Hollywood, and it's been the highlight of my time working at an agency -- and I didn't always see it as such.
Assistant Life: Surviving Vs. Thriving, Strategies to Keep Writing
I've been writing a lot recently about creatives in the industry and posting images of aesthetically pleasing and meticulously organized writing spaces (aka: my therapy) so this blog post is continuing the trend.At holiday parties this past month, I've been meeting other writers who are holding down jobs in the industry, from showrunner's assistants to writer's PA's to researchers.
L.A. Creatives: Jorge Molina (Writer and Showrunner’s Assistant, HEATHERS)
L.A. Creatives is my new blog series highlighting young creatives in the trenches of this city, as we all strive to practice our art form and sustain a living. This interview features Jorge Molina, (@colormejorge) who is a writer I knew at USC and now the showrunner's assistant on HEATHERS at TV Land.
A Day in the Life of a Hollywood Agency Assistant
As an assistant at an agency, you're fighting two battles: not only are you constantly putting out fires and helping clients and managing their schedules and your bosses' schedule and working 11+ hour days to solve problems for writers and directors, but then you have to some how find a way to carve out time to do the job you WANT.
Writer's Life: Finding Creativity & Maslow's Hierarchy
I work Hollywood hours. Up at 5am or 6am to write (depending on the project I'm working on), out the door by 8am, at my agency by 8:30am, and back home by 8pm if I'm lucky (if I have networking drinks, make that 10pm.)
How to Survive Working as a Hollywood Agency Assistant (Part I: Why the Agency Route?)
To be honest, when I started as an agency assistant, life was hard. In my second week, I remember staying until 10pm eating ramen alone at my desk wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. I broke up with my boyfriend at the time because he didn't understand why I would *want* to spend 11+ hours at a desk answering a phone and sending a million of emails.
Working in Hollywood and the Cost of Ambition
In a whirlwind two months, I graduated from USC with a degree in screenwriting, won some shiny things from USC and from the Television Academy for the series I wrote and created, started full-time as an assistant to an awesome TV lit agent at Verve, and made some incredible new friends.
Inside the USC Writing for Screen and Television BFA Program
Because I'm graduating soon, it's about time that the nostalgia hit full force. Tonight is my last USC class, ever, and it's all beginning to sink in.I've been doing a few panels for admitted screenwriters and have been answering a lot of questions about the program, so I thought I'd write about what it's been like going to school here for the Writing for Screen and Television program.
A Week in the Life: Showrunning, Writing, and Sleeping (Sometimes?)
Since January, I've been inhaling coffee and painting my calendar red, as this semester has been the most insane yet: by May, I will have written 210 screenplay pages, produced over 120 minutes of the dramatic scripted TV miniseries CON, and will have met several career milestones, such as getting my first feature assignment, being nominated for a college television Emmy, and graduating from USC's Writing for Screen and Television program (also known as the Writing on Zero Hours of Sleep program) and to top it all off still maintain some semblance of a social life.
3 Steps to Successful Worldbuilding (How to Prewrite)
It's an absolute crime how pre-writing is so overlooked in the writing world. Have you read Stephen King's On Writing? That was one of my favorite writing books as a kid and I took his advice as gospel. One of the tenets of his book was that too much outlining and prewriting killed the story, which made me instantly afraid of killing my story before I could discover it through the actual process of writing.
5 Tips for Using Flashforwards in TV Writing
Flashforwards are the flashbacks of our era of TV writing. From the flashforwards in Lost that showed our merry ensemble cast finally off the island at last (and wanting to go back) to shows like Damages and Bloodline that structure entire seasons on the content of their jumps in time, this tool has become ubiquitous in our modern age of storytelling as a linear narrative faces more challenges in capturing an audience.
