Writing For Soaps: A dead-end career choice?

[adamski]

With the death throes of daytime soaps currently taking place in the US, do any of you think an inexperienced writer has any chance of writing for the remaining four soaps?

Would they want a fresh voice with new ideas or will they keep playing a game of musical chairs between a group of hacks who have working the circuit for years? Is soap opera writing in the US still worth pursuing or will it be an obsolete role within the decade?

A hypothetical question but I'd be interested to hear opinions!

[MSW]

With the pool of jobs getting smaller and smaller and the tendency of soap writers to primarily hire other writers that they're already familiar with, it's certainly not a career I would pursue.

[Daniel Avery]

I agree that you have several advantages if you are an experienced soap writer. Like mentioned, it helps if you know a lot of the other writers because they will likely know your work and whether or not you would fit in with the writing team in place. The exec producer might also want to stick with experienced writers simply because the situation is so dire that they may not want to take a chance on a newbie. The schedule is so much more pressurized than before--they may not have time to do 'on-the-job training'. It would be a lot easier (I would guess) to bring in a new person as the Head Writer or Co-Head, since they typically are the "idea people" who hand off the breakdowns and scriptwriting duties to the writers, who turn ideas into actual scripts and storylines. Problem is that they rarely hire someone off the proverbial street to be HW, and instead recycle the same HW's or promote longtime breakdown writers. It still has to be a very thankless job by now, however, whether you're the Head Writer or just another scriptwriter.

It's become commonplace for the shows to be filming off three or four scripts at once (completing six to eight episodes a week rather than the old days of one episode per day--which was bad enough, but now seems a luxurious pace by modern standards). They are often doing script revisions on set in order to cut corners, and the producers often have to make the revisions rather than the actual writers. There's also the ever-present influence of the network, who can often toss out months of projected story (and the person who came up with it) on a whim. Having your product cut to ribbons before it gets on the air is insulting enough, but being tossed out alongside an entire writing team when some dork at the network decides he doesn't like the way some actor delivered a line makes for a really scary job. I think there's very little opportunity for soap writers to produce "art" since the pace is only conducive to producing quick, plot-driven stuff that would qualify more as "time filler" than actual meaningful drama.

[adamski]

Thanks for your response, Daniel! It's a shame, because now is the time when the soaps need fresh voices with new ideas...

[MrsSuperman93]

Soaps definately need fresh perspective but I'm not sure if producers would take the risk of an unknown.

[Scarlett]

Day time soaps may be dying, but with the resurgance of the nighttime soap genre, could these daytime writers parlay their talents into the nighttime arena? How are daytime dramas different from nighttime? I've never watched day soaps, but love night soaps.

[Daniel Avery]

The main difference between nighttime soaps and daytime soaps is the numbers of episodes needing to be written and produced. Since most nighttime soaps produce no more than 22-24 episodes per year, they don't really need a large writing staff. In fact, they may very well have one writer if the show is written, produced, and basically controlled by one person (think Alan Ball). Other shows may have a show-runner who does the head-writing, who then farms out scripts to various freelance writers (much like Knots Landing did for most of its run). So getting onto such shows would be quite a feat.

In contrast, daytime soaps produce roughly 20 episodes per month. Though a half-hour soap can usually expect to get along with three to six writers, an hour-long soap may have anywhere from seven to twelve staff writers in various roles, from Head Writer/Co-Head Writer to Breakdown Writer (a job increasingly being phased out) and Script Writer. Most Script Writers get hired on a sort of probationary situation where their scripts are co-written with a longer-serving staff member, and their tenure may be cut short for various reasons (office politics; cost-cutting measures; changes in the cast of characters; or the scripts simply aren't very good). The hectic pace and increasing pressure to turn out product will burn out even the best writers, which has a lot to do with why so many of the best soap writers have retired or otherwise moved on from the jobs that made them semi-famous.

[agpsummerlin]

With the death throes of daytime soaps currently taking place in the US, do any of you think an inexperienced writer has any chance of writing for the remaining four soaps?

Would they want a fresh voice with new ideas or will they keep playing a game of musical chairs between a group of hacks who have working the circuit for years? Is soap opera writing in the US still worth pursuing or will it be an obsolete role within the decade?

A hypothetical question but I'd be interested to hear opinions!

When I was a teenager (in the Dark Ages of the early 1980s), I wanted to become a writer just so that I could write for the American soaps. At the time, ABC's All My Children was my hands-down favorite soap of all time. I even went so far as to write Agnes Nixon a letter about wanting to write for her show. She was kind enough to send me a brief note suggesting that I pursue a good college education and build lots of experience with writing of all kinds. Given what's happened in the intervening years, I'm kind of glad that I became an academic instead of going into the soap-writing business. But, who knows? Soaps may -- in time -- make the transition to the Internet as they made the transition from radio to television 60 or so years ago, opening up new opportunities. Besides that, even most episodic television -- at least here in the U.S. -- is, at least to some degree, serialized with story arcs in a way that wasn't as manifest 20 or 30 years ago. To me, shows like Downton Abbey, Political Animals, The Borgias, The Tudors, et. al. all have soap-like dramatic qualities that would make writing for them something of a similar experience.

[CarlD]

Daytime soaps will be gone within 10 years I bet, but a writer is a writer.

Someone who writes on the Young and Restless, could do just as well on a show like CSI.

[adamski]

Interesting that CBS are still trying to find new writing talent. They must believe their soaps have a future for now?

http://diversity.cbscorporation.com/page.php?id=47

[Scarlett]

Interesting that CBS are still trying to find new writing talent. They must believe their soaps have a future for now?

http://diversity.cbscorporation.com/page.php?id=47

The application is outtdated.

[adamski]

The application is outtdated.

Well, it happened within the last year, so I don't see what your point is.

[Daniel Avery]

Perhaps if they were truly looking to find and foster new talent long-term, the program would be an ongoing one, rather than a one-time event.

Since the program made such a point of stressing "diversity," I'm guessing some media folks probably criticized Y&R and B&B for its lack of diversity, and this program was proposed in reaction to that. B&B has long been stuggling to shake the image of being a show about rich, white people. Their attempts at introducing minorities has been dificult and usually unsuccessful, because they always seem to go right back to the Forresters and Logans for the bulk of story. Most glaring for the past 25 years was the lack of gay characters, given the show is set in the LA fashion industry. Y&R, though it has had more success in integrating its cast, has not been as good to its African-American characters in past years as it was in the 1990s. Y&R also has problems with writing the minorities they do introduce in stereotypical ways. Susan Dansby, former writer at As The World Turns among other soaps, is the only African-American female writer that I know of at either Bell soap, and she was only hired in the last few months (again, probably in response to the criticism). CBS may have decided to initiate that program to "shut up" their critics, and it needs to be pointed out that CBS does not "own" either Y&R or B&B, which is why there is that whole "this is not a job application, this is a chance for exposure" disclaimer at the bottom. It would be up to Sony or Bell Serial Company to hire writers.

[adamski]

Perhaps if they were truly looking to find and foster new talent long-term, the program would be an ongoing one, rather than a one-time event.

Since the program made such a point of stressing "diversity," I'm guessing some media folks probably criticized Y&R and B&B for its lack of diversity, and this program was proposed in reaction to that. B&B has long been stuggling to shake the image of being a show about rich, white people. Their attempts at introducing minorities has been dificult and usually unsuccessful, because they always seem to go right back to the Forresters and Logans for the bulk of story. Most glaring for the past 25 years was the lack of gay characters, given the show is set in the LA fashion industry. Y&R, though it has had more success in integrating its cast, has not been as good to its African-American characters in past years as it was in the 1990s. Y&R also has problems with writing the minorities they do introduce in stereotypical ways. Susan Dansby, former writer at As The World Turns among other soaps, is the only African-American female writer that I know of at either Bell soap, and she was only hired in the last few months (again, probably in response to the criticism). CBS may have decided to initiate that program to "shut up" their critics, and it needs to be pointed out that CBS does not "own" either Y&R or B&B, which is why there is that whole "this is not a job application, this is a chance for exposure" disclaimer at the bottom. It would be up to Sony or Bell Serial Company to hire writers.

That's really interesting, thanks Daniel. You know your stuff!

[Scarlett]

Well, it happened within the last year, so I don't see what your point is.

That was my point, the application was expired - as in no one could use it to apply for anything right now.

[Cliff Barnes]

It does certainly seem to be hard to go from daytime to nighttime in the writing fields.