New Podcast: “Word by Word”

Hosted by screenwriter Ed Solomon with voluntary contributions for entertainment workers impacted by the AMPTP strike.

Exciting news for the online screenwriting universe! A new free resource: Word by World hosted by Ed Solomon (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Men In Black, Now You See Me) and produced by The Black List. Read my interview with Ed Solomon to learn more about this weekly series which will run as long as the current work stoppage lasts … and perhaps beyond.

Scott Myers: What was the inspiration for the “Word by Word” conversation series?

Ed Solomon: Back in the first two [WGA] strikes I was involved with, during the downtime, I went to different film school classes. I took some writing classes during one and I did an editing and a cinematography class during another.

With this strike, I was thinking about doing a similar thing. I was on the picket line, and I was talking to somebody while walking around and they were saying, “Yeah, I was thinking about doing that, too.” That made me wonder, “Who would I want to learn from?”

I realized there are so many of my peers who are accomplished and way better at so many things that I only strive for. I thought, “I wonder if there’d be a way for me to put together almost like a salon.” That was my first thought. Just various writers with each other, or writers and other creative artists, like directors and other actors.

Then another day, I was on this picket line and there was a whole group of people, stunt performers, hair and makeup, all sorts of other crew people from other unions who were not crossing the picket line. They were waiting for hours across the street because they didn’t want to cross the picket line. It was a really meaningful moment. I went over and said, “Thank you,” but I thought that just saying thank you was nice but not enough.

All the ideas dovetailed at that moment, where I was thinking, “Wait, what if we could do a salon‑type experience but open it up to a wider range of people who might be interested? What if we could then make a voluntary donation, channel that money into the various different strike funds?”

It seemed like a win-win from every angle where I’d have the benefit of listening to some really good writers talk about stuff that I personally am struggling with. Then if we could share that with other people who may hopefully recognize themselves in some of these issues and then open it up for questions, which I always find helps me just thinking about my own process, and I can listen to other people talk about their answers, which would be very different from mine.

I just thought it would be a way to use the downtime to move forward a little bit as a writer and also offer that opportunity to other people.

Scott: This happened really quickly…

Ed: I had the idea, I don’t remember when I tweeted it. It was like two weeks ago or something.

Scott: June 10th. You tweeted, “Wanted to gauge interest on something. If I were to do a series of Zoom workshops during the strike, was thinking q & a sessions on various parts of the craft of writing, would anyone show up?”

Now, it’s not even two weeks later, yesterday, June 21, there was a big announcement in “Deadline.” Could you walk us through how Franklin Leonard and the Black List got involved?

Ed: I tweeted that out, then within minutes, Franklin DM’d me. He said, “We [The Black List] have this infrastructure, we’d love to volunteer to use our infrastructure and crew to help support this.” I was like, “That’s incredible. Great.” Because I would have no idea how to put it together, technically.

Also using the resources the Black List has, it gives us access to a wide range of writers on all ends of the creative spectrum. Because one of my working philosophies is to always consider the progression of my career as just part of a continuum where, hopefully, I’m always trying to improve and trying to challenge myself, trying to learn.

It wasn’t that long ago where I was going to conferences and listening to people talk, hoping to be able to be up on one of those things. I tend to think of it all as just, “We’re all on one line.”

Whether one is earning a living full‑time or part‑time or not yet, we’re all going through essentially the same struggles and having the same positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement, just at different times and different levels.

Scott: In the Deadline announcement, you’re quoted as saying, “This led to the idea of making a space for creatives at every stage of their practice and career to ask questions and hear others talk about things that aren’t in writing books or better taught elsewhere, in particular, things about the inner process.”

I’m curious about that phrase “inner process.” Could you unpack that a little bit and discuss what you mean by that?

Ed: Sure. Not only is structure taught way better than I would ever be able to teach it, the so‑called rules of screenwriting, or whatever. Not only could I not teach those things, I don’t even know what they are. It’s all anathema to me.

There are people who are professional teachers who are great. I’m not a professional teacher. I would never even say that I’m an expert on my own process. The only thing I have to offer are the mistakes I’ve made and access to what has worked for me and what hasn’t worked for me. By involving a lot of other writers and other creatives on the panels with me, I thought people would have more opportunity to hear different points of view because everybody approaches their own craft differently.

I thought by mixing it up with a lot of other people, the people who are participating, the viewers and whatnot, will have more opportunity to either see themselves in it or see different ways other people approach the same struggles that they may be having.

And offer more opportunities to have people be encouraged by the fact that no matter what stage of the continuum, no matter what part of the writing career, the professional spectrum you’re on, the odds are we are all dealing with the same issues that you are.

Scott: You’ve got a list of potential guests down the road. Jesse Armstrong, Eric Roth, Tracy Oliver, Adele Lim, Phil Lord, Lord Miller, Neil Gaiman, and Meg LeFauve. How are you finding these people? These are just your friends or professional acquaintances or are they reaching out to you?

Ed: So far, a couple of people came through mutual connections, Franklin connected me with a couple of people, but most of the others are people that I’m either personally friendly with, or know through social media and have been connected in that way.

I will say, so far, nobody I’ve asked has said no. Everyone’s been really encouraged. People seem to be happy to be able to share some of their own personal struggles, especially because it’s an opportunity to both create community and solidarity with the wider community.

Also a chance to raise money for some of the people who have been adversely affected by this labor action. Obviously, everybody would like the studios and networks to come back to the negotiating table. While they’re not doing it, we know a lot of people are struggling because of it.

If we can raise a little money to go into the various funds that support those people, like the support staff, writers’ assistants, crew people, and others, that, I think, also makes it appealing for people to join.

We have a lot of really good people lined up too that we’re not announcing yet because we don’t want to dump it all upfront. As long as people are interested in this, we’ll keep going with different topics and subjects and people.

Scott: How often do you think you’ll be hosting it, weekly or what?

Ed: We’re scheduled for weekly at the moment. Right now, it’s every Thursday until we’re going to take a couple of weeks off in the middle of the summer when I was going to be going away, but we’ll resume after that.

Scott: Are we looking half hour, forty-five minutes, or there’s no time limit on it?

Ed: It’s set for two hours session. The first part will be me and whoever our guests are, and a casual conversation amongst ourselves that will be like just eavesdropping for people, just talking about these various themes that we’re talking about.

Then during that period, the folks at The Black List will be gathering up questions that people might be having during the course of it. Then the second part of it will be myself and whoever else is on the panel now answering the questions that people in the room may have.

Scott: What if the Word by Word series is really popular, do you figure this may be something that continues beyond the strike?

Ed: I wouldn’t be averse to that. If it’s interesting and people are getting value from it, I would keep it going. Maybe raise money for other worthy causes. I’m not interested in doing it as a money‑making venture. That just doesn’t feel right to me. It’s not part of the plan to ever have this be a money‑making thing. It’s more about creating a scenario where I and others can maybe grow our craft, which I think is a great thing to try to do at any stage of your life or career.

Obviously, I’d love it if people would be moved to make donations. It’s not mandatory by any stretch, and no one will be turned away, but I would hope that people would find enough value to give.

If it’s $1 or ‑‑ obviously if it’s $100, that’s amazing ‑‑ but if it’s $1 or 0, that’s fine. I do hope we’re able to raise some money for these organizations as well because of these funds as well because that would just help more people.

You may sign up here to join the Zoom telecast. This week’s conversation: tonight Thursday, July 6th between 5PM-7PM Eastern / 2PM-5PM Pacific. Guests: Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Dune), Jesse Armstrong (Succession, Fresh Meat), and Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem).

A reminder: It’s free, but any voluntary contributions you make will go toward a variety of WGA Strike funds.

I encourage folks to support this new initiative. When I broke into the business in 1987, I read, heard, or watched every single interview I encountered with screenwriters or filmmakers. It was a key part of my “film school” education. That’s a big reason why I have aggregated 1,000s of interviews on my blog.

The Word by Word series looks to be an excellent resource. Learn from the professionals, the ins, outs, ups, and downs of their writing experience.

For the latest updates on the strike and news resources, go here.

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New Podcast: “Word by Word” was originally published in Go Into The Story on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.