How Coronavirus Is Changing The Television Writer’s Room

In February, Shani Am. Moore left her job as the head legal executive at a top entertainment company to pursue her longtime dream of becoming a full-time screenwriter.

But then in March, the novel Coronavirus raged through the country. The pandemic affected Los Angeles particularly hard and threw the entertainment industry into uncertainty as physical productions shut down everywhere.

However, Moore remained unfazed.

“We’re creatives, right?” she said. “We adapt.”

Before the lockdowns, Moore accepted a position as a staff writer on an upcoming Netflix drama. And at first, the experience was exactly as she’d hoped.

“It was amazing the way that ideas would flow,” she said, describing a lively, creative atmosphere with story beats flowing and building off of each other, leading to walls covered with multi-colored sticky notes.

But when the reality of the pandemic set in, these in person writer’s rooms had to end. In their place, the staff shifted to what Moore playfully referred to as The Writer’s Zoom. And while the team still has this free flow of ideas, Moore admitted that a lot did get lost in the transition.

“You obviously don’t have the physical connection,” said Moore. She described how, if while writing a tense scene someone breaks down into tears, something not uncommon when writing drama, she is no longer able to hand that person a tissue. On the other end of the spectrum, when one of her colleagues comes up with an amazing pitch, she can no longer high five them to show her enthusiasm.

“Now, instead, when somebody makes a great pitch we’ll do the applause pantomime. Or we’ll write in the chat box, ‘LOVED IT’ in all caps,” described Moore.

In these ways and others, working over a writer’s Zoom is not ideal, with the extra effort to be expressive often being quite draining. However, Moore also described an unexpected benefit of the move to virtual meetings: the blurring of creative hierarchy.

“Rooms can be very hierarchal,” explained Moore. As the youngest professional writer in the room, traditionally she would be expected to defer speaking time to the more experienced, senior level writers. When the show runner poses a question to the room, eye contact normally floats to these individuals first, making it clear who should be heard most.

But since virtual meetings render eye contact essentially impossible, things have begun to change. Now, instead of making eye contact, when the show runner poses a question she’ll simply go down the order of windows on her screen and call people by name.

“She’ll go down the row of where we are in her order of the screen,” said Moore. “So, this person, do you have any pitches on this? And then this person, do you have any pitches on this? Then, Shani, do you have any pitches on that?”

While Moore maintained that her writer’s room had always been a collaborative environment where everyone’s contributions were valued, she did admit how the lack of physical space has now allowed her to contribute more than she ever could before. And while it’s all definitely a big adjustment, Moore described how it’s exactly what she needs right now.

“Being a part of that writer’s room, especially now, has been such a blessing,” she said. “Being able to escape the fear and the anxiety of this world and create this loving hopeful world, has been such a glorious opportunity and escape.”

Just as so many viewers are turning to watch entertainment for escape, so too are writers turning to their work. And as it so happens, the pandemic is now unexpectedly allowing screenwriters to hone their craft in a way they might have never had the chance to before.

“All of production is halted right now,” said television writer Julia Keimach. However, she explained, studios and networks are still buying new projects, green lighting them, and getting them written. And since there’s no rush to get things filmed on set, writers are in the unfamiliar position of having potentially months to refine and perfect their work.

“And what it’ll probably mean is some really kickass television when things go back into production. Because we’ll have a lot of really fine-tuned scripts people had a lot of time to write well,” said Keimach.

As we enter our third month since the first national lockdowns, much of California is now opening and productions are getting back on schedule. But the question of when things will go back to normal for Hollywood is still as tough to answer as ever.

However, when asked if she would still have quit her stable legal profession had she known how things would turn out, Shani Am. Moore did not hesitate to say yes.

“And the reason why, is the same reason why I would encourage anyone to keep writing, keep creating, keep putting your work out there, keep trying. Because the world needs our voices even more now. People are going to turn to artists to help them process, understand, and feel in this moment. And if you have this talent, if you have this gift, if you’re nurturing this skill, the world needs you,” said Moore.

And sure enough, writers across the industry agree, with many taking the extra free time to work on stories and scripts they’ve been meaning to get to for years.

“I’m slowly eking away at an outline for a new pilot based on a Soviet World War 2 bomber squadron that was entirely women,” explained Keimach. “And it will be funny.”

Theaters across the country remain shuttered and major entertainment juggernauts have already rolled out massive layoffs. Whatever happens next will fundamentally change this industry forever.

“We won’t come out of this the same,” said a marketing manager at FX networks. “The entire strategy will change.”

But, for Shani Am. Moore and thousands of writers like her, this chaos remains an opportunity to just keep on doing what they love.

“Obstacles and adversity, that’s not new. And neither is us mining all our emotional trauma for entertainment and empathy,” said Moore. “We were made for this moment.”