A Day In The Life Of An Executive Story Editor In A Television Writers Room
A typical day for an Executive Story Editor at a television writers room involves "a live brainstorming session" — a collaborative process of "writing scene descriptions on colorful post-it notes and sticking them on the wall and rearranging them until they look like stories"— followed by individual script writing and rewriting with a partner. The role also includes on-set collaboration with directors and cast, ensuring the show's vision is realized, which can involve "crazy hours" of production work.
Teamwork, Communication, Creative Problem-Solving, Executive/Leadership, Behind-the-Scenes
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Marshall Knight
Executive Story Editor
Television Writers Room
UCLA
n/a
Arts, Entertainment & Media, Advertising, Communications & Marketing
Creative
Honors Student, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. The majority of the day is spent in a collaborative brainstorming environment with other writers, generating story ideas and outlining scenes.
2. A significant part of the job involves writing and rewriting scripts, often in collaboration with a writing partner or showrunner, requiring strong communication and writing skills.
3. Production work, such as being on set and working with the director and actors, involves long hours and demands attention to detail to ensure the story's vision is effectively communicated and executed.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of an executive story editor look like?
In normal times, you come into the office, in this case, an office on the fox lot, and spend most of your day in the writer's room. This might be from 10 to six, though some rooms start earlier or go much later, especially in comedy.
We have a reasonable 10 to six period, and most of that time is spent in a live brainstorming session. From the outside, it might look like goofing off, but it's essentially talking and ideating. Technically, we write scene descriptions on colorful Post-it notes and stick them on the wall, rearranging them until they form stories.
When assigned a script, you go off into your own silo. My writing partner and I will go into our office and start writing the script based on what was established and broken in the room, pitched to our showrunner, and agreed upon. We'll have detailed notes from our writer's assistant and crank out a draft.
After the showrunner reads it, we spend another week or so rewriting collaboratively. This involves a lot of talking with one person and typing. Production is its own thing and not part of daily life.
Once you go to set, you are living on production time, which can mean crazy hours, like 6 AM to 9 PM days. You're on your feet a lot, but you're primarily sitting shotgun with the director. You coordinate what's landing with performances and provide story information the director or cast might need to make scenes work better or make performances click. You are in constant communication with your showrunner to ensure they feel confident the vision is being executed.
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