ABSTRACT
It’s important to understand that no one is going to hire you as a TV writer simply because you want to be one. As with any business, in order to get work, you have to prove that you can actually handle the job. Hollywood is heavily unionized, which makes production outrageously expensive. To cut down on costs, production schedules are usually tight, allowing little, if any, room for error. If a script isn’t ready for shooting when it is supposed to be, the cost to delay production can be astronomical. Therefore, most producers will not give out writing assignments to unproven writers without being fairly certain that the writer will not only turn in a decent script, but will turn it in on time. So if you are a new writer without a track record, how do you prove to producers that you can in fact step up to the plate and do a professional job? The answer is you write what is known as a “spec” script. In scripted television, writing a spec is the first step to getting work as a writer.
