How Do I Make My Writers’ Room Ideas Stick?

You’re new in the room, and you’re looking to make a decent impression. You want to shine, but not eclipse your team members. Longtime showrunner Aaron Ginsburg (of FBI, New Amsterdam) offers his insights on the right approach, and how to land those room pitches. 

Q: Do you have any tips for pitching my ideas in the writers’ room so they stick?

Aaron Ginsburg: Great question. “How do you get your ideas on the board?” 

Photo by Catie Laffoon

I have been fortunate enough to run drama writers’ rooms for over a decade now, so let’s start with a small caveat: every room is different. Figuring out your footing with your fellow writers and showrunner is all part of the job. Learning what the show you’re on demands and how the showrunner prefers to build the story…that all requires observation, naturally.

That said, when I run my rooms, I actively try to encourage a few techniques that can help crystallize pitches so that they inspire discussion and debate. You want your ideas to not only move the episode’s story along, but also to entice your fellow writers to jump onto the bandwagon. Add onto your idea, shape it, strengthen it.

Here are a few lessons I like to encourage:

Three Beat Pitches 

When you’re working on a story problem, and everyone is sitting around the room trying to not think about lunch, I like writers to shape their pitches into a Three Beat structure. This isn’t revolutionary, by any means, but you’d be surprised how often writers don’t return to it when pitching in the room. The Three Beat structure is straightforward:

Beat One: The set up. Laying out the stakes. The expectations. The arrow of the story.

Beat Two: A complication. A surprise twist or shocking turn in the story that audiences were not expecting to follow after Beat One.

Beat Three: The conclusion. Satisfying wrap up. Inevitable but surprising. A reversal or a payoff. Tragic. Exciting. Earned.

Here’s the catch: You only need to have two of the three to start a good discussion.

For example: a writer can put forward a beginning of a story and a twist—and the room can focus on different ways that story can end. Or a writer can put forward a set-up and a conclusion, and the room can dig into cool ways to twist and bend the story in the middle. Or a writer can even pitch a fun middle complication and the final beat of an episode and allow the room to chew on the most exciting way to launch that version of the story.

If you have all three, by all means pitch away. Bonus points. They always give the room more than enough to respond to. But when writers only pitch one, they tend to fall flat. “What if the A story begins with this scene…” Silence. Okay. Then what? There isn’t enough there to get people onboard and thinking. “What if we conclude the episode like this!” Ohhhkay, sure, but how did we get there and why? What about that ending feels surprising or earned?

Sometimes, you do only have one. That happens to everyone. No sweat. While the room is chugging along with other discussions, try to add a second beat in your mind before you pitch it out loud. You’ll be amazed at how much more of a response you get from your fellow writers.

Be Bold

When you are responding to other pitches in the room, avoid pitching the low hanging fruit solves. They could work, they have worked in the past, they likely would work again, but aren’t we all trying to reach higher than that? We can always beat it.

So when faced with a story problem, I like the biggest boldest solves.

Let’s rattle the cages, let’s hear some outrageous solutions. I like the pitches that make the other writers nervous. How are we going to earn that? How are we going to write our way out of that? How will the characters deal with something that freaking insane?

If the writers of the story are nervous, that means something is alive inside that idea. It is daring us to try and harness it, control it. If we were shocking coming up with a beat, imagine how the audience is going to feel…

Be Generous

Lastly—be generous with your ideas.

I firmly believe that the best writers’ rooms operate with the core belief that it isn’t your episode and my episode and his episode and her episode and their episode, but rather it is our show. We are a collective and we are creating a multi-hour-long narrative together. I want every single episode to be as excellent as it can be, and I don’t want the writers competing with each other. I want them supporting each other. Lifting each other up for the greater good of the series.

And this means sharing your best ideas. Allowing your coolest twists and most juicy reversals to land in whatever episode they shine the most. Maybe that’s your episode. Maybe it’s one of the other writers. It doesn’t matter. It is our show. So be generous!

Come to think of it. Not a bad motto for life, as well.

Aaron Ginsberg is currently a Co-Executive Producer on FBI. Before that, he was an Executive Producer on NBC’s New Amsterdam and a Co-Executive Producer on CW’s The 100. Additional television credits include Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe (USA), The Good Guys (Fox), The Finder (Fox), Intelligence (CBS), and Cleopatra (ABC).