A little ramble on MFAs and TV/Screenwriting. Indulge me.

I've heard some podcasters I admire and other TV writers say that MFA courses in TV/screenwriting are a waste of time. They say you should get to LA and start writing.

This fall, as I did last fall, I am teaching a TV workshop for MFA students across creative writing genres at Iowa. (Online for obvious reasons.) It's a fairly diverse room brimming with brains and talent.

If TV is serious about diversifying its writers rooms, it has to drop this idea that an MFA program that's not &&& and in NY or LA is silly for TV/screenwriters.

I have students that can't go work for $15 bucks and hour to fetch coffee and set up calls and survive in LA.

Some are just too "old" (over 30 lol) and have too many domestic responsibilities; some just couldn't afford to spend two years doing that bc there is no mom/dad sending money.

An MFA can provide funding/ health ins / instruction/mentorship as a diverse group of writers creates that first script. Many of the new & diverse authors we see in publishing (finally!) wrote those first books bc MFA programs valued diversity before publishing and Hollywood.

I'm an experienced teacher but also a well-repped WGA member. I've co-written/EPed a show, a feature film, and have lots in development. I also rely heavily on special guests to the course to help my students learn what I don't know and network with show runners and reps.

But if Hollywood values diversity, people will stop saying things like, "Don't take an MFA somewhere in the middle of the country." Those *funded* MFA programs in affordable college towns helped diversify publishing and they could diversify the TV/film industry too

You need experienced teachers who also have professional experience and success, sure. But I already see signs of some really amazing writers who will finish this semester with sample scripts. And they could do it living somewhere they could make rent and have health insurance.

I love the @Scriptnotes podcast, and it helped me a lot starting out, but too often I hear people on there saying you shouldn't study TV writing, you just gotta move to LA and start working for peanuts.

In truth, a few more good MFA programs in TV writing(not cash cows that pop up irresponsibly), with good faculty or with coursework in TV writing, is really a way to accelerate the diversity of the talent pool.

If we decide to diversify the industry with the few fellowships out there and low-paid assistant jobs, guess what? It won't happen. But give someone time and space to develop a great sample or two, intro them to reps, and you've put people in a position to get in a room.

This is why I developed a TV Writing course @GrinnellCollege too. Why not give our smart liberal arts graduates a good sample? Why do we insist they go be an agency assistant for two years? Burn that model to the fucking ground, please.

Let's develop writers in multiple modes. Let's offer a lot of support and accept non-traditional paths and not be agist or elitist in how we think one becomes a TV/screenwriter.

Thank you. This has been my Labor Day TED talk.