Why Writing and Whatnot?
Pandemic Placeholder
During the pandemic lockdown I looked for something to make me feel less alone. To feel less crazy as I held my breath and gave stink eye to anyone daring to breathe around me. So, naturally, I turned to YouTube. What started as the place I’d search for a quick “how-to” on chopping onions or adding windshield wiper fluid to a 2015 Subaru Forester quickly became inspiration. In fact, I would end up starting my own YouTube channel in hopes of helping other writers only to be stymied by the tectonic shift of my own industry.
While watching bloggers daring to go to Disney World, eat cupcakes, and ride Space Mountain I sat on my couch avoiding going to the grocery store, let alone a theme park. I’d anxiously watch them slather on hand sanitizer and like any good parasocial relationship, I’d leave comments thanking them for taking things sort of seriously. After watching the umpteenth Pirates of the Caribbean ride through vid, I realized almost every amateur channel up there was just someone being super pedantic about their passions. So, why wasn’t I sharing mine?
It was really 2021 when I planned to create a YouTube channel, but if I was going to do it, it had to be right. Perfect. OK, well, at least not look like public access schlock. It should be edited within an inch of its life and I should look as presentable as possible. A high bar for someone who has spent decades behind a camera writing for other people to be in front of one. After countless LinkedIn lessons, YouTube tutorials, and lots of Q&A to friends both above and below the line, I felt ready. I had over a hundred episode topics written out and ready to explore. Everything from general meetings (always take the water) to in-depth script coordinating, checklists were ready to be shared… but I sensed something was wrong…
The entertainment industry, like many others, was falling victim to the pandemic but to be clear, it was already on life-support before Covid-19. My sister and writing partner, Shawna Benson and I always struggled to find our next gig, but now we were story chefs going up for every “bake-off” in town. This didn’t just mean coming up with a take and casually pitching it over a zoom. It meant drilling down on characters, story ideas, season arcs, mythology, backstory… you know, all the stuff you do when you write a script. Oh, and did I mention writers don’t get paid for this type of free work? The expectation was to bring our A-game while the execs were sitting on the bench wearing their, “I’ll know it when I hear it” hats. Needless to say, after trying to survive a global pandemic, dozens of bake-offs, and lots of free development, I burned out.
Julie Benson Burned Out
While I recovered, I realized my YouTube channel idea was for naught. The industry wasn’t just dealing with some pesky streaming service interference, it was being changed from the ground up. How could I give advice on how to take a general meeting when now everything was being done over zoom in our sweatpants? What use was talking about the various levels in a writer’s room when there were no shows staffing and the ones that were simply relied on a small band of known brothers? Not to mention I was fighting for my own writing life, and you know what they say about oxygen masks. Needless to say, Writing and Whatnot was cancelled before it began.
Writing and Whatnot YouTube Banner
I focused on writing new scripts with and without Shawna and tried to stay up to date on the latest industry news. But it was getting bleaker by the minute and I knew the WGA contract was up for renewal and a strike was imminent. Instead of striking in 2020 we held off and the inevitable had come in 2023. Writers were more fired up than ever. All those bake-offs, all that free work… and don’t get me started on healthcare whilst on a writing team (thank God this got rectified thanks to the strike). Cut to Shawna and I hoofing it on the strike lines. My pithy strike signs got national notice while Shawna used Twitch to explain WGA talking points to those outside the industry. We were vlogging… sort of.
Black and White Photos above by J.W. Hendricks
The strike is often blamed for the current dust bowl of Hollywood but blame not the writers for demanding a fraction of their worth but the studios for placing stakeholders above storytellers. Blame the tax incentives in states and countries that lure productions away with dollar signs. (California is currently trying to right this wrong…) Blame streamers for their whack-a-mole programming slate that prioritizes extra subs rather than extended series. Blame the plethora of options other than TV vying for eyeballs. Blame YouTube for giving viewers niche programming and putting the power in the creators’ hands. (I still don’t think the monetization is fair, but I digress…) There’s plenty of blame to go around but I’m tired of the blame game. I’m a results person. How are we going to fix this? Well, not by sitting silent.
It’s taken me too long to realize that the very thing I was mourning (the change in my industry) was the very thing I SHOULD be talking about. If all this was affecting me, a professional writer with a pretty good IMDB page, what must it be like for up and coming writers? Pandemic, burnout, staffing crickets, my dog dying, having a massive surgery in March… this year forced me to analyze what makes me happy. What makes life worth living when I don’t have a writing job to focus on?
Luckily, I’m curious by nature and am fascinated by loads of things! Storytelling in various mediums like theme parks (read our Disneyland pilot here), antiques, languages, forgotten women in history (read my pilot about Phyllis Pearsall here), processes (aka, how the sausage is made), editing, and mixology. Hence, the “Whatnot”.
I’ve even gone out of my comfort zone and put myself in front of the camera as an Amazon Influencer. Before you roll your eyes or cringe, replace “influencing” with “informing”. That’s my goal. I want to share the various writing tools, books, tech, barware, and gadgets I actually use and, if you buy something using this link to my Amazon storefront, I get a small commission at no cost to you! And if you don’t, that’s ok too.
The mission I’ve chosen to accept includes passing along my lessons learned from working as everything from a PA to an EP in film and TV. Maybe you’ll feel less alone if you’re also going through something similar. If so, I hope you encourage me on my journey while I try to help you on yours. You know, whether it be writing or whatnot.
