How to Run (and Survive) a Writers' Room

[Music] so hello everyone i'm anthony johnston and these days i'm best known for atomic blonde the charlize theron movie that was based on my graphic novel but within games i'm known for titles like dead space zombie u shadow of mordor and resident evil village i'm also a novelist screenwriter non-fiction writer podcaster and general insomniac so i get around and i do so as a freelancer and i mentioned that because that is the perspective from which i'm talking today you might be a staff writer or a narrative producer or you might also be freelance whatever your situation and position it might be different to mine so you may not be able to do things exactly

the way i do them i mean how even i can't always do things the way i like to because anyone who's worked on more than one game knows that every project is different unique and presents an entirely new situation compared to whatever we worked on last time so it's important to be flexible take everything i'm about to say as a guideline as guard rails if you like within which to shape your own vision and your own way of working apart from this that's uh that's really important everything else flexible so let's start with the most important and obvious first question what is a writer's room or rather what do we mean by a writer's room in the context of games in tv the writer's room is both a physical space and a methodology the room is populated by a number of writers with different skill levels and experience

and one of those writers sometimes two but normally just one is the showrunner which basically means they're in charge it can often be more complex and nuanced than that i am simplifying a lot of things here for the sake of brevity so hollywood people please cut me some slack normally the showrunner also wrote the pilot's script and has a vision for how it can become a series so they assemble a room communicate their vision to the writers who brainstorm ideas for that series condense those ideas into stories that can become the season of tv outline those stories as episodes and then write revise and polish the scripts for those episodes what's important is that almost all of that is done together collectively in collaboration as a room and that is one of the big ideological

points of this method even some films now use writer's rooms uh big blockbusters will put together a small room often just for a couple of weeks right at the start of development to brainstorm plots and story ideas break character arcs and so on it's not the norm by any means but it is happening more and more so why do they do this why has tv worked this way for decades and now even movies are starting to do it as well because it works whether it's for a whole season of tv or just a few weeks of film pre-production the writer's room is valuable now that's worth noting because it's one of the ways games can take this idea and make it our own rooms don't have to be a permanent arrangement you might assemble one for just a few weeks in order to break the spine of your narrative and then revert back to a smaller staff to write the script

or you could opt to keep a room running throughout development especially if you have a lot of content to generate so what's the difference between a writing team and a writer's room a writer's room generally has a flatter structure and less rigidly defined roles there is a single leader the showrunner to use the tv term but everyone else's duties can and often will change from day to day according to what the showrunner determines needs doing one day you might write the script for a cutscene the next you might write a character's backstory and bio and the next the whole room might spend all day brainstorming ideas for a story arc this requires flexibility and agility on everyone's part but the benefits can be enormous in particular the sense of teamwork and camaraderie it builds

now at this point some of you may think well actually we already do things this way and if so congratulations you may now feel very smug indeed but names are important we know that better than anyone and we also know that names can influence how people think about things so if you're already doing this or if you come away from this talk thinking we should definitely do this i encourage you to own it and call yourself a writer's room it can alter perceptions and make a big difference to the work you get done the work you're expected to get done and even how that work is received by your non-writing colleagues and clients a moment ago i said the showrunner to use the tv term but we're not tv and while we're cribbing from them we're not trying to be tv so we do need our own nomenclature names are important

names and terms also continually evolve in this business and i am sure that that will happen here in the years to come but for now i call that person the one running the room the head writer i know it's not as glamorous as showrunner but it is a more accurate description of what the role means in games so let's go with it speaking of evolution it is important to remember that writer's runs in games are still a pretty new idea and in many respects we're playing catch up but that also gives us an opportunity to lead to shape and establish practices and norms right now at this moment which will become accepted standard practice within the industry let's seize that opportunity for the good of game writers everywhere with all of that in mind what is the aim of a writers room what are we

trying to achieve to foster the best environment for creativity and productivity assemble a staff of good writers create a space for ideas to flourish encourage collaborative brainstorming produce consistent unified material and meet the producers needs let's use those as our chapter headers as it were and see how we go about doing just that so we'll begin with assemble a staff of good writers and the first step is hiring the room because before you can run the room you must hire writers to be in the room this is exciting but it's also time consuming so make sure you allow plenty of time putting a room together at the last minute can lead to hiring the wrong people or not getting a good mix of writers and then later having to replace some of them which is never fun

if you're not the one hiring or selecting writers for your room if you're taking over an existing room or working with a studio that has internal writing staff i strongly advise you to talk with everyone beforehand and to anyone who's worked with them before because one of the most important things in a room is the dynamic between different kinds of writers the best rooms feature the diverse variety of voices styles and points of view now i use the word diverse deliberately yes you should put in the effort to hire writers who are not cis white men and it's for the same reason that you should also hire writers who are diverse in their experience resumes approach style and personality hiring a room of writers who are all the same

or worse who all basically think like you is pointless it defeats the main reason to have a writer's room which is bouncing ideas off each other and working collaboratively to create something greater than the sum of its parts so ideally you want at least one veteran someone who has seen everything the industry has to offer and live to tell the tale they might even be more experienced than you but willing to be your trusted second happens all the time you should also try to hire at least one junior someone either brand new or very inexperienced this is often how you'll find those writers from marginalized communities and you can help them gain experience to become the veterans of tomorrow and it's not purely altruistic junior writers can be a source of insight and ideas that the more battle scarred among

us simply wouldn't consider in between those two extremes fill the room with solid midfielders writers with good track records but who aren't household names in so much as any games writer is a household name but you know what i mean diversity of resume if you're writing a shooty shooty war game it makes sense to hire writers who've worked on other call of battlefield spec duty tank ops games right well not always and sure one or two is good and if it's not your own speciality i strongly recommend that your trusted second should be someone who is a veteran of the genre but for the rest of the room what's more important is the kind of games they've worked on before in terms of size budget style and whether they've worked as part of a team diversity of approach can be tricky to

gauge when hiring people you don't know or haven't worked with before but there are several things you can do first you can talk to other people a writer's worked with to see how they operate second you can pose a hypothetical i like to present candidates with several very different high concepts in the relevant genre let them pick their favorite and tell me how they'd approach it just spitballing ideas to find out what attracts them and how they think about stories when you're talking writer to writer the answers to a question like that can be extremely revealing and finally you can just ask people how they like to work are they detail orientated or more about big picture plots do they prefer being given firm direction or to find their own way to an idea and so on diversity of personality is why wherever possible you should be the one talking

to candidates and getting to know them so you've had at least two or three conversations with them by the time you get to final selection now of course everyone's on their best behavior when being interviewed for a job but people also loosen up over time especially if you're open and honest with them about your aims and expectations for them and the project this is important because you and your writing staff are going to spend a lot of time together you must be confident you'll get along and that brings us to create a space for ideas to flourish in other words how you're going to spend all that time together now let's be clear up front as head writer you won't actually originate as much material as everyone else there are some things you should keep ownership on the master timeline a broad overview of

the law compiling the world bible if there is one but most of your time will be spent brainstorming with your writing staff and facilitating them to be creative and generate the material you need here's how you do that first establish ground rules these are mine i state them up front at the very start of the very first session of any room where i'm a head writer nobody stands on ceremony don't wait for good ideas my virtual door is always open and don't be a dick now you might be tempted to skip over this now it feels like you shouldn't even need to say these things right but remember many game writers have never been in a room before when you establish ground rules you're making sure nobody is in any doubt that you are in charge that everyone knows how to behave and that this is a safe collaborative space for creativity so let's run

through them nobody stands in ceremony i mean without this the room doesn't work you may be a head writer but if the junior writer thinks your story idea stinks they must feel comfortable enough to say that and you should positively encourage them to do so when you're brainstorming or discussing story solutions try to keep the room as flat as possible a junior who feels like they dance suggest an idea or a veteran who pulls rank all the time are equally useless to you which leads to don't wait for good ideas if you're trying to figure something out and someone else has an idea you want them to offer it up even if they don't think it's a very good idea because sometimes in fact quite a lot of times discussing and dissecting bad ideas is what leads to good ideas

so nobody should feel bad or be criticized for thinking out loud and voicing their ideas again that is the point of the room my virtual door is always open part of a head writer's responsibility is to be a sounding board and a source of knowledge your staff will have follow-up questions or sometimes things they want to discuss outside of the room and you should be there for them set yourself up a slack or discord just for the writer's run and tell everyone they can message you or arrange to have a one-on-one meeting at any time you do not get the privilege of not being interrupted part of your role is to be there when the writers need you and if that means you have to work in fragments or catch up on things in your free time well cash the check and suck it up don't be a dick doesn't need any

explanation but it does sometimes need reiterating so that's the ground rules now let's look at the day-to-day in tv the showrunner has the vision everyone else's job is to interpret and support that vision and work to make it a reality so a good showrunner communicates their vision to all staff and everyone knows in which direction they're going in games as always it's more complicated if you're also the game's creative director narrative director senior producer maybe even the studio head then yes sure you may well be the visionary and everyone dances to the beat of your drum but let's face it that is not the normal situation instead you as head writer are more likely to be honoring someone else's vision

the creative director a senior producer the studio head or maybe one person who is all of those things for the sake of simplicity from here on i'm going to refer to those people as the producers just take it as read that it might not literally be the case but it's a convenient shorthand so your job as head writer is now to communicate the producers vision to the writers room and lead them in that direction you are the bridge between the producers and the writers in both directions which i'll return to later so the first thing you should do is absorb the producer's vision spend whatever time you can perhaps while you're interviewing candidates going over all the existing material for the project before you open the writer's room as head writer it is vital that you know the material intimately in tv that's easy because the show

runner normally wrote the pilot script but in a game situation where someone else is the visionary or development is already underway you need to learn the material so that you can communicate the vision to the writing staff and they can trust that you're leading them in the right direction some days the room will meet for several hours at a time other days everyone already has their assignments to get on with but get into the habit of having a regular 10-minute check-in every day anyway and do it at the same time every morning now if you're working in person of course this can be a stand-up if you're working remotely it's a virtual room but make it a regular thing just check what people are working on tell them if anything is coming up some soon that they need to prepare for ask if there are any problems or blockers you can help deal with don't make it complex but do it every

day it builds the team's camaraderie and subtly reinforces that the working day has begun on the days when you are holding a longer room though maybe even all day then go in knowing what work needs to be done and who's going to do it if you walk into the writers room with no idea what you should all be doing today or what assignments you're going to hand out to your staff you will quickly lose their confidence and trust you will also inevitably find that you don't get much done because if there's one thing writers are really good at it's not writing we all know the dangers of procrastination so on the days when you need to brainstorm ideas or break a story or hand out new assignments you must prep before you open the room and know what you want to achieve i'm not talking about a detailed syllabus but just consider things like

do you want the room to brainstorm together do you want the room to break an outline together do you need to pass on feedback from the producers do you need to pass on feedback from yourself who should take and write up today's notes if anyone what assignments do you have for everyone today if you can answer those questions if you can be clear about what you want to achieve on any given day you will have good and productive sessions now some of those things might take several days if you're brainstorming a core story arc and then need to break the outline beats as well that might be all you do for several days or even weeks at a time that's okay so long as you know that it's what you should be doing another aspect of being head writer is to be the big brain of law your writers are busy focusing on their own assignments and it's up to you to

take the wider view to keep everything in check and ensure they get the law right as well as answer questions about that law from all sides not just your writing stuff if the developer's using a wiki confluence whatever then within it carve out a space for narrative to keep track of stuff don't rely on remembering everything because you have enough to do already and along those lines make a virtual inbox not an email inbox but one for documents make an area online a folder on google drive and dropbox whatever that is only for you and the writing staff to upload all your drafts why somewhere separate because as head writer you are going to read everything before the producers even lay eyes on it sometimes you'll approve it right away but most of the time it'll probably need

some rewriting and non-writers have a habit of reading work in progress and assuming it's intended to be untouchable gospel that can lead to a lot of frustration so you can mitigate that by making sure the producers only see work you've already approved the other thing about a common repository is that it allows everyone in the writers room to read each other's work now that can be intimidating to some i know but it is a really great way to build that sense of teamwork in the room not to mention maintain continuity and coherence without them having to consult you over every single point of law now let's talk more about direction and clarity you're trying to communicate the project vision to the writing staff so that you can all produce consistent coherent work

that meets the producers needs to do that you have to be clear about what you want from them now that doesn't you have to know the content of what you're trying to figure out if you're having a room brainstorming session the whole point is to come up with new ideas you haven't thought of yet but what you should know is the form and shape of what you're trying to achieve maybe the aim is to write a loose bullet point outline of one major story arc or to drill down into a character's backstory or perhaps you've already done a bunch of brainstorming and now you need four character bios and the backstory timeline of an enemy faction these are all solid aims about which you can and should be clear tell the room what you want to achieve by the end of the day tell them if there are any constraints

if certain avenues are off limits or there's existing law that whatever you come up with mustn't contradict then set their imaginations free and let them have fun guide them if you have to keep them within whatever guard rails you've set and of course contribute your own ideas as well but don't be shy about telling your staff what you expect to get done that goes for writing assignments too when you hand out assignments tell them what you need back from them do you expect a thousand words of law text written out in a google doc or do you want a character bio as a 10 slide deck including key dates don't be afraid to make templates where they'll be useful if you need say character bios to be laid out in a specific format with consistent information in each produce a sample and give everyone a copy to work from

if you're reluctant to do that because it feels limiting remember you're not limiting their creativity you're making sure that creativity isn't wasted by making them reinvent the wheel or try to read your mind every time they hand in a document we are not mind readers isn't that the cry of exasperated writers everywhere when producers are vague with us be better than that be better for your writers be clear about what you want them to deliver back to you but within that shape that form give them freedom to express their creativity you hired these writers because you like their work so let them work as a rule of thumb always give your staff as much creative freedom as possible on first drafts you can always ask for revisions or even

rewrite it yourself if it's just too zany or doesn't quite fit what you need but giving your writers that initial freedom will keep them motivated and sometimes those zany unpredictable ideas turn out to be the ones worth keeping so now let's talk about one of the main strengths of a writer's room and something that any project with a decent narrative component will need breaking story now not all sessions are the same sometimes you need to simply brainstorm throwing out ideas until something sticks sometimes you'll have already done that or you'll be working with existing ideas but now you need to mold those ideas into the bullet points of a story and so on whether you're figuring out a plot a timeline a story arc a character backstory a fantasy religion a sci-fi

society that is where the writer's room shines bringing the collective imaginations of the writers together to collaborate generate ideas and come up with solutions and concepts that none of you not even you or i would have achieved alone these are things you simply can't do as easily in slack or over email and it's a lot of fun throwing out ideas and seeing everyone build on top of them being inspired by a chance notion from someone else's pitch projecting ahead to imagine if this idea will work or that idea will cause problems whether in person or virtually the writers room is where this creativity is elevated to produce amazing results but room sessions like this can also be chaotic and that's why it's important to lead

the room to take your role as head writer seriously here are the some of here are some of the things you can do to make the room run smoothly first someone must take notes now in a tv room that is generally the role of the most junior staffer often called the writer's assistant or the writing assistant literally almost their entire job is to take notes of everything discussed and then type them up and email them around to the writing staff if you have the budget for that knock yourself out it could be a great position for an inexperienced writer a way to give someone a foothold in the industry but realistically most game budgets won't pay for that so instead have the session notes taken by whoever's going to write up the results if today's session is breaking a story arc and you know that it's carlos who'll be writing up the final version of this document get carlos to take the notes

we all take notes differently my notes probably won't make much sense to you or yours to me so whoever needs to refer to them later should make them now taking notes while also contributing is something of a skill so make sure the room doesn't run away too much while poor carlos is trying to scribble things down you can help them by every so often and especially at the end summarizing the story points you've landed on so far that will also help cement it in everyone else's minds which can be valuable for law and continuity what if several writers are going to be working up different materials from the same session say you're brainstorming ideas for a faction's backstory and you want one writer to type up the backstory and two others to create bios of faction characters well now everyone needs to take the notes that are relevant to them

whether that's the backstory character ideas or whatever and remember that the person i'm talking about here the one who needs to make notes because they're writing it up that might be you just because you're the boss doesn't mean you're above taking notes if what you're brainstorming is something over which you have ownership keep in mind the aims of the session as well this is where you sometimes have to be the party pooper in a writer's room there will always be tangents divergences bad jokes chatter about last night's tv whatever that is normal and it's fine and sometimes it's even valuable because it can spark ideas that are relevant to the session but you cannot let it dominate the conversation at some point and often sooner rather than later you must get the session back on track and refocus everyone's minds on the story

content you're actually trying to figure out don't just tell people to shut up but remember that your job is to lead everyone over those mountains and you can't do that if every five minutes they wander off the path completely by contrast though be careful not to dominate the conversation yourself put your ego aside and let other people have the big ideas this is easier said than done i know if you're the head writer then chances are you're the most experienced person in that room and you're being paid more than everyone else it is natural therefore to think that you must be the one who has all the great ideas and who contributes the most but running a room well means having the confidence and wisdom to not do that and to let others find their way to things you sometimes might

already know you're in a unique position because your relationship with the producers means you literally know more than everyone else in the room but again you hired these people for their skills and imaginations so sit back and let them use them at times that means someone else will have a big idea that makes a significant contribution to the project that's great don't let your ego be jealous that someone else had that idea instead be proud that the idea came out of your writer's room because the truth is when your staff look good you look good if someone is working through an idea out loud and you have a solution wait let them finish their train of thought and if they still need a solution sure speak up but if instead they land on their own solution and you might be surprised how often

it's the same idea you had let them own it give them that moment tell them what a great idea it is it's good for morale it encourages your staff to continue coming up with great ideas and you still look like a genius because it happened on your watch along similar lines you should also make sure veteran writers don't dominate the conversation encourage young and new writers to contribute especially in the early days it is very easy for inexperienced writers to feel overwhelmed when they walk into a writer's room and find themselves sitting across from well-known writers perhaps even people who made games the young writer has played and admired now let's be clear none of us is that famous and if you think you are get over yourself but newer writers can still feel like they have less to offer or that they should be quiet when the big name writer

is talking if you see this happening turn to them don't make a big deal of it and call them out they'll be mortified and climb up even harder but just say something like jenny we haven't heard from you on this subject yet what are your thoughts don't make it a yes or no question invite them to put forward their opinions and ideas make it clear that you want them to speak and you value their contribution finally remember that these sessions can be mentally exhausting if you're doing an all-day session take a full lunch hour at some point and keep an eye on everyone's energy levels if you're all flagging and punch drunk by three in the afternoon just call it a day tired people do not have great ideas and keeping everyone in the room for the sake of an arbitrary clock is a bad idea better to call it a day and let everyone return next morning fully refreshed and

ready to go again produce consistent unified material now remember i said that you won't actually be originating that much material here's why first if you hired right you'll already have an idea of each writer's skills strengths and weaknesses those will become more apparent over time too and you'll start to recognize how to get the best work out of your staff one writer might be great at generating raw ideas but their execution of those ideas maybe isn't so hot but by contrast you may have a writer who is quiet when it comes to the ideas but he's great at taking someone else's and really working through the world logic some writers have trouble staying inside the lines of an assignment and need to be reminded what the parameters are

others might need to hear the brief two or three times before they fully grok it but once they do they are often away all of these are valuable and useful none of us is the perfect all-round writer and frankly i don't think such a person exists the key with every writer's room is balancing those skills habits and tendencies so that the room collectively becomes that unified harmonious fully rounded writer so if you realize jenny is great at creating alien races give her ownership of that area if russell excels at writing in character viewpoint pieces getting to do more it's a no-brainer but every now and then don't be afraid to throw people a curveball and challenge their creativity give them assignments outside their creative comfort zone

doing this helps your writers grow it gives them confidence and helps them develop and they will repay that to you in trust and motivation but it's not only about personal development giving an assignment to someone who doesn't normally do that sort of thing really can deliver a fresh perspective they will come up with ideas that someone more familiar with that area maybe wouldn't have so now let's talk about rewriting which is fundamental to the philosophy of a writer's room you may not realize it but almost every episode of tv you watch has been rewritten to some extent by the showrunner the reason you may not realize it is that show runners rarely take credit for those rewrites we'll return to that in a moment why do they rewrite because a tv show must be coherent from week to week and

consistent in its vision and this is very applicable to games most of the time we're producing large amounts of material that can appear in many different places often in a variety of sequences and orders but featuring many of the same characters it is vital that if carlos writes one scene and jenny writes another that they feel tonally and stylistically similar now you might say well just tell everyone to write the same way to begin with but that's difficult it's not especially realistic and remember the best rooms are filled with writers of very different styles and approaches you don't want everyone to write in exactly the same way but that does mean if you put carlos and jenny's work side by side you can probably tell it was written by two different people and that's where you come in one of the head writers most important tasks is to potentially rewrite

everything before it goes to the producers not just to fix typos or errors in the law but to make sure all the material has a consistent tone and style that fits the creative vision by doing so you lift that burden away from your writing staff you free them to be creative and fearless because you're their safety net if they write something that doesn't fit you simply won't let it go to the producers you'll either tell them to rewrite it or you'll rewrite it yourself now let's be clear you should not wield what we call a heavy pen don't rewrite material just because it's not exactly what you would have written you must let your staff express themselves creatively if there are strict content requirements hammer those out in the room beforehand and make them part of the assignment brief if the writer still hasn't followed that brief sure send it back to them with notes but if they have done what's

required just in a different way to how you would have done it leave it be what you should rewrite apart from those lore errors and typos obviously are things like character voice and lingo especially if the material is final vo scripts to ensure that everything really is consistent but before you reach that stage when you're world building writing bios internal law documents and so on try to keep a light touch so when should you send it back to a writer and when should you rewrite it yourself well like i said if they literally haven't followed the brief correctly of course hand it back to the writer with notes but don't automatically absolve yourself either now that you have their first draft in front of you you may realize the assignment wasn't clear enough and now that you know where the problem is you can be a lot more specific that happens more often than you might think when the material is at a stage that it's broadly fine whether that's the

first draft or the third and now it really does only need to be fixed for voice and style that is when you should get in there and do your rewrites you can imagine that trust is a big part of this process your writers have to trust that you're not going to simply rewrite all of their material from the ground up just for the sake of it not that you have the time to do that anyway one way to build this trust is by sharing your finished edits with the writer let them see your rewrite it gives them a better handle on what it was you wanted which will help them in delivering future assignments and over time reduce the need for you to rewrite in the first place but it also shows that you trust them and their work they will see that you're respecting their creativity and have got their back because your rewrites are simply ensuring their work is presented in the best light possible

now remember i said that most tv show runners don't take credit for their rewrites even though their fingerprints are on every script do you remember i also said that when your staff look good you look good well there's your equation there are a few show runners who take that credit and they're often the ones nobody likes working for don't be that person remember even if you're not the project's main visionary you are the head writer your final credit on the game will probably be head writer or lead writer or narrative lead or something equally senior and inside the writers room you are the visionary you are in charge of and responsible for everything that comes out of the room everyone understands that whether it's officially recognized or not and all of this means you can be magnanimous you don't need to take credit for every

single word even if you rewritten it extensively because it came out of your room it all reflects on you anyway that's how leadership works and this too is not all altruistic it's also insurance there will be times when things are going badly when the project looks like it's falling apart or you're given an impossible deadline or even face push back from other departments times when you all have to pull together and you may even need the support and backing of your writing staff and if you've been a credit hogging dick well good luck with that but if you've supported your writers and given them shout outs when you were on top they'll remember that and fight for you you can't buy that with a contract so give your staff the credit let them take the compliments be known as a generous head writer whom people want to

work for let your room be the envy of the industry let the producers marvel at the quality of your room because you have endeavoured to meet the producers needs another foundational part of a writer's room is your relationship with the producers now remember here that i'm using producers as a catch-all term for everyone who isn't in the writers room but is in some position of authority most of the time you will act as that bridge i mentioned earlier between the producers and your writing staff you meet with the producers you establish their needs you return to the room and fulfill those needs by handing out assignments to the writers then you take and review their material send it to the producers and go meet with them and the cycle begins again this means you're living in two camps and to an extent you must play the

politician trying to satisfy both sides and weigh up the best way forward when you meet with the producers you are representing the writer's room you have to walk a careful line between the pragmatism of what's in the best interests of the project and protecting the creative integrity of your writing staff what this means is that you should advocate for your writer's work as if it were your own nothing leaves the room without first crossing your desk you must have full confidence in everyone's material so that you can explain and defend it as if you've written it yourself if there appear to be cracks in the armor as it were if the producers sense that the room isn't unified or you don't have confidence in your staff it will diminish their trust in you and their confidence in the work coming out of your room

then in reverse when you have new feedback and assignments from the producers you must present these to the writing staff as if the producers aims are your own sometimes you and the producers will have argued about those aims and you might have lost that argument but just like advocating for your staff's work as if it were your own you must also present the producer's vision as if it was yours again if your staff sense that's not the case if they can tell you don't really believe in the notes you're giving or the direction in which you're leading them they won't give you their best work of your role as head writer is to insulate your staff from politics from whatever internal conflict may be going on between the producers because let's be honest there will be so that the writers can just get their heads down unleash their imaginations and write

none of this is easy by the way being able to present other people's work or notes as enthusiastically as if they were your own is not part of a creator's everyday skill set but it is something you will need to learn in your role as a head writer a good mantra to keep in mind in all of these situations is one that i've followed for many years defend your ideas vigorously but recognize when someone else has a better idea i find that's a good rule of thumb for life in general to be honest finally then the big question as far as producers are concerned is it worth it well it would be a funny old thing if i'd sat here for an hour talking about this and then told you not to bother so yes of course i think it's worth it but let me explain why in terms

producers will understand i mean it's true though now don't misunderstand it's not always cheap in absolute terms and you should always pay right as well but writers rooms bring a huge return on investment let's say you're the narrative lead on a triple a you can hire four veteran highly experienced freelance writers for a room for somewhere between 50 to 60 000 per month and get 80 working days out of it if you run that room for six months that is 480 days and let's allow for some slack and round it down to 450. that's still an enormous amount of work for 300k and remember that's for a room filled with veteran writers if you spread out the experience levels you can do the same for more like 200

250k now if you're a aaa release that is not a large amount of money and yet think of how much quality work you'll get out of it there are more than a few titles where that's enough to literally write the whole game from start to finish now that's triple a but even if you're a smaller title you could build a room of three writers who work two days per week for a month and get 24 combined days of work out of them for around 30 grand now like i said i know that's not nothing but you'll get better work than you would from a single writer you'll get much more of it and if you build the room right you will even help give younger writers a leg up into the business if your project has a significant narrative element this is a no-brainer and what about from the writer's perspective why should we as senior

writers in this industry advocate for it well quite simply because a good well-run writer's room both produces good work and builds a camaraderie that means less churn and less turnover in your writing staff even the freelancers if you're working on a large project then maintaining a core writer's room throughout the process will keep your writers engaged and loyal and certainly only make your game's narrative better so this is a lot to take in and it's a lot to do head writers have a lot on their plate and a lot of responsibility staff the room run the room interpret the vision relay the vision lead story breaking sessions maintain the law hand out assignments check and rewrite work give notes answer questions deal with the producers deal with problems tap dance backwards in heels

and do it all with a smile on your face but that's the gig as head writer you get to bask in the glory and take the credit while having fun into the bargain now i don't know about you but that is a trade-off i'm willing to make i sincerely believe that the writer's remodel will become increasingly common for games over the next five to ten years and may even soon become the standard on major titles we have an opportunity to set that standard to define the template to establish how these rooms work and operate we can teach future generations how to do it well and how to foster a positive work environment filled with creativity and imagination to collectively write better work than any of us could do by

ourselves all it takes is for us to stand up and run the run thank you now uh before we get to q a i want to give thanks to harvey griot marks watch a tv writer and producer who advocates for good healthy writers rooms in that industry he makes a podcast called children of tendu with jose molina and he also wrote a polemic called the 11 laws of show running both of which have been useful to me on this subject so you should definitely check them out yourselves so again thank you all for coming and i think we've got seven or eight minutes for q a so let's go for it so we have one question from the chat in an industry where story has been historically relegated as secondary or even tertiary to core gameplay mechanics

such as level design big money set pieces and bottom line numbers how do we advocate for the importance of a strong writer's room or team when audiences indeed demand and expect mature story-driven games well i think the answer to that the key to that is the second part of the question we know that the audience and reviewers highly value the stories in games it's you know a source of rating it's something that is taken into uh account a lot when giving scores you know that all important metacritic so that's really a question of advocating in general for the importance of narrative um you know with regards to writer's drums as i've just talked about here within narrative i think they're a great way especially for larger projects to really

get a lot of value out of a group of writers but the the bigger question is always making other people realize that game narrative is important i mean that's a battle that we've been fighting for 20 years and we'll fight for 20 more i'm sure um but yeah you know the point to the review scores and the comments and reviews and remind people that they always talk about the story you know i mean last of us too is a great game but the story is what most people talk about when they review that game or even fans when they discuss it even though you know everything else about the game is great as well it's the story that really made headlines so yeah you know this is just a general advocacy thing i think do we have any questions from the room there are mics there i believe hi um thank you so much for this talk um i know that like having a writer's room

in person is sort of the ideal for being able to break story and and but obviously with the pandemic you know a lot of us have had to do things remotely and there there are advantages to that in terms of being able to hire diverse candidates who maybe can't change jobs or can't uh pick up and move locations every couple of years for different contracts but how would you um maybe modify the advice you've given for running writer's rooms remotely instead of in person well funnily enough the last two rooms that i've run have been remotely because they've been during the pandemic so yes it everything applies you know all of this applies whether it's in person or virtually um if you're running a virtual room then you probably need to make more use of things like slack or discord or whatever you use and obviously you will need dare i say at a teams account i hate teams but you know if you have a 365 account you get to use teams for free um

or some other form of reliable video conferencing that you can use potentially all day if need be and of course everybody needs the ability to take part in those video conference calls but it can absolutely be done because yeah i've done it and all of these principles apply just as equally in person or remotely there is no reason why you cannot have a good successful room run online hello thank you for the great speech so first of all i highly recommend ditching teams for discord second of all i was wondering about have you ever or actually how often does it happen to you that you've kind of overdone it on diversity and i'm not talking about ethnicity or gender i'm talking about differences in approach to the to the extreme where you know sometimes you get someone that

you know it working with them is getting counterproductive to some some extent right and uh i wonder how how often it happened to you and how did you deal with that i'm fortunate in that it's never happened to me when i've been running a room i have been in rooms that have had the occasional destructive uh member most of the time people don't realize they're being disruptive um and especially when it's a matter of employment they can be persuaded not to be um if you take them aside and tell them i mean a common one there's um a nickname for it in tv writing terms the doctor know somebody who just shoots down everybody else's ideas and a good way to deal with that for example is to institute a role where you can't shoot down an idea unless you have one of your own to offer so simple positive things like that rather than just giving someone a bollocking

can really help to sort of keep the atmosphere of the room good stop it from getting bad but deal with problematic people if you have someone who is genuinely just bad and disruptive hopefully you'd weed them out at the recruitment stage if that doesn't happen or if you're handed a staff and it turns out one of them is problematic then that is a question of management that's something that you may well need to sort of kick up the chain as it were to somebody's uh manager but like i say i've been fortunate that i you know i it hasn't happened to me i've uh been lucky in choosing people who take part in my own rooms great to hear thank you bear in mind by the way i cannot see who's at the mics so um you you know take the initiative hello um my name is trying gianna um so a lot of stuff you're talking about reminds me a lot like running a dnd campaign we're like you're the dm i

think everyone else is like the people in your campaign it's like a lot of similar ideas um but my main question is that um hopefully someday i want to run my own studio probably not anytime soon but i mostly come from like a programming design background i think i have a huge passion for writing and whatnot um so if i do eventually make my own game god bless um i'd like to hire people that are like a lot better than me you know like who knows or how to write and stuff and how like so i guess the question is how did i manage that relationship between me as an inexperienced bright-eyed visionary who's mostly a programmer and the writer who's like had decades of experience and knows way more than me but like i still want them to sort of see my vision i guess well that is the difference i i'm glad you expressed it that way because that is the difference between a visionary and an experienced writer anybody can be the visionary you know plenty of writers are but you don't have

to be and you don't need to be an experienced writer you didn't need to know how narrative works necessarily to have that vision but what you do have is trust in whoever is heading up narrative on your project and might be leading a narrative team and that is simply a question of trust and finding the right person to work with in the same way that we as writers trust that the programmers know how to do inverse kinesthetics or whatever i mean i've probably said that wrong even i know nothing about it i trust them to do it all we ask in return is that everybody else trusts that we know what we're doing when it comes to narrative it's kinematics isn't it um it's uh it like say it's just a question of mutual trust now that's easier said than done i realized that but that it really is that simple if you know that you are not experienced in narrative hire somebody

who is make sure that they're on board with your vision and then trust them thank you very much uh in a game where uh the mechanics are a big part of uh telling the story would you recommend maybe having a game designer or two in the writers room possibly so long as they behave can you see more on that i mean this is this is uh when i referred to this sort of collective outside group as the producers normally i'd expect the game designer to be one of those people and that's where the leadership of being a head writer comes in because the head writer will talk with the game designer about those things and the game designer will have input into the things they discuss and their ideas and what have you but then normally in the ideal scenario the head writer will take the decisions and what they've learned

from those meetings and discussions back to the writers room and relate it to the writers rather than the designer being in the room and it's only because and the reason i joked about behaving as i said at one point in the talk it is very easy for non-writers to glom on to something that's in progress and think that it's the final thing think that we've carved it in a stone tablet and it can never be changed and we as writers know that's not the case but often for non-writers that's difficult to grasp they hear us talking about something enthusiastically and think oh my god this is all going horribly wrong no no no i've got to change it not realizing that we will have that realization ourselves and in a more productive fashion you know in half an hour's time or two days time or whatever so that's the only reason that i sort of make that that crack um if it is a designer who understands that and who maybe has experience with some

form of narrative themselves then by all means invite them in maybe you know once or twice a week but there's no reason that they should need to be permanently in the room unless they are also part of the writing team thank you very much anthony that's all we have time for all right wonderful again wonderful presentation thank you everyone um if you have other questions or you want to talk to me that is my twitter handle on the screen i am always available on social media go have fun enjoy the rest of gdc and i will see you all next year [Music] you