Great news- I'm here.

Hi Everyone. I've been an "unscripted" tv producer for about 20 years. Before that I had every job from radio DJ to Magician/Encyclopedia salesman (long story). Now I'm trying to be an author, or at least figure out how to most effectively unleash all the stuff in my hard drive onto humanity. I think humanity would enjoy that. I love a great story more than stylish leeyturatoooor... Loved "Gone Girl" and "All the Light We Cannot See," hated "The Cider House Rules" and "In The Woods." So I guess I'll lurk around for good marketing/distribution ideas, and if anyone wants to offer advice or chat about how we write stuff for "unscripted" TV- I'm here! Good luck to you all. - Tom

Ha- ok A-Duke. So I had just received my graduate elementary education certification in New Jersey (I lived outside Trenton after college, another long story) and then promptly decided that I did not want to be a teacher. I wanted to be rich instead. So I found an "Educational Sales" job in the classifieds. The job consisted of cold calling local schools and offering a "free educational magic show." Most declined but those who didn't were treated to me fumbling through some Walmart bought magic tricks, and in the end handing out papers to the kids to give their parents to fill out if they were interested in "educational resources" for their kids. We then went back and collected the forms, cold called the parents who had filled them out, and went to their homes to try to sell them a set of encyclopedias for something like $1000. After selling three kits in my first week, instead of $600 in commissions, my paycheck was for $0 (yes, they actually gave me a check with $0 on it) due to the buyers' bad credit. I then realized that selling magical $1000 encyclopedias to poor people was probably not the most productive path to prosperity. So I moved into my parents basement and became a rock and roll DJ for 12k a year. Best- T

Thanks CA! Good question- I've never worked on that one. It's not so much "writing" in reality TV as "outlining." There's a lot of suggesting and shaping of story arcs before the shoots, and a lot of tweaking, clarifying and enhancing them in the edits. Survivor was a great show IMO. When you put real people in desperate situations and add cameras, something entertaining is bound to happen! Best of luck to you too. -T