The Frustrations of Being a Completely Unknown Writer

As many of you may know, I am an aspiring writer. Specifically, I'd like to write for television. So, the thing aspiring TV writers do is pick a show they love and write an episode of it, called a spec script. It's essentially a writing sample that shows what you can do.

Earlier this year, I spent a lot of time and effort writing a spec for The Office. I had the idea for a while and finally got it down on paper. The title of the episode I wrote is, "Wellness Challenge" based on the idea that there would be a company-wide incentive for the employees to modify their weight and get in shape. Clearly Michael Scott goes entirely off the deep end and turns the workplace into a "Biggest Loser" type competition. The title of the episode of The Office that aired last week is "Weight Loss".




Although I'm sure the specifics differ quite a bit, essentially, the same exact concept. I haven't seen the episode yet but it's safe to say that all the work I put into creating my spec is out the window. It's useless now because it will look like I copied an existing episode.

Ohhhh, frustration. It was a real good one too. I'll email it to you if you want. You can print it out and use it to wrap my birthday gift or line some kind of pet poop box.

At least I know that it was, indeed, a good idea to start with. And it will also motivate me to write a new one, but not The Office this time.