You know the one thing about the strike over the internet has been the rise of the internet as a source of information and "information." It's been great that writers have been able to blog and podcast their POV to the folks in Wisconsin so they can win the support of the diary farmers. I can say that because I'm from Wisconsin and I've got a farm there.
On the downside, "information" -- the dispensation of rumors passed off as news -- has become kinda a cottage industry. Remember that "deal" that was oh so in place last Monday? In fact, according to that rumor the strike was supposed to be over by now. And what about the myth, from that same rumor site, that the AMPTP was supposed to be presenting a two-part deal to the WGA? Nope. Just more rumors. But in the heart of a news blackout folks have been eating that swill like it was cake.
It's not that old media journalism doesn't veer toward crap reporting either -- witness the New York Times -- but there are checks and balances and at least the threat that bad sourcing will cost you your job. On the net rumors are fine 'cause that'll get the clicks that trick the advertisers into thinking you're somebody. I'm not pointing any fingers in any direction, but just as a total aside, here's something that, perhaps, you might find relevant to the previous should you be inclined for some light insight.
With writing, timing is everything. Being in the right place at the right time. I just got this from a fellow Midwesterner who came out west to write. Unfortunately, for the moment, his timing was a little off:
"I've worked in the Chicago market since the late nineties. I was 23 or so. Writing copy for advertising, rep'd talent working non-union gigs. I lived in Milwaukee so I've been driving 185 miles upwards of three times a week, round trip.Around 2002 I wrote a little short screenplay for a guy. It never got produced. A friend of mine urged me to get it out and do something with it. In 2004 I sent it into a little no name competition in LA and it placed 2nd.
So I kept writing. I wanted to write something different, something genre-defying. I took up the cause of a prison redemption story, but redemption not turning on the western sense of death, suffering or work; like Lost in Translation in a sense.
A talent agent pushed me to enter it in the Nicholl Fellowship of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It placed in the quarterfinals, 253 out of 5,050. Not bad. Some lit agents started emailing.
A talent agent of mine in Chicago, BMG, has an affiliate out here, Avalon. I cleared enough writing some TV spots for a cable network provider to move, threw everything out that didn't fit in a '99 Saturn with 228k miles and left, sleeping in my car. 2084 miles in 48 hours. Some good friends put me up for 6 weeks.
The inevitable strike came, right after meeting a major TV Executive Producer who was kind enough to invite me to write some spec for his sitcom.
I just moved into a YMCA. I'm serving tables, trying to pick up auditions as a non-union actor, and write copy freelance. Maybe part-time.
I'm waiting. And writing."
Have you been out there picketing? How about you let us know where you have been picketing so we can get some sense of the population of writers whose views you are soliciting?
No telling what might happen in negotiations after six weeks, folks...