What would the Christmas season be without success stories? For that matter, what would showbiz be without them? Join us now as TVWriter™ presents the warm, uplifting tale of how Steven DeKnight went from wanna be to showrunner (of DAREDEVIL). Dude’s winnin’, y’know?
by James Bean
If you want to work in TV, you have to prove that you can write for somebody else’s characters.This can be difficult, especially when the characters are as beloved as the ones found on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and especially when the name of your speculative episode is “Xander the Slayer.”
It’s actually a well-known rule that you shouldn’t spec a show that you want to work on for exactly this reason: Showrunners and writers know their own characters too well to judge a spec fairly. There will always be something that doesn’t sound quite right. A line of dialogue that doesn’t ring a hundred percent true.