6 Qs with Javier Grillo-Marxuach

Join the Zoom with Children of Tendu on Saturday!

The Middleman was way ahead of its time.

Our next live Zoom Q&A is this Saturday, April 22, 11am, and it’s a “crossover” episode with The Children of Tendu podcast, TV writer all-stars Jose Molina and Javier Grillo-Marxuach. I love chatting with these guys. They have over 50 years of TV writing experience between them, and you’re going to leave our Q&A with not just tremendous, practical information but also wildly inspired, as I do every time I talk with them.

Last week, I gave you Jose’s great responses to our 6 Questions. Today, we’ve got Javi’s.

I have a ridiculously busy week, so I’m going to give you Javi’s answers without my usual tedious preamble. But I’d urge you to check out the Writers Panel episodes on which Javi appears, as all of them have incredible value to new writers. Also, be sure to check out his IMDB page to see the number and diversity of shows he’s worked on. It’s pretty impressive.

6 Questions with Javier Grillo-Marxuach

1. What you working on right now?

I am an Executive Producer on season four of The Witcher. It's my second season working on the show, and it is one of the most rewarding jobs I've had. So much fun. I am also developing a project I can't discuss because the NDA is the size of Wyoming, but it's based on a video game.

2. What challenges are you facing specific to your current writing project?

The Witcher is a big, serialized franchise based on a true saga, so it has a lot of moving parts, so working with my showrunner and the staff to keep all the gears and servos in synchronization is a big task that we all mind together. 

3. What advice about the business of TV/film writing can you give to someone starting out now?

When I started out, you had to pick a lane, drama or comedy, ten o'clock prestige drama or more genre/lighter fare, and you stuck to that lane because your brand depended on it, and changing lanes was extremely difficult.

Nowadays, you need to be a jack of all trades. I advice everyone starting out to study as many forms as they can—drama, comedy, video games, dramedies, dromedaries. In a very short time, the world of media writing has become an endless hustle, and you need to be able to adapt to any type of writing willing to pay.

The trickiest genre of all?

4. What advice about the craft of writing can you give to someone starting out?

Initiate and complete new work, rinse, repeat. That's it, the only thing you can control. Make new things, then make more new things, and then do more until you die. That's how you get good, that's how you get jobs, that's the air you breath.

5. What do you respond to most in a piece of writing?

When a writer has been as careful about the prose and the experience of reading the script as they were about the characters and plots. Most screenwriters seem to believe that only the center of the page matters. We have a very specific form to master. When you do it well, all the elements, from the souls of the characters to the composition of the slug lines, all unite to make the pages a work of art in and of themselves.

6. What are you watching/reading/listening to lately that’s getting you excited or inspired?

I just finished reading the entire Dune saga from the original novels to the twenty or so prequels, sequels, equals, and interquels written by Frank Herbert's son with Kevin J. Anderson. It's an amazing exercise in world creation that I found very entertaining.

I then reread Dan Simmons's Hyperion series, and am moving on to David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series... Something about lengthy sci-fi sagas has my attention right now.

On TV I am watching Succession, which is as good as the reviews all say, but I also find that sometimes I check out things that maybe were not well reviewed but which stand up nicely outside of the context of release hype. I just binged Netflix's Halston miniseries and found it delightful. I would also advise that everyone watch Russell T. Davies's It's a Sin.

Dune is comparatively short!

Below is the Zoom info for Saturday’s Q&A with Javi and Jose for all of you lovely paid subscribers. I love the questions you’ve been bringing to these meet-ups, and I’m excited to hear the great advice the guys will have to offer. If you’re not a paid subscriber and want to join the Q&A, or listen to the recording later, do what the button says: