6 Questions with Jenny Klein

Witcher! Daisy and Jessica Jones! Supernatural!

As of this writing, there is only one slot left for my upcoming Draft Intensive class with Script Anatomy. It’s a fun and practical class in which you’ll go from your existing outline to a solid first draft. It’s highly collaborative, and you’ll receive notes from me and your very smart classmates. Class begins Oct 22 and runs for three sessions, every other Sunday morning.

This is your opportunity to write a spec this year! Buying is going to be fast and furious come January, so don’t wait. Sign up here.

Klein Words

When Acker and I came onto Supernatural, the kindest, most welcoming person there was the writers’ assistant, Jenny Klein. Jenny had been there for a couple of years already, I believe, and despite the frequently discouraging atmosphere of that workplace, she was an indomitable spirit. Always in a good mood no matter how difficult the job got, and always bringing her A-game (to the respect of everyone there). Jenny was also the only person there who loved comedy! She consumed comedy and genre stuff—horror and sci fi—like a true fan. And it’s that same enthusiasm that she’s brought to all of her work, making her the tremendous success that she’s become.

It’s no surprise to me that Jenny’s been a valued member of any writing staff, and that she’s had opportunities to help build worlds on such shows as Jessica Jones, Cloak and Dagger, and The Witcher, for which she wrote the lyrics to the show’s unlikely hit song, “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher.” Were this her only legacy, it’d be more than enough!

In the time I’ve known her, Jenny has gone from writers’ assistant to showrunner, most recently on The Thing About Pam, the 2022 series about the murder of Betsy Faria, starring Renèe Zellweger. (Well, most-most recently on a couple of secret projects she can’t talk about). And if I keep saying that Jenny’s success is unsurprising, it’s because it is. She has the talent on the page to back it up. Her scripts are carefully constructed and clearly written “character first.” She embodies these characters that she creates and writes, digging deep into their emotional lives and letting them drive their stories.

You can see Jenny’s enthusiasm and talent in her episodes of television, and I got to experience it firsthand when she and her husband Ben Edlund wrote an episode of “Beyond Belief” for our Thrilling Adventure Hour show. “Beyond Belief” is kind of “The Thin Man with the supernatural,” and their episode was an opportunity for Jenny and Ben to have fun with the kind of clever, weird, silly genre stuff that they’d never get to do on most shows. It’s a really fun episode that you can listen to here. You can also watch it here.

Screenshot from the live streamed episode! There were tentacles.

Come to the live Zoom Q&A this coming Sunday, October 15, at 4pm PT. You’re sure to learn a whole lot and hear some great stories to boot. Zoom info is below the paywall. Only way to attend or listen to the recording later is to become a paid subscriber (or to be my student!), so upgrade now!

6 Questions with Jenny Klein

1. What you working on right now?

The strike is over, woo!! I’m working on Power Rangers for Hasbro in development at Netflix but I can’t say much about it.

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

I’m not allowed to talk about Power Rangers, I’m sorry :(

I’m in early development on another project which is an adaptation of a foreign show. I also can’t say specifically what it is, but I can probably loosely refer to the challenges of adapting an existing TV format. The main challenge is that when something is already really good but the job is adapting is for an American audience, how do you make it different but kind of keep it the same? Like not change something too much that you break it.

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

Since my track began as an assistant, I’d say from experience that it could be helpful if you're willing to put in the time and labor as an assistant while cultivating your writing samples. Some new writers I’ve spoken to don’t want to do that, and I get not wanting to be an assistant for many reasons, but those are jobs that put you in proximity to working writers and producers, so combined with having great writing samples, you might have a better shot at breaking in.

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

If people aren’t responding very positively to your pilot, write a new one. Don’t just keep polishing the same sample; move on. I also wouldn’t make it a big world-building writing sample because those can be dense and hard for a reader to get through.

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

An opening that grabs me and sets a distinct tone in the first five pages, characters that feel real and specific, dark comedy, twists I didn’t see coming, visual but concise cinematic direction, well-written action sequences, tight scenes. 

You’ve been given a checklist, writers!

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

Podcasts: The C-Word, You Must Remember This, The Opportunist.

TV shows: late to the party but just watched Pachinko and loooooved, also really enjoyed A League of Their Own, Dead Ringers, One Piece, Beef, Last of Us.

Books - I finally read A Brief History of Time but around the same time as I read Three-Body Problem so I had to keep reminding myself that Stephen Hawking’s was like, actual science, even though it so easily felt like sci-fi because it was so mind-bendy. The universe is wild!

Link for Sunday’s Q&A below! Upgrade and join us!