The Animation Career Shortcut I Didn’t Expect

How do I advance my career as a comedy animation writer?

This is a question I ask myself all the time.

And I know a lot of writers ask some version of the same thing.

How do I get people to read my writing samples?

How do I get my script into the right people’s hands?

I write adult animation. Animated comedy. Whatever we want to call it. 

But I think this applies to other kinds of writers too.

Thrillers.

Romcoms.

Whatever.

The best answer I have found so far is painfully simple.

Produce my own stuff.

That’s it.

That’s the end of the blog post.

Thanks for reading.

Okay, fine.

There is a little bit more to it than that.

Why I’m So Big On Producing My Own Stuff

So far, I have produced eight animated shorts.

Those shorts gained the attention of several producers who reached out and asked me to pitch a series for them.

So I had pitch meetings because of the animated shorts I produced.

That is why I am so big on this.

Not because I have the whole industry figured out.

I do not.

I have spent years and literally thousands of hours trying to understand how the industry works and trying to get better as a writer.

I am a writer first too, by the way.

But producing my own stuff is the thing that actually created some movement for me.

Because for a long time, I thought I would go the traditional route only.

Find representation first.

Become a writer’s assistant or a PA on a show.

Become a staff writer.

Maybe become a showrunner.

Then maybe sell a show.

I don’t think that path is impossible.

But I think the odds are astronomically low these days if that is the only path I am depending on.

At least that is how it feels to me.

So now I am doubling down on producing my own work.

Producing Made Me Better At Writing

For me, producing something improved my writing tremendously.

I got better at writing jokes because I actually heard my jokes spoken out loud.

I got better at writing dialogue because I actually heard the dialogue spoken out loud.

I got to understand where all the fluff was in my script.

Once I saw it play out on screen, I could actually feel it.

I also got better at writing transitions because I got to see them play out on screen.

And I got to understand my pacing better.

People Can See What I Made

This is a huge point.

I think it is so much easier to get people to see what I have produced than to get people to read my scripts.

And it makes sense.

Nobody likes reading, right?

It takes effort to read something.

Watching something is more passive.

So if I want to show people what I am capable of, a produced short gives them something they can actually see.

They do not have to imagine the voices.

They do not have to imagine the timing.

They do not have to imagine the tone.

They can watch it.

Again, I am not saying scripts do not matter.

I write scripts.

But producing something gave people another way to experience the writing.

And for me, that has been a huge advantage.

Audience Changes The Game

Here is the biggest point of them all.

If I produce something and put it out there, I can build an audience.

We have seen this in adult animation.

Vivziepop made Hazbin Hotel.

Michael Cusack made Smiling Friends.

They started by building an audience on YouTube.

Now, I do not know the future.

I do not have a magical Hollywood crystal ball.

Disappointing, honestly.

But my hypothesis is that if I can demonstrate that I know what I am doing and I can attract people to watch my stuff, then producers, executives, showrunners, and representatives may eventually come to me.

That is the idea.

Instead of only chasing them, I want to build something that can make some of them come to me.

And what I like about this path is that I can play both games at the same time.

I can still network.

I can still write scripts.

I can still learn how the industry works.

But I can also build an audience and make proof of concept shorts.

The reverse does not really feel true to me.

If I only chase the traditional route, I do not automatically have an audience.

That is one of the main reasons I am doubling down on this.

What I Actually Produce

The first thing I produced was a pilot animatic for my series Nappyville.

I wrote the half hour pilot.

Then I decided to just go crazy and produce a pilot animatic for the series.

The first version was over 30 minutes.

Then I removed a lot of scenes from it.

Again, because producing it helped me see the fluff.

I put it on YouTube.

It was not great.

So I unlisted it.

It is not really representative of what I am capable of now.

But it helped me improve as a writer.

That was valuable.

Later, I produced shorts for the series.

Fully produced shorts.

Not just animatics or storyboard versions.

I made eight of them.

They were around one to four minutes each.

They did not blow up view wise.

But they did serve their purpose.

They got a little bit of attention from the right people.

So what should I produce now?

For me, the answer is to create the series first, then produce shorts from that series.

I develop the characters.

The world.

The premise.

Write the half-hour pilot.

The concept art.

The bible.

The pitch deck.

Then I produce proof of concept shorts from that world.

That way, if people watch the shorts and like the characters or the world, I actually have the material ready.

Pilot script.

Pitch deck.

All that stuff.

At least in my head, that makes a lot of sense.

The 3 Ways I Have Produced Stuff

There are three ways I have produced something.

1. I do it myself.
2. I pay people.
3. I build relationships with people who help.

I have done all three.

All of them have pros and cons.

Doing It Myself

The con is that it takes time.

A lot of time.

Because if I want to animate something myself, I first have to learn how to animate before I can actually animate.

So I spend time twice.

But the pro is that it is free, and I unlock new skills.

In the beginning, I did everything myself.

Literally everything.

I animated.

I did the storyboards.

I drew the characters.

I drew the backgrounds.

I did the voice acting.

Sound design.

Post production.

Everything.

For me, that was important because I wanted to get a fundamental understanding of everything that goes into a production.

I aspire to become a showrunner and create my own full length shows.

So I think it helps to understand the different parts of production.

When I work with someone else now, I can empathize with them better.

I understand what they are going through because I have done some version of it myself.

I can communicate with them better.

I speak their language a little more.

Not perfectly.

But more than I did before.

Paying People

The con is obvious.

It costs money.

Shocking information.

The other con is that I do not unlock as many production skills myself.

I still have to learn how to hire people.

How to communicate.

How to give feedback.

That is valuable.

But I am not learning how to do every task myself.

The pro is that it is the easiest and fastest way to produce something.

Because I am literally paying someone else to do it.

Very advanced economics.

Building Relationships

The third way is getting people to help for free.

The con is that it takes time to build the relationships necessary for that.

I have never just met some random person off the street and asked them to make something for me for free.

At least not successfully.

The people who have helped me for free have been people I had a relationship with first.

But there is another con.

There is a possibility that the work will be lower quality.

Not always.

But sometimes.

And it can feel icky to give notes or ask for changes when someone is helping for free.

Because they are giving their free time.

They may not invest as much time and energy into it.

That is just something I keep in mind.

No Skills, No Money, No Network

When I feel stuck, I try to identify the bottleneck.

No skills?

Learn.

No money?

Earn or save.

No network?

Reach out.

This is where it gets uncomfortable.

Because I can hear the objections.

I cannot do it myself.

I do not know how.

I do not have money to pay someone.

I do not know anybody who can help me for free.

And I get it.

I really do.

I am saying this as much to myself as to anybody else.

But if I want this, I have to do what is required.

If I don’t know how to do it myself, I would learn it.

We literally have a free 24 hour tutor in the palm of our hands in this day and age.

ChatGPT.

Or other tools.

YouTube videos.

Books.

Courses.

I can learn the skills.

If I don’t have money, I would make money.

Take more shifts.

Stop spending money on stupid stuff.

I know that is probably the point that ruffles feathers.

I get it.

But there are people out there willing to sacrifice everything to get what I want.

And if I am not even willing to sacrifice half of what they are sacrificing, I think the competition is going to be too fierce.

That is rough.

I know.

When I started this whole thing, I was a writer first.

I did not get into this because I thought I would have to learn all these things myself or spend money producing shorts.

But if that is what is required for me to get closer to my goals, that is what I am going to do.

At least that is how I think about it.

And if I do not know anybody who can help me, then I would network like crazy.

Final Thought

I still ask myself how to advance my career as a comedy animation writer.

All the time.

I don’t think I have the grand answer.

But the best answer I have found so far is to produce my own stuff.

It made me a better writer.

It helped me understand pacing, dialogue, jokes, transitions, and fluff.

It gave people something to watch.

It gave me proof of concept shorts from the worlds I am building.

And in my case, it got producers to reach out and ask me to pitch.

That doesn’t mean it will magically solve everything.

Of course not.

That would be lovely.

A tiny Hollywood fairy godmother appears, reads the script, buys the show, and gives me a parking spot.

Unfortunately, no.

But producing my own work gave me something practical to do.

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