Today I’m talking with
Hilary Weisman Graham, YA author of Reunited
and the newest member of the writing team for the TV series Bones. Hilary will start by telling us
what it’s like to write for TV, and we’ll end the interview with more
information about her book. To learn even more about Hilary, be sure to check
out her website, follow her on Twitter and Facebook, and add Reunited to your “to
read” pile on Goodreads!
How many writers work on
Bones?
Nine. I am the new girl.
How long does it take to
write an episode?
Typically, it takes
about a week or two to break the plot (which is done in the writers' room), a
week to write the outline (done solo), and two weeks to write the script.
Do the writers work an
eight hour day and is it a year-round job?
More or less, depending
on the day. We break in May when the show goes on summer hiatus.
What is your work day
like?
At any given point a couple
of writers will be off on script or outline and one writer will be on set
shooting the episode they wrote. The rest of the writers will be split into
groups in two smaller writers' rooms , the tone of which varies, depending on
the story we're breaking and how well it's going at the moment. As a new member
of the staff, I've discovered group procrastination involves a lot more raucous
laughter and spontaneous dance parties than my former procrastination technique
(surfing the internet) back when I was writing alone at home. But I eat about
the same amount of snacks.
What’s the most
surprising part of this job?
How many ways they've
killed people on BONES! I was pitching murder ideas the other day, and after
every pitch, one of the more seasoned writers would say, "We did that,
back in Season __," literally, like Every Single Time. At one point I
threw out something really wacky thinking I'd finally hit upon something
unique, then I saw that look in his eye...
Take us through the
steps of story development?
Well, BONES is a
procedural, so each week we have a murder to solve. But every story starts by
creating a cool world to put our characters in for that episode--like the world
of competitive chess, sperm donors, or food science. From there, we figure out
who our victim is, how they died, and who the suspects might be.
How did you land this
job? Is this the typical path to this type of job?
1. Wrote a good spec
script. 2. Agent sent script to BONES head writers. 3. They liked it. 4. I met
them and apparently came across as a normal person. 5. Voilà, job offer. So, it
was a relatively easy gig to land, which came after countless near-misses,
brutal rejections, and many, many years of very hard work.
Once you knew you had
this job, how did you prepare for it? (Had you already seen most of the
episodes or did you have to binge watch them?)
Though I do watch BONES,
I wasn't caught up on all ten seasons when I got the job offer, so thank god
for Netflix. Basically, I binge-watched my way through about 80+ episodes in
the month between the job offer & my start date.
What other experience in
TV/movie writing have you had (if any)? Did you study screenwriting formally?
I graduated from Boston
University with a degree in Broadcasting & Film and spent the first part of
my career as an indie filmmaker/documentary TV producer. But seven years ago, I
decided to focus my career on my writing, and I'm happy to report that I've
been working pretty steadily ever since, between selling various screenplays
and TV projects getting my book deal for REUNITED.
Are you continuing to
write YA novels?
I have a really fun
middle grade novel that is a work-in-progress that I hope to get back to as soon
I find the time.
What was your favorite
scene to write in Reunited?
The scene in the van
with Alice and Quentin. But if you want to know the juicy details, you'll have
to read the book...
