So, as I've mentioned here and there, I joined my first writers room this year. If you would've asked me a week prior to that if I was a TV writer, I would've said no. Not because I had anything against TV, but because by that point, it was the least I could do to "brand" myself.

You know... that horrible piece of advice that gets jammed down new writers throats, "Stay in your lane."

TV wasn't my lane, and god forbid I gave some imaginary rep the impression that I hadn't found my voice, right?

So I didn't pursue TV writing and kept my pilots to myself.

6 years ago, I partnered with a veteran writer/producer to help him develop a few shows, which then evolved into us writing a few pilots together. Fast forward to 2020, a showrunner invited that writer/producer to join the writing staff of his show, now going into its 3rd season.

That writer/producer sent a pilot we wrote together in 2015 as the sample and said, "I'll join, but I want to bring this other guy with me."

And now I'm writing for the 3rd season of A Million Little Things, which premieres tonight on ABC, with the title of Consulting Producer.

The moral of this story is, any advice that tells writers not to do what they love is bad advice. How someone else wants to brand you is their problem. How you will sustain yourself long enough to make a living doing what you love is your problem. Solve that. The rest is noise.