“not everyone who can ‘do’ can teach, but

dear god, can this woman teach.”

welcome,writers.

Are you…

  • an aspiring screenwriter wanting to write a standout, bulletproof half-hour television sample?

  • a writer in any format challenged by time management, procrastination, or a sense of purpose with your writing?

  • a working screenwriter who wants a sounding board for your next half-hour pitch?

    Breathe in a deep sigh of relief, you’ve found me!! I’m excited to meet you. Read on to learn more about how I can help…

Hi, I’m Julia. I am a…

  • television creator (ABC, CBS)

  • feature film writer (Amazon Studios)

  • improv performer (UCB)

  • experienced, intuitive writing teacher and coach

  • expert in half-hour television story structure

  • devoted, curious, and judgment-free listener

  • passionate and creative problem-solver

  • former camp counselor (you’ll be able to tell)

half-hour pilot coaching & classes

Whether you have a TV show idea in your head you need to get out, or you know you need a half-hour sample but aren’t sure what to write about, I can help. We can do one-on-one coaching; you can join my signature live Zoom class, (No) Idea to Detailed Outline; or you can join my Self-Guided Online Pilot Course, which makes my entire process and content available at a more accessible price point.

My process is based on the real steps of developing, selling and writing a TV show for a network.

creative coaching

pitch development

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

“It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”

— Squarespace

Gather round for story time, children. In 2019, I had THE GREATEST assistant job in Hollywood. I was a development assistant for a group of producers with an overall deal at a studio to make half-hour television comedy. Besides the scheduling and emailing and ordering lunch, my job was to read the scripts of every writer who wanted to meet with them - their samples. I had that job for four years. I read SO. MANY. SAMPLES. I got a pretty good sense of the quality of pilots being submitted to producers, what made the good ones good, and what made the meh ones meh. So by the time I gave my bosses MY sample - hoping they could help me get an agent, or get staffed on an existing show - they liked it so much they wanted to produce it. They gave it to their agents, who loved it - no notes. The agents sent it to a bunch of studios - and two different studios wanted it. Again, no notes. One of the studios bought that one script for almost five times my yearly assistant salary. The studio attached a huge TV star to play the lead and sold it to a network. The pandemic shut down all production, so the network paid me to write the second episode of my show. The show didn’t go, but - those agents became my agents. I got WGA health insurance. The agents got me managers. The next year I sold another pilot to a different network. A major production company took on the feature script I had written YEARS prior. I got another job writing another feature for the big company that delivers the packages. My career had started.

That’s what a great sample script can do.

Fast forward to the 2023 WGA strike - my savings were dwindling (look, I’m not a personal finance coach, okay?), and luckily, I got the opportunity to teach pilot writing classes at the UCB Training Center. I developed a curriculum based on the actual process of developing a TV show, selling and writing that pilot. I taught six 8-week pilot writing classes - teaching almost 50 students - and I honed a process to help anyone who wants to write the first episode of the show that they think should be on TV. I don’t teach arbitrary rules about story structure; characters; and page count - I teach you WHY television pilots are structured the way they are, and HOW to use that structure to communicate with a reader or viewer. I discover what’s important to YOU about YOUR story, and make sure it gets onto the page. I note my students’ scripts to move them from the “meh” pile to the “yes” pile.

That’s what I want for my students. I engage with each of my students’ scripts with the goal of getting it to the level of quality mine was when I sent it to my bosses. From those many, many, many scripts