Writers, write, says Christopher Brancato

One of the remarkable things about the Marcos series is its brilliant writing. Recently, Christopher Brancato, the showrunner and co-creator of the American crime-drama Narcos came to India. But it wasn’t to draw inspiration for his next series.  Siddharth Roy Kapur had invited Brancato to India to conduct a special masterclass on creating, writing, and directing original series. During his visit, we got a chance to catch up with the man behind Pablo Escobar. Here he talks about writing for streaming channels, the pros of writing for digital platforms, and his advice for budding writers.

With the advent of streaming channels, do you think writers now have to develop new skill sets to write a show?

Not really because the notion of telling good stories and telling stories episodically remains the same whether you are doing it for Netflix or CBS. The difference is that you don’t have to deal with commercial breaks, so there’s a slight adjustment to technique. And, of course, on a digital platform, there’s more freedom in terms of edginess, sexuality, and violence, so you are not censored. You have more creative freedom and license.

What’s the difference between making a show for a network as opposed to making one for a streaming channel like Netflix?

Broadcast networks that everyone including kids can watch have to have certain rules that don’t apply for the digital platform.

With the global reach of streaming channels, do you think that writing a show can become a collaborative endeavour between writers of two or more countries?

Absolutely, yes. As a matter of fact, Jose Padilha was a director on Narcos, but had written stuff as well and had contributed to the writing in elemental ways. The exciting thing was that he challenged the preconceived notions I had, and I did the same for him and it ended up yielding something that I don’t think I would have come to on my own.

What are the challenges when it comes to writing a show like Narcos that’s based on real-life incidents?

You are doing a lot of research and hearing stories. you have to figure out how best to take all this information and present it in a manner that is appealing to the audience while at the same time having to make up what people actually said to each other because history generally doesn’t give you a sentence by sentence description. And that’s the fun part too... imagining what Escobar would have said in certain situations.

What advice do you have for budding writers?

It’s very simple: Writers, write. You don’t have to write eight hours a day to be a writer, you have to actually write 10 minutes a day, but every day. It’s not about the number of hours or not even about the quality of writing, it’s about consistency and you get better over time. The internet allows you to read any screenplay, access any screenwriting book. Those should be consumed so that you can develop and improve your ability to write for television.

What’s the basic, first step for a writer? Is it reading a lot of writing?

Both, you should read a lot and write and give it to people who can give you feedback. At first, it is very difficult to accept feedback. It’s terrible and you are embarrassed that you did such stupid things while writing. I have been doing it for 30 years, and the last script I gave someone... I was embarrassed by all the stupid things. In a weird way, that’s something that never ends. People point our deficiency in your script. I understand now that the first draft of a script is usually deficient in some way because I can’t receive the script the way you do. That’s what writers have to learn to accept feedback and not let it pierce your skin... which is very hard, especially at least at first it’s hard.

While starting a show what are the things that a writer should focus on and what are the things a creator should focus on?

The writer is usually the creator. So what should you focus on? Making sure you hire a writing staff that is smart and contribute to the creative vision of the show. You should make sure you have a creative vision for the show that you can articulate to people. You have to hire the best people you can and then let them do their thing. Don’t try to micromanage.

How was it interacting with writers at your Mumbai workshop?

Just to meet other professional writers and see their level of sophistication and their good ideas and the quality work in the exercises that we did... it was wonderful. I am extremely optimistic about the ability of the industry here to do globally-successful television.