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Celia Finkelstein is talking shop. Welcome all creators and connoisseurs of streaming content.

@celiafink
Celia Finkelstein
@celiafink · 3:34

A Conversation With Julia Prescott

article image placeholderJulia Prescott
During this time, Julia Prescott is a writer, actor, comedian, podcaster. She's done it all, and she is a person who has become a real light for me since we met. We've known each other about two years. We met at a mixer for the WGA, the Writers Guild, one of those things that you're kind of always on the fence about going to and then sometimes you're glad you did. Sometimes not so much this time. I'm very glad I did

Writer, television, The Simpsons, podcaster, Round Springfield

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@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 4:56

"How I started?" Rambling origin story

I think I'm going to have to do a part two for this because I was rambling a lot about my parents, but they're worth to ramble about because, of course, I love them. And for years, I will just say to touch on this, but a lot of this, I know we'll feel like therapy, but for years, I felt really guilty of finally taking the leap and deciding to be a writer. There is that question to the core of it
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@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 4:33

What little Julia wanted

I'm like, a decade plus into this. But I'm still like, wow, there that production company I love is going to look them up. It just is so I don't know. It never leaves you. And I don't think that it ever should. And I think that I didn't have precisely. Even though I grew up in the Valley around all this Hollywood stuff, I didn't have a clear idea of what kind of writer I wanted to be
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@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 4:46

Starting in kids animation and learning on the job

So it makes you go, oh, does anybody respect this as part of the industry? But I'm really genuinely like, I think really fondly about how I started and how my entry into being a professional writer was through Kids Animation. As I mentioned, I do feel like I'm uniquely talented for it. I give strong camp counselor energy, so I think that works. But it is anywhere that you start. I once heard from another writer
@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 4:59

My quick paraphrasing IMDb page

So I realized. So this is, I think, part four or part five. I've lost track. I realized after I posted my responses that I didn't really get into the details of the jobs that I've had as a writer. And maybe that is interesting to people. So as I mentioned, my first writing job was on a Cartoon Network show. That all came about because I was interning at Warner Brothers during the summer while I was in film school, which changed my life
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Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@celiafink
Celia Finkelstein
@celiafink · 2:02

@juliaprescott animation guild, writers guild

So I'm really fascinated by the idea that you sort of harbored this desire to write, but felt like you had to sort of explore things, something that you talked about that I wanted to touch on specifically, and I'd love to get your answer. And then I'll dig a little bit deeper into other stuff. But I wanted you to talk about the difference in animation and live action specifically, because I feel like some writers don't really understand the difference
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@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 4:46

Animation titles and guilds! ❤️

And the scale for a WGA covered writer, I feel like the average is like 24 grand, so you can see it's like triple the amount. And then when it comes to titles. So I've been working mainly in kids animation, but I'm in the process of branching out and doing other crazy things. But I've been working for ten plus years within this space, you would think that I would be this, like, badass b**** with this higher title
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@celiafink
Celia Finkelstein
@celiafink · 2:31

@juliaprescott The Simpsons, podcast, Round Springfield

And I have always hoped that we would sort of find a way to integrate animation writers into the WGA because I think it does a disservice to people, especially when you've been writing forever and ever. It feels like you should be able to move into a position that's more commensurate with your experience. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I think that's really helpful for people to understand. I wanted to talk about because you have had a podcast
@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 4:40

Simpsons writing part 1!

And now that I've written a book, I realize, of course, the reality is like there's a lot of books in the world, but I still feel proud about what we did. Yeah. I mean, there's been a really interesting theme in my life of I somehow I become I have like a fandom over a thing and somehow find a bridge to get into the world of that. It started first with The Aquabats
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@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 5:00

Simpsons writing part 2

I'm just submitting premises like, Doodoo, same old, same old. And then you have these other moments that are so surreal that pop out where especially as I was writing the script, I'd be like, and then Homer walks into the room. I'd have to stop and be like, what is happening. It just was so surreal in that way, too
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Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 4:17

Simpsons part 3!

I had a catalog in my brain already there to kind of reference and go, okay, what kind of joke is the best joke? And, of course, like all comedy rooms, the Simpsons. And maybe they're a little bit more famous for this. But when they do their rewrite, they go line by line and they just punch up the h*** out of it. But I really wanted to give it a fighting chance at the beginning, like you should always do
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Celia Finkelstein
@celiafink · 3:06

@juliaprescott process, trash draft, outlining, thank you

But sometimes you just need to sort of barf out a draft so that you have something, because I think it's really easy to get caught up in the not writing part of it all the world building and everything. And so I wanted to ask you, how much of that do you do? How much of that informs your process? What is your process? When do you find it helpful to outline? When do you find it helpful to trash draft? And where did that start for you?
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@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 4:49

Trash draft and my process! Part one

And it started as like, I'm just going to write a script in a week. And sure, I'm going to have, like, a really stressed out crazy week. But we'll see what happens. And that was this big game changer for me and my life and me and my process as a writer. I think that as part of my general process, it just really taught me how to not be precious, which I think is the name of the game
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@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 4:41

Trash draft and my process part 2

I think that you have to, of course, learn the rules to break them, but I don't think that it's a good thing that most of our screenwriting books came from white men in the nineties and two thousands, and that it's distilled into this math formula again, to each their own. I think that if you want to write and really make it as a writer, you should accept that you can observe how other people have done their career and how they've charted their path
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@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 5:00

Trash draft and my process part 3!

I just try to keep it to myself because I find that when I'm really in the throes of, like, now is the time to write the script, it almost feels like a secret. And I know that that's not a set timeline. Sometimes. Like, for example, this feature that I'm writing is an idea that I had a calendar year ago, if not more
@juliaprescott
Julia Mayfield
@juliaprescott · 2:25

Process part 4?

Oh, and one last thing I just wanted to say and this I think anybody who's a writer knows that this is true, but I would be remiss in that thing that good writers are good readers. You have to read everything that you can get your hands on. Kind of harder to get your hands on. Feature scripts. I'm learning as I'm writing this feature than TV pilots, but you have to read how other writers formatting stage things move through their rhythms of momentum with chase themes
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