How Shonda Rhimes Makes TV Magic
The secret of a TV “Titan”
Everybody should be familiar with the name SHONDA LYNN RHIMES. She’s one of the most, if not the most, important TV creators of the past decade. She’s the writer of international hits like GREY’S ANATOMY, SCANDAL, and HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER. Besides being the producer and co-producer of A LOT more TV fiction. Incredibly, Rhimes has found success in all of her creative endeavours.
So much in fact that she calls herself a “Titan”, and she probably is. The amount of work she has to get done to put hundreds of hours of original content on screens around the world is titanic, to say the least. Something straight out of a herculean tale. But Rhimes does it because she truly loves the work.
She says there’s a “hum” that drives her. Something that chimes deep within her when she works on something she cares. That “hum” is what made her work 15 hours a day and straight through weekends. A Titan doesn’t rest; A Titan doesn’t complain, a Titan works.
“A dream job is not about dreaming; it’s all about [the] job. “
Blood and sweat made her the most important showrunner in American TV, but then something broke. Her “hum” went away. And for someone who has to write so many hours of fiction a week, silence is probably the scariest thing there is.
She did the same things she always did, but the passion didn’t come, The “hum” didn’t ring, and deadlines were getting dangerously close. But what does a titan do when deadlines are so incredibly near? You might be tempted to think that pushing through and overworking herself was what got her out of her “silence”. You’d be wrong. It was play what turned the “hum” inside her again.
More specifically, playing with her daughters. One night, Rhimes needed to finish a lot of work, but her daughter asked her to play with her. Then and there she noted that her daughter had changed, she was using other words, new ones in fact! But Rhimes didn’t know when that started happening or where she got them. She was missing her daughter’s development. She was missing playing with them. She was missing life.
“Work doesn’t work without play.”
Playing with her daughters and giving them the time of day allowed her “hum” to come back. Now, the “Titan” could get to work. She remembered that life is what fills fiction. After all, she couldn’t have written GREY’S ANATOMY if she hadn’t been a hospital volunteer when she was in high-school. There she discovered all the different stories that could be told inside the confines of a general hospital. Life experiences fuel fiction. That’s what keeps the “hum” alive.
“If we’re not shooting, if we’re not filming, if you’re not standing on the soundstage, turn off your phone and go live your life.”
Now, Rhimes turns her phone off at 7 p.m. and gets living. Her work output hasn’t suffered one bit, and she’s still at the top of mount Hollywood as the reigning titan of the TV Olympus.
For Rhimes, there’s no magic, no special secret, just love and play. Love which she embeds on everything she’s working on, and play which keeps the work fun.
Rhimes is the most successful TV creator of the 21st Century. Her shows have conquered the imaginations of audiences around the globe.
Now you can learn the secrets of her craft with FILMARKET HUB’s TRAINING.
Learn TV WRITING from the woman who changed the business forever.
