Prepare for a TV General Meeting Without Treating It as a Commissioning Pitch
Prepare for a TV General Meeting Without Treating It as a Commissioning Pitch
A general meeting can make a writer feel as though they must arrive carrying an entire future career in a tote bag: every pilot, every dream show, every useful personal story, each delivered with the certainty of a sale that has not happened.
Usually, that makes the room smaller. A general meeting is an introduction when that is what the invitation says. Its job is to help two people learn whether there is a real basis for a working relationship—not to force a full pitch into every gap in the conversation.
In a 2023 Scriptnotes discussion, John August and Craig Mazin distinguish meetings about a particular project from meetings that follow someone liking a writer’s work. Their advice in that conversation is to be ready to discuss other ideas, without treating every idea as a full deck. It is first-person industry advice about one kind of meeting, not a rule that predicts a job or describes every producer’s agenda. Scriptnotes, Episode 588 transcript
The practical aim is modest: bring an accurate introduction to the work you make, a few small project openings that can grow when invited, and enough attention to hear what the other person is actually talking about.
Find out what this meeting is for
The word general does not tell you everything. Read the invitation. Did the person ask to discuss a script they read? Did they request a particular project? Did they ask for samples, or simply suggest getting acquainted? A meeting about a show under consideration needs different preparation from a meeting that begins, “We liked your pilot and wanted to meet you.”
If the purpose remains vague, a brief clarification is more useful than a heroic assumption: “I’m looking forward to it. Is there a particular project or area of my work you’d like me to prepare to discuss?” That is not timid. It helps you bring the right material rather than treating a broad introduction as a disguised commissioning pitch.
Do not overcorrect into passivity, either. You should be able to say what you write and what you are developing. The distinction is between being prepared and being determined to deliver the same speech regardless of what the room asks for.
Introduce yourself through a choice in the work
“I write elevated, character-driven shows with heart” tells a listener almost nothing. So does a long autobiography that never touches a creative decision. An introduction becomes specific when it connects a recurring interest to something you have actually made.
Consider a fictional writer named Tessa. She has completed a workplace-comedy pilot, Room 14, set in an overnight municipal call center, and has an outlined but unwritten family drama, The Orchard Wall.
Tessa could say:
I’m interested in people trying to do caring work inside systems that make care feel like an inconvenience. My completed pilot, Room 14, is about a night-shift dispatcher who learns that the calls she dismisses as routine are being rerouted away from a tenant building her mother manages. I kept the show in the call center rather than cutting constantly to emergencies because I wanted the comedy to come from what the workers can and cannot do with incomplete information.
That is a usable introduction. It tells us what Tessa notices, names an actual creative choice, and gives the listener a way to ask a real question. It does not claim she has invented a genre, or pretend that an unwritten project is a finished sample.
Your recurring interest need not be solemn. It might be badly run institutions, the false intimacy of customer service, siblings who compete through competence, places where people are trapped together for practical reasons. The key is that it should attach to work you can describe accurately. A statement of taste has more force when it leaves fingerprints on a scene.
Prepare openings, not a performance you cannot stop
Choose two or three projects that are genuinely distinct and prepare each in a compact form:
- the person or group at the center;
- the situation putting them under pressure;
- what gives the series movement beyond its first episode;
- what exists now.
For Room 14, Tessa’s opening might be:
A by-the-book dispatcher on the city’s overnight help line learns that calls from her mother’s tenant building are being quietly downgraded. Each shift gives her a new emergency to interpret from a headset while the small team around her has different reasons for believing the system. The pilot is complete; I have later-episode springboards around the building and the office politics behind the rerouting.
For The Orchard Wall, the opening is necessarily different because it is earlier:
This is a quieter family drama about three adult siblings clearing an orchard their father kept running through debt and stubbornness. The seasonal work exposes what each of them has been paid, forgiven, or never told. I have a detailed outline and the relationship map; I am still developing the pilot.
Neither opening tries to win the entire meeting. Both make the project’s stage plain. If someone asks how episode four of Room 14 might work, Tessa can describe a later situation. If they ask what pulls The Orchard Wall across a season, she can speak to the siblings’ changing knowledge and the sale deadline. If they move on, she has not spent fifteen minutes holding the room hostage to a deck no one requested.
Practice the openings enough that they are available, not so much that every answer triggers the next memorized paragraph. A general meeting is conversation. The other person’s question may reveal that they care more about workplace comedy than Tessa expected, or that their interest is in how she handles family ensembles. Those are different invitations.
Listen for overlap without turning warmth into a deal
The useful questions are ordinary and specific. “What kinds of stories are you hoping to develop this year?” “Is there a part of the work you wish writers brought in more clearly?” “When a new project catches your attention, what do you want to understand first?” Questions like these invite the other person to describe their concerns without asking them to reveal confidential plans.
Imagine three branches from the same fictional meeting.
They ask about the later episodes of Room 14. Tessa can describe one: a tenant reports a burst pipe, but the only crew available is already assigned to an event at a council member’s home. The dispatcher’s choice is not simply whom to save first; it is what the system will record as urgent. The appropriate follow-up is the requested pilot or a short series overview, if they ask for one.
They ask instead about Tessa’s interest in family stories. She can talk about the orchard’s work calendar and the way the siblings’ knowledge changes with it, without pretending the early outline is a completed series. The follow-up might be no material at all—just a note thanking them for the conversation—unless they ask to read the outline or hear more.
They express no specific project interest. That can still be a pleasant meeting. It is not an instruction to send every deck in a folder. Tessa can say thank you, retain whatever genuinely useful information was shared, and leave the exchange proportionate to what happened.
The failed version of all three branches is the same: Tessa hears a question, then begins a full commissioning pitch for Room 14, produces a lookbook for The Orchard Wall, and ends by asking which project the recipient wants to buy. The material may be good. The response is wrong for the conversation.
Warmth is not a contract. Curiosity is not a commitment. A general meeting may lead to more work, or it may not. You will make better decisions if you allow interest to be what it is while it is still only interest.
Follow up on what was actually asked for
Take a small meeting sheet with space for notes. The preparation belongs on one side; the actual requests belong on the other.
| Before the meeting | During or after the meeting |
|---|---|
| One honest introduction through work | The project or question they actually responded to |
| Two or three compact project openings | Any specific sample or material requested |
| Current status for each project | The agreed route and next conversation, if there is one |
| Two questions you genuinely want to ask | A detail worth remembering, without reading it as a promise |
Afterward, send what was requested through the route agreed. If someone asked for the Room 14 pilot, label it accurately and send that—not an unexplained pile of adjacent material. If they asked you to check back after a particular event, reference that real agreement. If nothing was requested, a short thanks is enough: mention one point that mattered, without inventing a next step.
Do not start unpaid development work because someone spoke warmly about a type of show. Do not infer a commission from “keep us posted.” Do not manufacture a follow-up date because advice online told you a number of days. Proportion is not a strategy for lowering your ambitions. It is how you keep the actual conversation visible.
The best preparation sheet gives you a way to arrive as a writer with work, not as a human pitch deck. Bring the introduction, the openings, and the questions. Leave room for the meeting to become itself.
If you need help shaping a TV pitch package after a real development conversation has clarified what is needed, pitch.dog offers Film/TV pitch-deck work. Share the project, current materials, intended recipient, and deadline at [email protected].
Frequently asked questions
How is a general meeting different from a project pitch?
A general meeting is an introduction when the invitation says so. Its job is to help two people learn whether there is a real basis for a working relationship, not to force a full pitch into every gap. Meetings about a particular project need different preparation from meetings that follow someone liking a writer’s work.
How can a writer introduce themselves specifically?
Connect a recurring interest to something you have actually made, and name a consequential creative choice. Tessa’s example is an interest in people trying to do caring work inside systems that make care feel inconvenient, tied to her call-center pilot and her decision to keep the show inside the call center. This gives the listener a real question to ask.
How should project openings be prepared?
Prepare two or three genuinely distinct projects in compact form: the person or group at the center, the situation putting them under pressure, what gives the series movement beyond its first episode, and what exists now. Practice enough that the openings are available, not so much that every answer triggers the next memorized paragraph.
How should follow-up work after the meeting?
Send what was requested through the route agreed, and label it accurately. If nothing was requested, a short thanks can be enough. Do not start unpaid development because someone spoke warmly, infer a commission from “keep us posted,” or manufacture a follow-up date from generic advice.
What caveat does the body attach to the Scriptnotes discussion?
The Scriptnotes discussion is first-person industry advice about one kind of meeting. It is not a rule that predicts a job or describes every producer’s agenda. Its practical use is to be ready to discuss other ideas without treating every idea as a full deck.