Etsy Crafts, Teaching and Live Events: The Side Hustles of Striking Writers

Cori Murray
·7 min read
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Ask a writer how they paid the bills before the Writers Guild of America went on strike, a work stoppage that Wednesday passed the 100-day mark, and the answers might vary from “developing a television show” to “finishing a feature rewrite.” These days, however, as the writers strike halts film and TV productions for fairer compensation, contracts and working conditions for its 11,000 plus members, even established writers are taking to Etsy to help pay the bills or teaching to keep storytelling skills sharp (and in so doing, ironically, they’re trying to help aspiring writers get a leg up in their careers). These four established writers — who are in complete support of the WGA — have each taken leaps as entrepreneurs, reshaping their skill sets into viable side hustle businesses, in light of the risk of no guaranteed income in the foreseeable future.

Leila Cohan

As the writers strike passes 100 days, screenwriter Leila Cohan is still in “absolute agreement” with her union’s decision. “We have to do this. Nothing has broken my resolve,” she says. Although the TV and film writer has worked consistently for 11 years and recently turned in a feature rewrite for Paramount+, Cohan began marketing her services before the strike as a script consultant because simply, she says, “I needed money.” Recently, the Emmy-nominated co-executive producer on Bridgerton has turned to teaching. In August, Cohan is running two classes, “Adaptations: Turning Books, Movies and Podcasts Into TV” and “Building a Pitch Deck in Canva.” They are a part of her Room Snacks LIVE course curriculum, which evolved from her Room Snacks newsletter. “For years, I’ve written a TV ratings newsletter, and I put that down when the strike started because it didn’t feel quite right. I was very much like, pencils down!” says the divorced mom. While the reality of continuing to have a career as a screenwriter weighs heavy (“we’re in an existential fight for the future of our profession”), she is embracing her background running writing workshops at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Netflix + Stage 32. “I like teaching. I have the time and also I need to pay my rent,” Cohan says. She’s also adept at monetizing her hobby of crafting Bravo themed merchandise, which she sells on Etsy: “This has really been bringing me a lot of joy.”

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Felicia Pride

The highlights of Felicia Pride’s IMDB profile include producing 20 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, writing 10 episodes of Queen Sugar and directing and writing her own film, Tender. Before the strike, she was developing shows with Netflix and FX as well as writing and selling features. But Prides says frankly, “Development money is slow, inconsistent, late and not guaranteed because a lot of the work is unpaid work,” she says. “I am proud of my guild for leading the way for foresight around AI. Strikes are not easy. It’s definitely tough for a lot of us involved, and not just writers, but also IATSE, the other creatives that we work with.” Still, the strike has made it abundantly clear for Pride: “I can’t put all my eggs in the Hollywood basket. I want to be more in control of having more income streams.” This year, the writer-director launched three Creative Career Planning Workshops. The course sparked her next side hustle: publisher and live events producer. “I’m developing a workbook and journal based on what came out of the challenges,” says Pride, who also hosts the podcast Chile, Please, aimed at Black women over 40. On Aug. 19, she’s convening the first Honey Chile Fest in Baltimore, Maryland. “The strike has definitely increased both the urgency and the results [to do things] I’ve always wanted to do,” she says. “Live events, on the other side of this, are going to become even more important. Marginalized audiences are going to be looking for ways to continue to see themselves and also to be rooted in humanity as there’s more talk and a movement towards AI.”

Justin Elizabeth Sayre

For Justin Elizabeth Sayre, the halt of productions during the pandemic gave them the foresight to start preparing for the uncertainties of Hollywood. Initially a move back to New York was enough. “If things go bad again, I’d rather be where I could get a good bagel,” says Sayre, an accomplished playwright and working actor who clarifies that they were not financially struggling when the strike began May 2: “I was a part of one of the last really big residual packages because I got a good deal on a show I wrote on. I know a lot of people are not in my circumstance.” Still, they are a spirited creative, and they needed an outlet. On July 24, Sayre posted on their Instagram account about a Pitch-to-Pilot Workshop, a six-week intensive class plus one-on-one coaching. The idea of offering a class didn’t come out of thin air for the writer who worked on 2 Broke Girls and The Cool Kids. They taught two classes during the pandemic and picked it up again days after the strike started. “I had a knack for it. Some of the pilots I coached and helped made it to The Black List and won competitions. People seemed satisfied with it. It also was kind of like a [Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard] Feynman thought, like maybe I’ll get better if I teach people how to do it,” they say. “It’s a way of keeping up on your skills and keeping relevant. Thinking about how to talk about things and how to work with writers. I feel like I benefit in that regard.”

Billy Domineau

Before the strike started, Billy Domineau was working on a new show and finalizing projects to go out and pitch, but he says, “obviously those have been put on the backburner.” Now Domineau, who’s been a staff writer on Saturday Night Live and Family Guy, is offering to “read scripts and mark it up with ideas on character, structure, dialogue… through a 60 to 90 minute Zoom.” Stepping into the world of entrepreneurship wasn’t totally out of the realm of how Domineau would spend his time on strike. “Unfortunately, that’s part of what has led us to this moment with the strikes: Wages and job security have been so eroded that even in times when we’re not striking, a lot of people are looking to do this type of work: teaching or consulting to help other people hone their skills,” he says. In 2018, he started teaching an eight-week, TV pilot writing class and offering individual script consultations between his downtime of writing rooms. There was another motivator, one that’s encouraging him now. “It’s so tough in TV and in entertainment in general. You’re surrounded constantly by people saying no,” says Domineau, who has a natural interest in teaching since his repertory theater days in college. “The most frustrating thing to me is always when it’s a no, and then absolutely no follow up. Even worse is [when they say], ‘We absolutely love you. Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s incredible. It’s a still a no from us, though.’ I’m always trying to fill the void on the other side of that. How can I encourage people and tell them, specifically, here’s why you’re doing such a good job. Those are always my favorite moments in any kind of class, when I can really target something that someone has done either purposefully or purely discovered it by accident: ‘This is actually so amazing that you’ve done this. And here’s how we can all benefit from taking a risk like that.’”

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