As I've mentioned, the current strike by the Writers Guild is my fifth since I became a member in 1976. There have also been a number of times when the old contract had expired, a new one was looking impossible and we went through the angst and prep and worries of a strike…but it was averted at the last minute.
In each strike, I have lost something. I did not ask myself "Was what we gained worth what we lost?" because that's impossible to calculate. It's hard to put a dollar figure on work that might have happened if not for the strike and what ancillary benefits you might have derived from it if it did happen. One time, I was up for a very good job on a very good TV series but the job went away because of the strike. I have no idea how much I would have made off that job or what it would have led to.
Another time, I was writing a movie when the strike interrupted things. After the strike, I finished that script and I did get paid but by then, the folks at the studio who'd been enthused enough about the idea to hire me were no longer at that studio. Their replacements, of course, were totally disinterested in advancing a project championed by those who'd been fired so the movie was never made. I have no idea what that might have done, good or bad, for my career.
You also have to factor in what we all might have lost if taking the rotten offers that precipitated those strikes had led, as it almost certainly would have, to much rottener offers in the future. If I had more time, I'd explain how I believe the terrible deal the WGA accepted to quickly end the 1985 strike (two weeks) made inevitable the 1988 strike (twenty-two weeks) over an even worse offer.
In 2015, I had my right knee replaced. People asked me — they still ask me — if it was painful. Yes, at the time it was but I didn't have any other option. Not having it replaced would have been far more painful and would at some point have left me unable to walk at all. That's not a bad analogy to going on strike.
How do you get through a strike? Well, I got through my first four as I'm getting through this one: By not getting all my income from companies that deal in what the Writers Guild covers. The WGA does not represent writers of comic books, animation writing for certain companies, books, articles, etc. I wish it did but it doesn't. And since it doesn't, I have other sources of income.
During the long '88 strike, I was picketing and even working on the strike in various capacities…but I was also writing and voice-directing the Garfield and Friends cartoon show. My agent at the time referred to me as "Our working client" and "The sole support of the agency." Right now, I have a WGA-covered project that is "on hold" but I have other things to write. Some are paying gigs. Others are things I may — emphasis on the word "may" — sell at some time in the future. That's one of the great things about writing: If no one's paying you to do it, you can still do it. You just may not get money for it or may not get it immediately.
I also have a Comic-Con to prep for. It doesn't pay but it keeps me busy.
I do have friends or colleagues in the profession who are hurting…or who may be hurting if the strike lasts long enough. A couple of them are too new to the business to understand what I learned on or around my second WGA strike: That these things are sometimes, like getting your knee replaced, a necessity. Also — and this is important to remember and accept — when you assume the job description of Writer, it's possible to have prolonged periods of no income when there isn't a strike. That's not only possible but probable and it applies to actors too.
We all feel for those who are hurting and I'm optimistic that it will all end with an acceptable deal. I'm just not predicting when that will happen nor am I putting any stock in any of the hundred different predictions that are circulating. A couple of them must be right but we don't know which ones so we just have to tough it out.
This includes putting up with the most maddening part of it: Hearing some guy who gets paid a zillion dollars a week tell us that the business is hurting and there's simply no money to give to us. When I hear this — and we always hear this — I always think, "Your only responsibility is to make as much money as possible for your company. If it's doing that badly, shouldn't you be fired?"
While we're toughing it out, it would help to think about preparing for the next one. If we take a terrible deal this time, the next one will come sooner and be a whole lot worse.
Not only will there be a next one but there may also be non-strike periods for most of us when our incomes flow to a trickle for a time, perhaps for no visible, foreseeable reason. When you're a writer or an actor, that happens too. And by the way: My orthopedist tells me I'm going to need to have my other knee replaced in the next few years.