‘The Executive Chair’ Provides Insight into the Television Industry for Budding Writers

Kelly Edwards has television experience on either side of the table. The industry veteran has worked as a screenwriter and producer, she has worked as a development manager, as an advocate and as a leader of diversity and inclusion efforts for HBO.

This experience gives him an unusual perspective on the company. She took many lessons learned in the trenches and put them into a textbook designed to help budding writers navigate the business side of television, as Edwards explains in the final episode of Variety “Strictly Business” podcast.

“The Executive Chair: A Writers Guide to TV Series Development” is a breezy guide to the things they don’t teach you in film school. Like what to do when you meet a framework that you have just launched in nature, before having heard of this land.

Edwards explains how the process of writing the book has helped her better understand an evolving business. “We have to feel comfortable being uncomfortable,” she says.

In her leadership roles, Edwards said she often felt like the person responsible for “validating

dreams ”to work as a creative on television.

“I saw so many people with so much talent there,” said Edwards. “There are people who just need a shot and I thought if I could give them a little more advantage they should take it.”

“The Executive Chair,” released this month by Michael Wiese Productions, was a labor of love for Edwards that she worked on while juggling productions and her own development work. If there’s one message she wants readers to take away from the book, it’s this: go for it. There has never been a better time to take a photo.

“The door is open,” Edwards said. “I can’t stand the fact that this industry has had gatekeepers who have kept people out. “