As we head toward a new competition season, Final Draft is excited to bring a new face to our Big Break panel of judges: manager Jamie Wager.

At some point, he noticed, “I’m pretty good at finding these colder writers and getting them jobs or moving their career forward. Why not do that for my job?”

Now Wager represents clients like Maria Ferrari (The Big Bang Theory), Jon Worley (Iron Fist, Terriers), and Lindsay Golder (The Mick). He focuses on the small screen because of his television experience, adding, “It seems like the feature world is getting smaller. And there’s a lot of exciting stuff going on in TV right now.”

A Brown University alumnus, Wager also conducts and coordinates interviews for L.A.-area students applying to Brown. It’s incredibly rewarding, he says, and surprisingly applicable to his profession.

“It’s not all that different from staffing a client. c how big organizations work, and trying to weave somebody through that process and find the right person to talk to and make the case... I enjoy learning about that. And anything that makes me better for the clients, right?”

FD: What genres do you prefer to work in?

JW: Somebody was asking me that the other day, and they were like, do you prefer cable or network? Do you like serialized or episodic? All those kinds of shows hire writers. I’m not going to limit myself.

There are pieces of comedy in a drama. There are dramas in a comedy. I feel like understanding each of the different genres helps me in the other ones. Repping writers in different genres also keeps it more interesting for me.

FD: What do you look for in a client?

JW: You have to love the writing first. You have to meet the person and like the person.

I want writers who can work. Writers who I can believe in.

Every great writer—the J.J. Abrams, the Joss Whedons, the whoever—they’re all new at one point, and my goal is to try and find them.

FD: You signed Jon Worley out of USC and Lindsay Golder via AFI. What draws you to look for clients at screenwriting schools and their pitch events?

JW: You’ve learned how to work with other people, and that’s such an important part of being a successful TV writer. You’ve learned the greater context. You’ve studied films and TV shows. You’ve had smart people explain what’s worked and the anatomy of a scene and all that kind of stuff. And working with other fellow students won’t be that dissimilar from a writers room.

FD: Do you look at unsolicited queries?

JW: I get queries every day... every single day. The thing I have to say about those queries for the most part is, they’re not really well-written. The queries are boring! If your query is boring, I don’t think your script is going to be that great.

Look, if I got a great query letter, I would in a heartbeat ask to read it. But make it a good query letter. It’s like the same thing with the first page of a script: Make it great. I think that if you’re a great writer, everything you write is great. The first page of every script should be great, and you can write a great query letter, for God’s sake.

FD: What jumps out to you in a pitch or a script?

JW: This is going to sound maybe obvious, but, if it’s a comedy, is it funny? If it’s a drama, is it dramatic?

If there aren’t a lot of jokes in a comedy, no. If the drama’s really slow and lugubrious, there’s 435 other channels.

There’s no time for explanation. Get into the story... it’s like a roller coaster. I don’t want to hear how long you were in line on the roller coaster. Tell me what happened when you got to the top and then you’re spinning around, that’s the fun part. Get to that!

I remember when I was reading Maria [Ferrari]’s script, I could just tell very quickly from the way she wrote—she thinks funny. And it was dialogue. It was the stage direction. There was a consistent comedic voice there.

You’re paid to be funny, not funny-ish.

FD: How much does proper screenplay formatting matter?

JW: That’s not a question I get very often.

A little bit... if it’s not formatted right, it just tells me you’re really, really not in the business because you’re not reading scripts and you’re not figuring out how the best writers are formatting them. So it does give me a clue that you’re not in the business and you’re not good at following directions.

FD: What’s the most crucial thing writers need to do to succeed?

JW: Learning to work well with other people is an incredibly important skill for having a long career in TV.

There’s always a boss. If you’re on staff, it’s the showrunner. Showrunners have studio bosses and network bosses and production company bosses... most people have bosses they have to get along with.

Being able to really deliver your voice and the story you want to tell in the context of other people writing the checks and running the cameras or whatever—that’s the most important skill there is for 90, 95 percent of the writers out there.

FD: What made you decide to judge for Final Draft?

JW: I know how many great writers submit and have come through there. My job, it’s just all about finding incredible talent. Not good talent, but incredible talent. And I feel like, the more scripts that I read, the more chances I have of finding incredible talent.

FD: What advice do you, as a manager, have for writers?

JW: Watch everything. When I meet somebody who hasn’t watched a lot of stuff, I almost immediately dismiss that person. Your job is to know what’s on television.

Be passionate and be respectful about other people’s work.

Try to go and meet as many writers as you can... that can start a relationship. Writers know other writers, especially in television where they all work together. That can lead to a reference or to an introduction to somebody else.

As I’m saying, “Be respectful... ”, I had a great moment with Jon Worley, and he’d written this pilot that I really loved. And I remember I had a friend who was a partner at Endeavor. And it was a pass. He hadn’t read the script, but somebody else there had passed on it. I was really, really sure about Jon. So I told this agent, this partner at Endeavor, I said, “You know, this is the biggest mistake of your life, this moment right here.

[laughing] I later had to call him up and apologize for being so... so impassioned. But I think that you want to find people who are that passionate about you.”

Asmara Bhattacharya is a produced screenwriter/playwright, script reader, and festival screener, with multiple placements at Final Draft, Nicholl, Austin Film Festival, and other competitions. A trusted sounding board and consultant for industry professionals, dedicated fans also caught her in “Independence Day: Resurgence” and NBC’s “The Night Shift” – for one glorious half-second each. More can be found on her website: www.dickflicks.net or follow her on Twitter @hotpinkstreak