Dan Erickson is currently one of the hottest TV writers in the business. He created, co-writes, co-produces and serves as showrunner for the popular and acclaimed Apple TV+ series Severance (starring Adam Scott and executive produced and primarily directed by Ben Stiller).

The second season of the sci-fi psychological thriller met with widespread praise and after its cliffhanger season finale, a third season has been announced. The series’ main plot follows Mark Scout (Adam Scott), who is part of a “severance” program in which his workplace memories are separated from his out-of-work memories, essentially creating two distinct identities: an “innie” whose existence revolves around his life at his corporate workplace, and an “outie” whose personal life is untouched — at least initially — by the drama and intrigue that’s occurring at the nebulous Lumon Industries. As the series progresses, Mark’s two worlds begin to collide, throwing him into an existential crisis as he attempts to find out more about the company he works for, and discover which version of him is his truer self.

This high concept came solely from Dan Erickson and a pilot he wrote a decade ago.

A Writer with a Dream and Idea 

Erickson grew up in Olympia, Washington, and without any Hollywood connections. After graduating NYU with a Masters Fine Arts degree in Dramatic Writing for Television, he relocated to Los Angeles and had to work office jobs before finally getting his first break in TV writing. These office jobs — which Erickson hated and often dreamed he could mentally disassociate from —were the inspiration for an idea that would eventually develop into Severance. 

Two other noted writers took inspiration from office jobs they hated and, as a result, Ricky Gervais created The Office (the original UK series the US show is based on) and Mike Judge wrote and directed the comedy classic Office Space (his series Silicon Valley also builds on his past work experience). Erickson, Gervais and Judge show that even a mundane white collar job can give you ideas, and it led to them writing authentic and personal stories. Likewise, you shouldn’t be afraid to take from your personal life and use it when writing, especially if you can mine it for comedy or drama.

After briefly writing for Spike TV’s Lip Sync Battle Pre-Show, Erickson wrote the pilot for Severance in which he expressed his feelings about working at a particularly monotonous and depressing office job, coupled with his high concept. This resulted in a strong pilot that would start making the rounds. 

John Turturro, Adam Scott, Britt Lower, and Zach Cherry in 'Severance'

Playing The Long Game

A pilot is essentially the script for the first episode of a proposed television series. In most cases, a scriptwriter writes the pilot on spec (i.e. they haven’t been paid or commissioned to write it) and it’s used as a writing sample (in the hope of getting staff writing work on a TV show) or, as in Erickson’s case, it actually gets produced and filmed and leads to a series being ordered by a studio or network. 

In 2016, as Erickson’s pilot for Severance was circulating around the film and television industry, the script appeared on the Blood List (a survey of the best unproduced genre screenplays of the year). One year prior, the pilot was submitted to Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Productions, and development executive Jackie Cohn gave it to Stiller to read. He loved the pilot and began developing the project with Erickson. Stiller would later say the project was “the longest thing I’ve ever worked on.” It took four years of development at Red Hour Productions before Apple TV+ gave Severance a series order, with Stiller directing the first episode (he would end up directing a majority of the episodes).  

In addition to being the series’ creator and showrunner, Erickson is a co-producer and the head writer (like most TV series, the show has a writing staff). As noted, Severance has been picked up for a third season, and is currently one of the most acclaimed and talked-about series on television. So Erickson went from obscurity to heading a successful TV series all thanks to a pilot that first circulated the industry a decade ago. He also successfully played “the long game” as Red Hour developed the project for four years.

Staying Motivated and Keeping At It

Erickson’s story is proof that if you have a great concept and patience, the stars might eventually align for you. Whenever you have aspirations for a creative career — especially writing for film and television — there will be people around you that will be cynical and try to undermine your dreams. It’s important to stay motivated and not allow negativity to discourage and thwart you. 

One of the things that makes writing for the film and television industry different from other careers is there are various ways to break in. Ultimately if you have the talent, a marketable concept and the perseverance, you can create opportunities for yourself. 

In addition to developing your skills as a writer, having a great idea for a feature screenplay or TV pilot and staying motivated, it’s also helpful to have a career strategy and get your script to the right people. This is what Dan Erickson did and it’s something you can do as well. Just imagine: this idea you’ve been bouncing around in your head might be a future movie or TV show.

Keep writing and remember: your dream might one day come true if you work at it and stick with it. Maybe not this script and maybe not the next one, but eventually you might write a winner. Once again, the important thing is to not give up.

Sometimes it takes just one script, and it could be the one you’re working on right now.