Screenwriter Alison Peck’s Work It on Netflix is this generation’s Pitch Perfect meets Bring It On> but set in the dance world. Which is exactly what she was going for when writing the musical comedy.

“I wanted it to be Pitch Perfect meets dancing,” she admits. “Because I’m not a dancer, I thought, ‘how could I approach this in a way that feels authentic and real?’ There’s this big aspirational quality when an audience member watches a movie like this. They might think, ‘I wish I could do that. Could I do that? Maybe I could do that?’ So, I was definitely also inspired by those aspirational qualities.”

In the film, Sabrina Carpenter plays a high school senior who gets herself into a bit of a jam with a Duke admissions officer during an interview by associating herself with her high school’s acclaimed dance squad. In order to make things right and get into Duke, she forms her own crew of misfit dancers -- even though she can’t dance.

Peck says it took her about three months to write the first draft before turning her attention to the script for 2019’s Ugly Dolls. Some of her writing challenges on Work It stemmed from asking, “How do I make this different from those other competitive team films? How do I keep it surprising for the audience? There’s only so many different types of endings for these movies, like, they win or lose,” she says. “I wanted it to feel fresh and real and something that people would love. It was all about trying to find that balance of not seeing the ‘same old’ and how to keep it interesting.”

Peck says once she started writing, “It flowed pretty nicely. I always find that I spend a lot of time on the first act. I really want it to feel like it’s gelling before I move on. I am definitely the type of person who needs the first part to feel like it’s working before I can move forward. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so I could just move on and go back to it later [laughs].”

When it came to writing the dance scenes, Peck says that as a non-dancer herself, she did a lot of research, which included watching a lot of dance videos. “I tried to familiarize myself with dancing. I’m not a choreographer. My goal was to approach it like an action movie. I wanted the action lines to explain what they were doing that communicated the story, the emotional arc—the feeling that you are supposed to feel and tracking their progress as they dance.”

She says she tried to be more detailed than “insert dance number here,” but didn’t list every single step. “I wanted to highlight which dance numbers were important. I also wanted to write the tempo, how the team is doing, things like that. I just wanted to communicate the feeling of the scene.”

Peck adds, “It's fun to challenge yourself as a writer. I never would’ve thought I would write a dance scene, so I like challenging how to tackle something like that.”

Next up is her original script, You Can’t Keep a Good Girl Down, a raunchy female comedy. While Peck says there’s a benefit to writing different things, she also states it’s important for new writers to find their niche first.

“I tried writing different genres like sci-fi or comedy after graduating from school. I really wanted to write straight off the bat; it took me awhile to find my niche,” she says. “I think once you’re ready to start showing your scripts to people, it’s important to have a brand or niche to sell yourself. I think when I first started writing, I thought it was good to be like, “I can write anything and everything!” But it is really hard for people to know what projects are good for you. When your agent is putting you up for jobs, they want to know what kind of writer you are. It can be a little too much when you’re like, ‘Put me up for everything.’ Once you find a niche, then maybe you can break out and explore other genres.”

Even though she’s had two scripts produced in two years, Peck admits that Hollywood is “such a hard business.”

“It took me many years to break in. You have to really love the writing and try to put the results out of your head,” she says. “I think what helps is when you write in a targeted way and try to write a brand for yourself, but also not worry too much about the results in terms of writing on trend or thinking something will sell. As long as you love the work and keep working hard, then things will start happening.”