I’m a Lifetime Movie Screenwriter. Here’s How I Make Scripts.

• Melissa Cassera, 43, started pursuing screenwriting when she was 35 years old.
• She looked up her favorite Lifetime movie producer and hired her for help with a spec.
• Cassera’s written many scripts for Lifetime and says that all movies have a certain formula.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Melissa Cassera, a 43-year-old independent screenwriter from Washington state, about how she creates Lifetime movie scripts. It has been edited for length and clarity. 

I’m not a super optimistic person. The normal statistics for screenwriters say it takes seven years to get your first project going, and securing your first project doesn’t guarantee a long career. It’s a difficult industry. So when I decided to become a screenwriter, I set my expectations accordingly. I worked diligently and intentionally on my writing, while getting clear on what I wanted.

I began pursuing screenwriting when I was 35 years old, after working as a publicity and content strategist for nine years. In the beginning, I bought a book called “The Coffee Break Screenwriter” by Pilar Alessandra and wrote a script using that book. I contacted her after I had a first draft and asked if I could hire her for a consultation to tell me where I might improve.

I worked with Alessandra for the next year or so on several sample scripts and took classes at a wonderful place called Script Anatomy in LA that employs working screenwriters as teachers. I also had several generous writers and producers offer to read my work over the years and provide helpful notes — I’m still learning.

I’ve always been a fan of Lifetime, and I love soapy, salacious entertainment — things like “Gossip Girl,” “Twilight,” and romance novels. I was clear that’s what I wanted to write because it’s what I like to consume. 

​​Christine Conradt had written many of my favorite Lifetime movies, so I looked her up online

I saw she was teaching a workshop at a writer’s conference, and I signed up. After the conference, I emailed her and invited her for coffee. She was generous enough to take me up on it, and I asked her all kinds of questions about how she got her start and grew her career.

We kept in touch over time and I hired her for some help with a spec I was writing called “Bad News” (the story was never made but it was optioned a few times). She eventually produced a movie and went to bat for me so I’d get the job. That led to my very first produced screenwriting credit for the Lifetime movie “Girl Followed,” in 2017.

​​I’ve also worked with a few other producers who have deals with Lifetime. Most prominently, I work with Pierre David, who produces many movies for the network. I had some basis of knowledge because I was a fan, but I’m lucky because these two mentors really helped me carve my path in this space. 

I’ve written 10 movies in the last five years for Lifetime as an independent screenwriter, including “Girl Followed” starring Joey Lawrence, “The Obsession Thrillogy” (Lifetime’s first trilogy), and “Crazy Neighborhood Moms.”

There’s a bit of a formula that needs to happen with any television movie 

Whether for Lifetime or its counterpart Hallmark, the audience likes tropes. At the same time, I have to try to subvert expectations and surprise the audience. It can be tricky to do because I’ve written a lot of these movies. 

Lifetime wants writers to make the movies feel like a fun thrill ride instead of an intense dramatic experience. Intense movies may be a better fit for a network like HBO, but Lifetime tries to not linger too long on some of the heavier stuff that’s happening. I have to keep the pace moving. 

There are certain stories or story lines that can be pretty intense, but I don’t go super dark. In Lifetime movies, there may be murder, affairs, and other things happening — that’s part of its formula. But I intentionally don’t explore darker themes like sex trafficking. Lifetime wants its audiences to have fun while watching, even though it’s heavy material.

If I’m doing thrillers, there are certain things that need to happen in every movie 

I must have a punchy opening that typically involves some type of murder or somebody getting harmed. That’s standard across all Lifetime movies. Then around page 50 of the script, or 45 minutes into the movie, I’ll add a second big thriller beat that turns the story in a new direction. The writer term we use for it is the “blood on the floor moment.”

For Lifetime thrillers, the ending of our movies need to come to some sort of resolution. It’s very much like a romantic comedy. People want the characters to get together in the end. If they don’t, it’s really disappointing. We have the same thing in our Lifetime movies. There has to be some sort of happy resolution, and that can happen in different ways — but it needs to end on that beat. 

Another thing that’s common in our movies are female-driven stories 

When writing Lifetime scripts, I really like having a strong mom and daughter dynamic. I like having that combination where we’re seeing that emotional journey for those two people throughout the movie. This dynamic can be any sort of relationship that’s maternal — it doesn’t have to be specifically mother and daughter, but a sister, mentor, or grandmother.

There’s a comfort level with Lifetime movies that I also see with shows like “Law and Order.” It’s why I always see “Law and Order” in the top 10 of shows. It’s been going for 30 years because people show up and know what to expect. You know that you’ll learn about a new case and the case will be solved by the end of the episode. That provides a certain level of comfort for people, and my Lifetime movies do the same thing.

Are you a screenwriter with a similar story that you’d like to share? Please reach out to Manseen Logan at mlogan@insider.com.