Waffles and Goat Sweaters: Severance Screenwriter and Macalester alum shares wisdom with students

by Paul Wallace

On Wednesday, November 19, Severance-, screenwriting-, and waffle-enthusiasts alike gathered in Old Main 111 for a conversation with screenwriter and Mac alum Megan Ritchie ’09, who appeared virtually. Because of Ritchie’s experience writing for the Emmy-winning and zeitgeist-y TV show Severance, refreshments consisted of apple juice and waffles—an allusion to one of the show’s most iconic and enigmatic symbols. 

The event began as a conversation between Ritchie and English and Creative Writing Professor Peter Bognanni, though the discussion expanded to include student questions during the second half of the event. Most questions either asked about Severance or Ritchie’s experience of the film and television industry.

Ritchie discovered her passion for screenwriting after taking Professor Bognanni’s course dedicated to the subject in 2008, when she was a junior at Macalester. When Ritchie graduated a year later, she remained unsure of her ability to turn her passion into a viable career, so she stayed local and spent a year volunteering for AmeriCorps. Ritchie then worked as an English teacher in Changzhou, China before taking a leap of faith and moving to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting in earnest.

After a series of internships, Ritchie became a development executive at a production company owned by writer-director brothers Paul and Chris Weitz, known for their work on the film American Pie. Though Ritchie enjoyed screening scripts and published fiction for something worthy of adapting into film, she still longed to write her own scripts. In another leap of faith, Ritchie left the production company and pivoted to a slew of Writer’s Assistant positions on shows like American Gods and—you guessed it—Severance. 

As the role’s title implies, however, being a Writer’s Assistant entailed less writing and more facilitation of a show’s writing process. Ritchie described the Writer’s Assistant role as the writing room’s “court reporter [or] keeper of the knowledge.” By keeping fastidious notes on all of the writer’s pitches for plot points, character arcs, and backstories, Writer’s Assistants check for continuity and ensure no idea is forgotten.

Ritchie clinched the chance to write episode five of season two (titled “Trojan’s Horse”) when the showrunner (the ultimate authority in a writer’s room or, in Ritchie’s words, “God…the captain of the ship”) offered it to her.

Ritchie’s experience overseeing projects as a producer helped her stay humble as a writer by remembering that “there’s so many projects out in Hollywood that no one ever sees” and “none of it’s real ‘til it’s real.”

In a particularly zany example of a colossal effort that later got scrapped, Ritchie revealed that the goats of Lumon’s “Mammalians Nurturable” department in Severance were originally supposed to wear personalized sweaters inscribed with their names. The sweaters were made but not used, disappearing into Hollywood’s ether.

After Severance, Ritchie worked as a staff writer on season two of Sugar, the detective drama starring Colin Farrell. Ritchie is currently developing a feature film project for Dreamworks, an adaptation of a book into animation. Ritchie is also seeking production for a new original script which she described as a Basic Instinct– or Fatal Attraction-style erotic thriller. 

We look forward to seeing Ritchie’s latest work on the big screen and thank her for taking the time to share her wealth of knowledge and experience. Special thanks also to Professor Bognanni for organizing the event!