Leading up to the Toronto Screenwriting Conference March 31 and April 1, Playback will feature Q&As with some of the all-star cast of writers leading the conference, which takes place at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management in downtown Toronto.

Jana Sinyor is the creator and producer of CBC comedic drama Being Erica (with Temple Street Productions). The series has been sold to ABC Soapnet and in territories around the globe, and the format rights were acquired by ABC for a U.S. remake. Sinyor debuted on the TV scene with teen series Dark Oracle (Shaftesbury/YTV). Here, Sinyor tells Playback about creating and pitching Erica, and what’s up next.

PB: How did you come up with the idea for Being Erica, and put all of the pieces together into a format that worked?

JS: Being Erica started out as a children’s show about a girl who travels back in time through a painting. When Dave Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg of Temple Street Productions heard the pitch, they suggested I make the protagonist older and make it a one-hour since that’s the direction I wanted to move in eventually. The three of us then spent many long hours talking about the show and shaping the format over coffee. By the time we took it around to pitch, we had a very complete picture of how we hoped the show was going to work.

PB: What was the pitch process like?

JS: I really enjoy pitching, so it was a lot of fun. And it’s especially enjoyable when you get a really positive response, which we did. Sally Catto was very responsive to the pitch and brought Fred Fuchs in moments after we’d pitched it to her. After we pitched it again, it turned into lots of questions and a discussion about how the show would work and where we hoped to take it. We left feeling very energized by the whole thing, and were delighted when we heard that they wanted to develop it.

PB: Being Erica had an amazingly successful run in Canada and the U.S. Did you expect it to gain so much traction with viewers?

JS: I don’t expect anything. I always hope though. You do your best and then hope that people will respond.

PB:  What can you tell us about your new project that’s in development with ABC?

JS: It has similar themes about personal transformation. It’s a reincarnation show, set at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

PB: When you worked on Dark Oracle, you were a relatively new screenwriter, working with a veteran TV writer (Heather Conkie) – what did you learn working on the show?

JS: I learned a ton on that show. Heather was very generous with me,  and taught me an enormous amount. I really had no experience before Dark Oracle – I hadn’t staffed on a show, I’d freelanced a tiny bit, but that was all. It was critical for me, pairing up with Heather, getting the benefit of all her experience, being a producer on that show and having the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of production. In terms of what I learned, too many things to list, but broadly, I learned about what I’m good at, and what I’m not so good at. I learned about the complicated relationship that exists between producer, showrunner and broadcaster. I made lots of mistakes – hopefully I learned from them.

PB: What advice would you give to up-and-coming screenwriters?

JS: Talk to lots of people who are successful doing the thing you want to be doing. Don’t just sit at home writing all the time and send your stuff out – go to parties, workshops, events like the TSC. Relationships are just as important as your writing, they may be more important. Getting better as a writer is key; so is connecting with people who can mentor you, hire you. Chart a path for yourself. Don’t make your end goal your starting point. Figure out where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.