The Hollywood writers strike is over. What’s next for the actual writers?

Two writers, Kylie Brakeman (left) and Elise Brown (right), reflect on the strike and what lies ahead.

Jordan Ashleigh, Elise Brown

After 148 days, these writers are looking forward to getting back to work.

Who are they? The Writers Guild of America represents nearly 12,000 writers in show business across the U.S..

• Two members, writers Elise Brown and Kylie Brakeman, spoke with All Things Considered about what it means to them for their strike to finally be over.

What’s the big deal? If you’ve been following this story, you’ll know the many hours of organizing and negotiating that went into finalizing the historic deal between the striking writers and the studios they work with.

What are they saying? Here’s how Brown and Brakeman reflected on the past few months, and what they see in their future.

How the pause impacted their own lives:

Brakeman:

I definitely felt a little aimless, a little wandering. It sort of felt like the first week or two of COVID lockdown, but only applied to us.

I picked up the banjo. We were on strike for long enough for me to buy a banjo, sort of learn how to play the banjo, and then completely forget how to play the banjo.

Brown:

The five months were definitely hard. I love to write. It’s one of my favorite things to do. And even when I’m not working I still kind of do it on the side for my own things.

I’d say that the first month or two, I was able to write. But towards the second half of it or so, there was just so much anxiety and emotion built up in terms of just trying to figure out where the strike was going and trying to continue to make ends meet, and also just worrying about being out on the lines and the uncertainty of it all,…