How to Write a TV Script: A Guide to Starting Your Career in Television Writing
How to Write a TV Script: A Guide to Starting Your Career in Television
Writing
When it comes to television, it’s a writer’s world. In film, the director is king. But in television, what the writer envisions is what makes it on screen. If you’ve ever wanted to break into the exciting world of TV writing, here is what you need to know.
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·
5 Ways TV Writing Is Different From Film Writing
·
A Guide to Formatting TV Scripts
·
The Differences Between a Writing Sitcom and Writing a Drama
·
9 Tips for Breaking Into TV Writing
What Is
Television Writing?
Television writing is the art of writing a TV show.
Television is an exciting medium for writers because they get to control
everything from the stories that are told to how the sets are built. TV writers
develop stories, write scripts, make edits and revisions, and help determine
what an episode looks like.
5 Ways TV
Writing Is Different From Film Writing
The mechanics of writing a feature film script and writing
a television script are the same: Both look the same on the page, both are
typed up with screenwriting software like Final Draft, and both use location
headings, character headings, scene descriptions, and dialogue. But the two
script writing processes have a number of differences. Here’s why writing for
TV is different:
1. TV scripts are shorter than
movie scripts. Writing an episode of television takes less time and results in fewer
pages. TV episodes are either 30 minutes or 60 minutes long with commercial
breaks, while feature films are at least 90 minutes long.
2. TV shows have different
narrative structures. A movie has a clear beginning, middle, and end, while TV shows are
episodic and allow for multiple beginnings, middles, and ends. Each TV script
is part of a larger narrative, with multiple character and story arcs divided
across a number of episodes and seasons.
3. TV scripts don’t have to
resolve every story right away. Every episode will come to its own conclusion, but they
don’t have to be wrapped up neatly; the stories and characters will continue to
grow into the next episode. TV writers can take things slow, play with
cliffhangers, and allow plots to develop over time.
4. TV scripts are dialogue-driven. TV shows
typically focus on the writing rather than the visuals to drive the story.
Movies are more cinematic than most TV shows and involve more considered
cinematography.
5. TV shows require more writing
in the long-run. Individual episodes are shorter than movies, but require more writing
over the course of a season or entire series.
There used to be a lot of rules for writing television,
particularly around established formats, such as procedural drama. But today,
with the vast amount of platforms your show can live on, any storytelling
format is possible. It’s beneficial to know the traditional rules so you know
which ones you’re breaking.
Before you begin writing your script, it’s important to
understand how to structure an episode of TV. Let’s examine how a standard
one-hour television show is structured. Typically on network television, there
are about five acts roughly lasting about 11 pages each. Here’s how Rhimes
views the structure of each of the acts:
·
Act I: Introduce your characters and present the problem.
·
Act II: Escalate the problem.
·
Act III: Have the worst-case scenario happen.
·
Act IV: Begin the ticking clock.
·
Act V: Have the characters reach their moment of victory.
It’s helpful to think about how you want each of your acts
to end as you begin to lay out the structure for your episode. Work these out
ahead of time and properly set your story up for them, rather than dumping a
twist at the end of each act just for excitement’s sake.
The other essential components of your episodes are your
A, B, and C storylines:
·
A storyline: The A storyline involves your main character and is the
core of your show.
·
B storyline: The B storyline is secondary and helps the narrative
keep moving forward.
·
C storyline: The c storyline, sometimes referred to as “the runner,”
is the smallest storyline and holds the least weight.
THINK LIKE A
PRO
In 6 hours of video lessons, Werner Herzog teaches his uncompromising approach to documentary and feature filmmaking.
Writing a TV comedy, or sitcom, is a different process
from writing a TV drama. Here’s what makes them different:
·
Tone. TV sitcoms are funny, tackle lighthearted topics, and intend to make
viewers laugh. Dramas are more serious and take time to develop a story rather
than telling jokes.
·
Story Arc and Pace. Sitcoms have a quick narrative pace, they focus on the
build to the climax, have less act breaks, and introduce the conflict before
the end of act one. The more time the characters spend solving a problem, the
less room there is in the script for humor. Dramas are paced slower, have more
act breaks, and spend more time developing the story, building to a climax, and
arriving at a conclusion.
·
Run Time. Sitcoms run for approximately 21 minutes without commercials, while
dramas run for about 43 minutes without commercials. One page of a script in
Final Draft equals about one minute on air, so a 21-minute sitcom script should
be around 20 pages long, and a script for a 43-minute long drama should be
about 40 pages long.
How to Pitch a
TV Show
Once you have a great concept for a show, there are three
things you’ll need in order to pitch it to network executives:
·
A treatment. A treatment is a document that provides an explanation
of your TV show’s setting, main characters, and storyline. Every treatment
should include a title, logline, synopsis, summary of episodes, and character
bios.
·
A pilot script. A pilot is the first episode of a TV series. Your TV
pilot needs an opening that is going to grab your viewers and says something
important to your audience about the show they are going to watch. Without a
compelling pilot, you don’t have a TV show. Pilots are crucial for hooking an
audience and setting up your characters and storyline for an entire season.
·
A show bible. A show bible, also called a story bible or a series
bible, is a document that contains the history of your characters, an outline
of every episode in the first season, and how you see the show expanding into
future seasons. Writing a show bible forces you to think beyond the pilot episode
and can help you see the bigger picture of your show idea.
Learn more about how to pitch a TV show in our complete
guide here.
9 Tips for
Breaking Into TV Writing
There’s no rulebook for what it takes to make it in
Hollywood. However, there are things you can do to increase your chances and
place yourself in a position for success, including:
1. Know your television history. Knowing your
television history is key to being a great television writer. For example, if
you’re writing a medical drama like Grey’s Anatomy, then
you better know the other medical dramas that have been created and why they
either succeeded or failed.
2. Move to Los Angeles. The vast
majority of production companies are based in LA, and as a result, most TV
writing jobs are based there.
3. Write a spec script. A spec script
is a TV script written speculatively, meaning it was not commissioned by a
network. Writers use spec scripts to demonstrate talent and creativity. An easy
way to write a spec script is to choose a current TV show you’re familiar with
and write a sample episode. Your manager can use your spec scripts when being
considered for various writing jobs.
4. Get a job as a writer’s
assistant. Working as an assistant is a rite of passage for many new to the
industry. Rather than looking down on the position as entry-level work,
consider it an opportunity to observe and learn from the brilliant minds around
you.
5. Network. You should be
making an effort to not only build relationships with executives, but also with
your peers. As they rise, they are likely to offer you opportunities to help
you grow as well.
6. Enter TV writing contests,
apply for TV writing fellowships, and attend TV writing workshops. The
competition is tough, but somebody has to win or get selected to attend. To
enter, you usually have to submit unique writing samples, which is great
practice for aspiring TV writers.
7. Work hard. Breaking
into the world of television writing isn’t easy. There are many more hopeful
writers than there are positions available within the industry’s writers’
rooms, so bringing your dream to life requires a lot of hard work and
dedication.
8. Have a positive attitude. Be conscious
of the vibe and attitude you give off to your superiors, especially as you take
on some of the more mundane tasks the job entails. Nobody wants to work with
someone who is grouchy or entitled.
9. Write every day. As you make
your way through the industry, don’t forget that your most valuable assets are
your writing skills and portfolio work. Writing is one of the few jobs you
don’t need to be hired to do. Write every day, put in the time to hone your
craft, and focus on writing original content.
Guest blogger Laurie Scheer has been a
television industry d-girl, producer (ABC, Viacom, Showtime, and AMC), and
network executive (former Vice President of programming for WE).
A good idea for
a television series just isn’t enough. If you’re actually one of the few
writers who is making their idea into a TV pilot screenplay, then this post is
for you! Also, don’t forget to mark your calendar for our upcoming PILOT
LAUNCH TV SCRIPT CONTEST! Also, don’t miss these 21 Series Bibles That Every Screenwriter Should Read.
With so many platforms producing and
distributing content commonly known as a “television series” — a collective set
of episodes that run under the same title — it seems everyone and his brother
has an idea for a television series, however, not every idea for
a television series can be made into a television series.
Whether you are intending to pitch your idea
to a broadcast, cable or digital network, the elements of a potentially stable
and popular series need to be in place. Let me give you an example of an idea for
a television series vs. an actual television series.
As a former network executive and a current
media consultant I can tell you that I have been pitched the following idea
hundreds of times from individuals in just about every major city where I’ve presented
as a speaker.
There are five to seven 20-nearing-30
somethings who know each other from collage who are now working in the big city
and experiencing the lows and highs of their professional and personal lives —
cue a sizzle reel showing these people in bars, offices and bedrooms.
And to that I say, “So what?”
Why? Because there’s no series there within
that description, and no substance whatsoever within that pitch.
Just having a small group of young adults in
close proximity experiencing the hassles of the workplace and the
joys/disappointments of their love lives is not enough. This idea has not only
already been done — think Friends (even Seinfeld) to 2 Broke
Girls, New Girl, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory to Broad
City, but it has also been explored over and
over again.
There’s a good aspect to the fact that the
idea has been reincarnated a number of times — that means there is something in
the idea that resonates to viewers from decade to decade and season to season,
but there’s also a challenging aspect for those of you with an idea for
a television series that is similar to this one — you’ll need to make sure your
idea can be expressed in a way that shows me, the media exec, how the
idea will work as a television series and why your
idea is unique to the genre.
Before we dive into some examples
below, take a few minutes to review this great tutorial video from our friends
at StudioBinder:
You can also find some great examples
on StudioBinder’s episode page and series page.
If we look at each of the shows listed above
that involve a group of people working, living, and existing together either
professionally or personally — or both — we will see the following
distinctions:
Seinfeld — Three friends of Jerry, a stand-up
comedian in NYC in the 90s experiencing life.
Friends — this show can be looked at as a
younger version of Seinfeld — and because of its place
in television history beginning in the 90s and bringing us into the new
century, it seems to be the precursor for this genre.
2 Broke Girls — waitresses and
roommates in contemporary Williamsburg.
New Girl — Jess, a teacher (and the “new
girl”) moves into a loft with three men in L.A.
How I Met Your Mother — Ted and a group of
friends in Manhattan tell the tale of how the friends met from the year 2030.
The Big Bang Theory — Five characters
living in Pasadena, the two leads are physicists at Caltech.
Broad City — Made for cable (Comedy Central),
two women in their 20s living in, you guessed it, NYC.
Do you see a pattern here? The young friends
(the number of friends change a bit from show to show), are either in the NYC
or L.A. areas and are experiencing the joys and hassles of their professional
and personal lives.
There’s that same idea again — the one I’ve
heard pitched to me over and over. However, there are also specific
details and traits that differentiate each series from the other — and
that is when the “idea for…” becomes an actual “television series.”
So before you pitch an idea for a
television series make sure that you have done
the work to make that idea into a television series by
completing these four steps:
1. Compose a Bible for Your
Series
This is a creation document that explains the
background of your premise for a series. It tells us why your characters are in
the situation they are in when we meet them in the series. The bible supports
and defends your idea — think of the conflict involved from the very beginning
of your series — i.e. Raymond of Everybody Loves Raymond fame
would not have been a series if his parents didn’t live next door. Every good
series has a reason for being, has something to be solved, and/or it has
something to be attained. Tell us about your series scenario and how your
characters will navigate that scenario. We linked to it above, but if you
haven’t seen it yet, check out these 21 Series Bibles that Every Screenwriter Should Read.
2. Character Breakdowns
These are short paragraphs that explain
each of your main characters — in the idea presented above I would need to have
the breakdown for each of the 5 to 7 main characters of your show. Make sure
each character represents different ideals and goals — both internal and
external — otherwise you will not have enough conflict to sustain a
complete series and multiple seasons of the series.
3. Future Episodes
Write short paragraphs describing the flow of
your series — how are the characters embracing their internal and external
issues and problems. As an exec I should be able to determine character arcs
and seasonal arcs of your series by the way you present your episode
breakdowns. Please include an A, B, and C story in each episode (the main
scenario of that episode with supporting subplots to flesh out the episode). If
your episodes do not flow and move through changes for the characters and the
show, then your idea is not alive, it is not realizing
its total potential, and you do not have a television series —
you have only an idea.
4. Pilot Episode
Write it. Seriously. You would be
surprised how many individuals pitch an idea and present a sizzle reel without
actually writing the pilot episode. If I do not have a pilot episode then I
know for certain that your idea is just that — an idea. Show me how you execute your series — the tone,
the subtext, and the action of your characters as they go through the scenes you
have written for them. I need to read the dialogue exchanges, the pace and flow
of your story and any unique aspects that may shine within your script.
Do not assume that I’ll be able to know
or figure out where your characters are headed by just your idea and your
technically well produced sizzle reel. I’m interested in substance, I’m
interested in a series that my audience will binge on and discuss in social
media and in person until they demand new episodes of that now sought-after new
television series.
Yes, steps 1 through 4 entail a great deal of
work; however, a television series is born as a result — not
just the idea for that series.
Once you have secured the above details
there’s one more step and that is to assure that your idea is new,
fresh, bright and different and that it does not address any of the exact same
scenarios, character traits and issues seen in the various popular series
listed above.
By doing the research and doing this work
you’ll be able to defend your television series and as an executive I’ll be
able to visualize and see that you have an actual series — not
just an idea.
And by all means, do not produce a sizzle reel
without doing the work listed here. A sizzle reel is useless. It does nothing
to help me understand why an audience would follow these characters into their
3rd or 4th season. Put your energy into these steps listed above and
the exec will assist you in getting the idea produced.
So next time you think you have an idea for a
television series, sit down and do the work to actually visualize and compose a
television series. Don’t waste your time and the exec’s time on just an idea
and a sizzle reel — be prepared.
TV
WRITING TIPS AND TRICKS: How to Write a Series
The writers that work with me
regularly via Script Advice, and
those familiar with my blogs, will be all too aware of how much I
bang on about the importance of structure in all television series writing.
All great series drama has a
congruent, harmonious structure that works within the storyline to highlight
the best bits, to hold up the slightly weaker bits (they are always there, even
in the best long running shows) and to generally make sure the story and its
characters shine.
The goal here is to form a rock
solid basis or foundation for your storylines. If the structure works for the
story and the story grows within the confines of what you have set up, then you
will be assured of full audience engagement and the Holy Grail will be reached—that
is, a commercial and creative success.
Here’s my 8 step plan to
structuring your television drama ideas...
1: THE
CREATIVE PROCESS
I have blogged about the creative process in much more detail here, so I want to just say; ask yourself
this question throughout your initial thinking process, when the ideas are
unformed and there’s a general feeling of ‘I may have something here’: What do
I want to say exactly?
Nailing your intention from the start will bring you back to that idea/thought,
time and again when you get lost and may stray away from your original
intention as you develop the long form storylines.
2:
MAPPING AND STRUCTURE—THE MACRO V THE MICRO
So you have the ideas—they’re still in a bit of a muddle—you have a setting or
a world, you have a message you want to say, you may have characters forming.
Now you need to work out how you
are going to explore and demonstrate your world and your message to an audience.
That’s key here. You have something you want to say but it’s not worth saying
if you don’t connect with a wider audience. The interplay between the wider
view point—that is—the Macro Viewpoint and the personal, or Micro Viewpoint is
what ensures your audience stays hooked from the first to the last scene.
Taking the example of in my view,
one of the best television drama series in recent years, Happy Valley by the incomparable Sally
Wainwright, the Macro Viewpoint is the back drop of the drama—not only the West
Yorkshire valley in which she sets her world, but also the police station where
Catherine Cawood works. The audience can look in; as if from a distance, the world
that Catherine inhabits each day and can also see, set against this, the people
who struggle along, with their various concerns, emotional, financial, social,
all set against the rugged beauty of the Penninnes. The Micro Viewpoint is that
of Catherine herself; her observations, her mind set, her choices and her
decisions. And too, those of her family and her work colleagues as we go
through the arc of their various storylines. The viewpoint is wide and then
close up—as if the camera lens itself has set a master shot and then pulled
focus on a character, or a particular story moment. This shift of perspective
is the key to a great series narrative.
3.
CHARACTER ARCS
In the work I do with writers, this forms the bed rock. Each character you
create has a story arc that you must control, incrementally, across the arc of
not only the series as a whole, but also each individual episode. The journey
for all characters starts with your rough mapping of their narrative across the
main trajectory of the series. Block this out for each character to begin with
and then work into it as you go through your episodes. This way, you will have
a broad stroke story line set down so you can create detail and complexity
within that story line without losing your original intention for the
character.
4:
TREATMENT TEMPLATE
Identifying the DNA of your series idea. This is one of my most popular blogs and
reading this will give you a solid basis for shaping your next television idea.
Here I will merely say that
without a treatment, you will most definitely feel overwhelmed by the task of
controlling a series narrative across more than 3 episodes.
5:
OUTLINE THE SERIES
This document will give you the confidence to proceed to the pilot. The arc in
general terms, of the series as a whole, needs to be broadly plotted. Find the
jump off point for everyone, then the midpoint and the ending. These are 3 main
story blocks that need to be cemented in place so you can work out from each
point and give the series arc more detail and complexity. Ask yourself this key
question to focus your creative mind: what is the narrative throughline for my
series? In the case of Happy Valley it is the trials and tribulations of
Catherine Cawood and her quest to bring the rapist who murdered her daughter to
justice.
6.
OUTLINE THE PILOT
Before you allow yourself to write actual scenes, do a Beat Sheet which maps
out, in short paragraphs, each paragraph denoting a scene, what happens in your
pilot. This way you will be able to see at a glance, if the story has a motor,
if the characters are used to their full potential and if there’s anything
extraneous or unnecessary in the plotting.
7: THE
FIRST TEN PAGES OF YOUR TV PILOT
How to make sure your first 10 pages sell the other 50. This is another popular
blog I wrote to support a work shop I ran last year. The essence I want you to
take away having read this, is to realise just how important it is to hold the
attention of audience and you do this in several key ways—all of which is
outlined here.
8. THE
FIRST DRAFT OF THE PILOT
The Vomit Draft. Horrible phrase I know, but I use it in the work I do with my
writers because it describes exactly what you need to do when you are faced
with the task of getting your first draft down. Just get it out of you. Because
I have insisted up to this point, that you write not only clear character story
arcs but also a beat sheet of the pilot, this is not a total free wheeling
exercise. There is a beginning, there is a middle and you know the ending - of
the series arc, now you need to drill into the first episode and make that sing
so it sells the rest of the series.
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