25 THINGS I’VE LEARNED IN 25 YEARS IN TV WRITING
Well, it’s actually been 30 years now, but here’s a spew I did 5 years ago on the bird app to commemorate my 25 years as a TV writer.
I’ve edited it a bit for clarity. Hopefully some of you will find it useful.
1. In TV writing (and writing in general) there is only one unbreakable rule: Thou shalt not be boring.
2. Write characters people want to hang out with for an hour or so once a week for years to come. Even if they’re bad people, make them interesting, engaging bad people.
3. If your lead is a bad person, make them funny and/or sexy. Direct most of their bad behavior toward other bad people or themselves. Make them well motivated. Maintain rooting interest.
4. What makes a character special should be intertwined with what makes them struggle. Perfect people are boring.
5. Characters should complement/conflict with each other. No two characters should serve the same purpose/have the same backstory/have the same voice.
6. Cast the best actor, adjust the character to suit.
7. Give your leads the best lines/moments. No one is tuning in to watch the funny guest star. Like Garry Marshall said back on HAPPY DAYS, “I’m paying Henry Winkler $25,000 an episode. Give the Fonz the jokes.”
8. Your characters, good & bad, should reflect the reality of our wonderful, diverse world. White male shouldn’t be the default.
9. Avoid stereotypes. Stereotypes are boring.
10. If all your POV characters know some secret, the audience should know it too.
11. If your show hinges on a big mystery, know more or less what the truth is from the beginning. You can change it later if you need to, but write to a specific.
12. If your story doesn’t test your characters mentally, physically, psychologically, emotionally, or spiritually, you don’t have a story.
13. You can start by figuring out the Beginning, the Middle, or the End, but you don’t have an episode until you have all three.
14. Big suspenseful act outs (the last moments before the commercials) aren’t just a gimmick. They’re a good way to structure an hour of entertainment to make sure the audience is invested and your pacing is solid.
15. Every scene should be a consequence of the previous scene or a refutation of it.
16. A scene also needs a Beginning, Middle, and End. The end should propel the characters and/or audience into the next scene.
17. Every scene is a negotiation/confrontation between two or more characters who want different things or have different ideas on how to solve the same problem.
18. A good action scene is still a character scene. With punching. (This applies to sex scenes too, but you know, with sex.)
19. A crap page is better than a blank one.
20. It’s easier to cut than to add.
21. Good things rarely happen in the Writers Room after dinner. Go home, get some rest, write pages at home if you have to, start fresh in the morning. Writers who have a life outside the writing room are better writers. Beware the showrunner who doesn’t want to go home to their family. That said…
22. Script by day one of Pre-Production. No matter what.
23. You’re a writer first. Almost nothing happening on set or in post is more important than the writing. Delegate when possible.
24. Make an extra effort to surround yourself with writers who are different from you (background, race, gender, orientation, etc). Listen to their perspectives, especially on experiences alien to you.
25. And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make. In TV writing and life in general.
https://at.tumblr.com/writergeekrhw/25-things-in-25-years-part-2-25-things-ive/okjzwofyiq6i
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