Don't Direct

As a script consultant, I read a lot of scripts by people I have never met. When a script arrives, I usually have no idea what the writer's background might be. He or she might be a practicing or former plumber or professor, barrista or banker.   Read More

I Get It...but What Is It? How to Define Your Original Television Pilot

Before you get anyone to read your brilliantly executed pilot script, you must first pitch them the idea for the series, and it must be clear, compelling, character-driven, and it must feel like a TV show, not like a movie. Put simply, the first thing you need to do is answer the deceptively simple question, “What is it?”   Read More

Bullet-Proof Your Script Against Reader Rejection

Imagine you're a studio script reader. It's Sunday night. You're dog-tired. Dreading work tomorrow where you're stuck in your own version of 'Swimming With Sharks'   Read More

Opening a TV Pilot (The Good Wife, Downton Abbey, The Walking Dead)

When an InkTip-approved producer starts to read your script, you’ve already piqued their interest with your dynamic logline and hooked them with your compelling synopsis and intriguing résumé, but now you need to reel them in with precise execution on the page, and that begins with a great opening sequence. Nowhere is more important than on television where every season a new batch of pilots contend for an audience.   Read More

Getting Up to Speed: What You Need to Start Writing a TV Pilot

Scripted television is exploding. And if you are a screenwriter with experience primarily in the feature-length form, then you would do yourself well to start learning how to write a pilot.   Read More

TV Series Storytelling - Commercialism vs. Creativity

In the cut-and-thrust world of television drama series production, can creativity work hand in hand with commercialism or does one override the other?   Read More

Spice Up Your Supporting Characters

You thought of an interesting premise and made sure your protagonist completed the hero’s journey. But your script still reads dry. It tends to drag. On top of that, you might have ideas for who can play the lead role, but you haven’t been able to think of whom else to cast for the other roles. One thing you’ve neglected: your supporting characters.   Read More

But Chocolate Beats Are Good For Me!

It's a fact of life – and perhaps even one of Murphy's Laws – that virtually anything you love to eat is bad for you and will ultimately consign you to a wretched demise. Conversely, anything you can't run away from fast enough   Read More

Shaping the Story for Television

Most writers I work with at Script Advice, or those I have met in my fairly long career in creating drama for television, write with a compulsion. It is not something that they have any real control over. If you are reading this and nodding your head…great. You are in the right place and in good company.   Read More

Why Talented Writers Fail Part 3: Action Through Pain

Why do we let process get in the way of getting what we want? And on that note, what do we really want? The conclusion to our series on “Why Talented Writers Fail” goes into why we must re-evaluate what we want and how to get there. How does pain relate to our success? Last time, we looked at four roadblocks that obstruct writers from capitalizing on their talents.   Read More