This is the kind of stuff that I loved studying in film school. When theory finds common ground with what makes TV (or film, or theater) tick. What makes this bright box and talking heads draw us in and keeps us captivated, for years, generations. Hearing icons talk about what thrills them, what quirks they brought to the table….this is the stuff I could soak up all day long.
What immediately drew me in, wasn’t that Alan Ball was talking about what’s cool about vampires, Mike Judge wasn’t talking about how he found Beavis and Butthead’s laugh, but they discussed how their personal philosophies trickle into their work. Why Ron Howard was attracted to the Bluth Family in Arrested Development. Why Judd Apatow and Paul Feig had similar goals at the outset of making Freaks and Geeks.

The commonality is that they all brought themselves into their work. Paul Feig had a more horrific and embarrassing high school experience than most of us (seriously, read his books, they are hilarious yet painful at the same time), Alan Ball’s sister died in a car crash when he was 13, is often why death is something he explores so often and readily. Who these writers are trickles into their work.

All of them are willing to put themselves into their work to make their characters as honest and real as possible. What makes writing work so often, especially comedy I would say, is honesty and relate-ability. If an audience can’t find your high school horror stories at all real, they are not going to laugh in the same way.

In the PBS Show Judd Apatow said a great thing, “How many people actually relate to Brad Pitt?”

That’s kind of a great point. That’s why there has never really been a movie about Brad Pitt struggling to get a girl, because really? Would anyone buy that? Would anyone relate to that? Seth Rogan? Yep, audiences gravitate to that version because it’s more honest and speaks to the everyman.

Another great quote:

“It has to have some element of truth that we recognize.” – Julia Louie Dryfuss.

While all of this might seem like writing 101, it’s amazing how often that honesty gets lost in the process.
This is why writers rooms often create such close bonds, because writers have to be willing to share their embarrassing stories with each other to find these kernels of truth to lay into their characters.

Apparently Judd Apatow and Paul Feig had all their writers fill out a questionnair about their most embarrassing high school moments at the start of the Freaks and Geeks season in order to capitalize on that brutal truth of adolesence.

If you find yourself glossing over the truth because the truth isn’t interesting or dramatic enough, chances are you might be missing the point somewhere. The truth in writing is what hooks readers and takes them into your world; it’s what takes your project from feeling like a movie to feeling like an experience.

Be real, be honest, and I think you’ll be surprised.

I’ve decided that This Is Your Pilot is not a title I am willing to part with. And the reality is, even though I have fallen in love with writing fiction, TV is, and will always be my first love. So, This Is Your Pilot is just going to have to get used to incorporating a few more posts here and there about the YA world, publishing in general, and fiction, but really, TV is what is all comes back to.

Thanks for being patient as I wandered this meandering path of decision-making.

More posts to come, especially now that the identity of the site is settled.

I know some of you have commented either to me or yourselves about my lack of web site skills…and you’re not wrong.

I’m working on it. Which means, I’m also sadly changing the name of this site so I can incorporate more of the fiction world too (specifically YA).

But, I want to get opinions from you guys too.

What do you think of: thelitlife.com as the new site name?

Good, bad, hate it, love it? Please let me know.

Also, suggestions are welcome.

And frankly, I was very impressed with the ONCE pilot. There’s a lot of great elements for all of us to take note of.

CHARACTER: The Cold Open perfectly lays out Emma Swan, a character that doesn’t know anything about family, only to be confronted with her long lost son. We know somehow it ties into this fairy tale world. Great, we’re in for the ride. And wasn’t that Cold Open a great example of how to hook an audience in 10 minutes or less? That’s what I’m talking about when I preach about making Cold Opens count.

In terms of CHARACTER: The rest of the episode does a great job keeping Emma’s character clearly defined (hardened by life/job, guilty about giving up son), but also giving us a glimmer of where she might evolve to. Despite her guilt for putting Henry up for adoption, she uses her lie detector skills on Henry’s mom/Evil Witch and decides to stick around for the week.

It’s really simple, but so clean, and so well done. When I push writers to give their Main Characters some trajectory, this is what I’m talking about. I don’t need to know EVERYTHING about Emma’s life, but I get a sense of who she is, and where she WAS going, UNTIL this story happened and now we see that she’s along for the ride. Which, in turn, takes your audience along for the ride.

STORY: They did a great job working between the fairy tale world and the modern world, and using the fairy tale book to tie things together. Great transitional device. (Notice, Voice Over not necessary.)

Also, note how smart it was to cut between the fairy tale world and the curse taking hold, to the present world where the curse has already been in effect. It saves the script from becoming a premise pilot where this played out more linearly. The curse takes over in Act Three, which is a great place to build the climax of the episode. And it means much more to us now that we’ve gotten a better sense of what’s at stake rather than if the COLD OPEN was the curse coming over the fairy tale land.

By the end of the episode, we have seen all the players we’ve got to remember, and we’re in for what comes next. Emma being in Storybrook has caused a change and we’ll tune in next week to see how that all unfolds. Again, it’s not terribly specific, like, next week we’ll see her face off with the evil dragon, but we know something fun will come and we hope the curse on this town will be lifted week by week.

Also, in the world of CHARACTER, the super smart thing with Rob Carlyle as Mr. Gold is that he predicts the future. So we know at some point that Emma Swan must have a battle with the Evil Witch. In a 12 ep order, that will probably happen in episode 11. But, who knows how you end a season on a show like this. Point being, again, the audience has something to look forward to. We want to be there when this happens, which, only brings me back to the show week after. That’s what TV is supposed to do.

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: This show also changes what we might have thought possible on network TV. I’d be curious about their shoot schedule, but my guess is each episode is shot in maybe 8 days. GLEE crams in at least three musical numbers, which previously might have been thought impossible to do in that schedule. ONCE gets in a lot of different sets, special effects shots, fight scenes. Sure, there was more money in the pilot than we’ll see in future episodes probably, but still, I’ll bet that crew is busting ass on this one.

Which only circles back to reminding us how important it is to make this enterprise entertaining. One, ABC was smart to go back to 8 o’clock programming and find something FAMILIES want to see. I always say this, but family material pretty much always plays. TWO BROKE GIRLS, definitely not family material. I would guess parents can only watch so much iCarly before wanting to throw themselves out windows, so this fits perfectly.

Plus, Disney used to show family movies on Sunday nights. Maybe I’m old, but I used to really love that. Nice job of  utilizing their brand.

The attention to detail was really well done. My favorite was Emma staying at “Granny’s Bed and Breakfast”..great touch..but did you notice the key that Granny gave Emma? Such a fairy tale-shaped key. It’s a small prop, but everything was true to the world, which only makes it more fun for the viewer to notice all the little gags and details.
Btw, this is where the show being from LOST Executive Producers really shows. These guys gave the audience credit and knew that if there were pieces to connect, the audience would find them. They don’t talk down to the audience, but somehow subtly engage in a conversation with us. A little, joke within a joke here, a small fairy tale reference there. This is a smart move on their parts. This is how you create fans, not just passive viewers. I’m also a firm believer that if you keep the bar higher, people will rise to it. We want to rise to it; it’s more fun that way.

And overall, the show really hit all the right beats. A story that keeps the audience guessing and wanting to solve, high production value, sword fights, true love, witches, cute quirky kid, and a main character to root for. Can your pilot do all that?

What did you guys think of ONCE UPON A TIME?

Exposition-City: Lines like “I came to find you because I love you.” / “We have to run!”

And terrible story choices such as, even though the Sheriff finally found his wife, he’s going BACK into a city filled with zombies because “we have to see what’s there!” Or things like “we have to be quiet” and then yelling back and forth to each other while ‘being quiet’.

Granted, yes, I’m paraphrasing, mainly because I could barely get through the first season while sober.

BUT, this isn’t a WALKING DEAD bitch session. I try not to play the over-critical card too often. Hell, those writers all show up for work and try to live up to the hype and make the best show they can. Can’t fault them too much.

I was reminded at the start of Season Two of WALKING DEAD of their mini-device of having the Sheriff bookend episodes with him using the walkie to reach out to “Morgan” and give him a sense of what they’ve seen and where they are headed. “A long road ahead, Morgan”.

While it feels a little clunky, the device works. At the start of every episode the audience gets grounded with where the group is emotionally, and gets a sense of what their goals are for the episode.

Remember when FELICITY used her tape recorder (yes, a tape recorder. Are we that old or what? Or maybe it’s just me.) to check in with her friend Sally? “Dear Sally, this week has been interesting because of This and This and That.” It might have seemed a tad cheesy even then (Don’t worry, that upstart showrunner JJ Abrams did just fine in his career since then.)..BUT, again, it was an effective way to get inside the mind of a new-to-college-and-the-big-city-girl.

GRAY’S ANATOMY, REVENGE both use a nice little VO to start and end every episode. These are more thematic based than plot based…but really, WALKING DEAD and FELICITY were probably attempting to touch on theme, just maybe not as overtly.

DEXTER does (maybe did?) a great job using VO to set up episodes, and uses it throughout to stay inside Dexter’s head. Because he lives a double life, we NEED this VO to help us reconcile his actions.

The funny thing is, I remember when I learnt to write feature scripts….the rule at the time was that voiceovers were a sign of weakness. My feature writer friends often still won’t use VO unless they really HAVE to.

So who’s right?

Well, first off, it’s Hollywood. For everything thing we say is a right or wrong situation, some project will come along and change those rules and leave us scratching our heads. (No musicals on TV? Tell that to Ryan Murphy.)

So then, the real question is, why use a voiceover or a similar framing device? Is it just because flashbacks look cool? Hopefully not.

The broad answer is that VO gives us insight into our character’s internal journey. Felicity talks to Sally because the imaginary Sally wants to hear what Felicity is going through, what she feels, what her internal struggles are.

Bottom line, we need a way to get inside your characters’ heads without being hyper-obvious.

In LOST we get that through a flashback glimpse at who these people were before the island. In PAN AM we also inform character through flashback. The difference between the shows is a good example of a show telling the audience what we already know vs. adding to the story and creating more intrigue. I’m a big talker about giving every character a secret….and notice how the secrets in PAN AM are pretty lackluster, whereas the character reveals in LOST always kept you on your toes.

THE WALKING DEAD might use the walkie talkies to keep the audience up to speed, but those scenes don’t illuminate the story or characters for us that much, if at all. GRAY’S ANATOMY is a bit of a toss up on how effective the VO can be….BUT, what does work is that it touches upon more general themes and then shows us how that theme relates to all the different characters and storylines. And when you’re juggling multiple storylines, you need theme to keep everything sewn together.

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is a good example of another VO from the dead that still links all our storylines/characters together with a nice bow.

Otherwise, if you want to get out of the VO/Device crutch, you’ve got to find a way for your characters to ORGANICALLY…(I’m saying it twice for further effect) ORGANICALLY talk about their emotions and give us an insight into what’s going on in their heads. A best friend, a mom in a coma (anyone remember that IN TREATMENT season where  Gabrielle Byrne’s character’s Dad was in a coma? How did THAT not win an Emmy?), a dog (EMPTY NEST anyone?, Dryfuss, the best TV dog.), a nosy neighbor.

Or, you’ve got to invoke my Use It Or Lose It rule.

If you want a device, a quirky VO, you better make it count…otherwise, ditch it. Nothing would irritate an agent or exec reading your script than to have a big device that doesn’t ADD to the story, no matter how cool you think it is. Everything has to count.

And btw, the excuse of, “but it is a great example of how quirky your main character’s voice is”, isn’t a good excuse. If the VO isn’t adding to your story, find another way to showcase that character’s voice. A blog, a phone call to Mom, a Doogie Howser-esque ‘Here’s what I learned today’ journal entry.

Oh, and despite my reservations, I’m in for this season of WALKING DEAD. Minor clunk-factor in the first ep, but I gotta admit, I’m curious, the writing does seem to have gotten better, I may or may not have a slight crush on the Sheriff, and shit, can that show smoke some zombies or what?

What other devices are you noticing in shows? Any more effective than others?

Calls from NBC are out. Nickelodeon calls are out.

Scriptapolooza deadline has passed. Austin had put out the results.

This is the time of year when writers can feel beaten down by these programs and contests. Looking for a little validation from these companies to tell you that you’re on the right track can be exhausting and heartbreaking and maybe a little exhilarating.

I’ve heard a handful of stories from you guys. For some this year was disheartening and frustrating.

For others, I’m proud to report that I had an NBC semi-finalist, a Nickelodeon finalist, and four top 5% WB Fellowshippers. Considering I took a consulting hiatus, those numbers make me pretty happy….and pretty proud of the writers who earned those successes.

But if you didn’t get good news….I get it. I’ve been there.

The thing I’ve heard from writers a lot is, “I’ve been doing everything right, what else can I do?”

That is one of the more frustrating places to be. You know how to write a spec, you have one or two good pilots under your belt, you have a handful of decent contacts…so why isn’t anything happening?

Don’t discount what you have working in your favor. Keep these contacts, so what if they didn’t pan out this year? Be nice, say thank you anyways, and maybe next year they will help that much more.

The best defense you can do, in fact, one of the only things I think you can do, is to keep writing. At a certain point, it’s not a matter if you’re good enough. Guess what? It’s an intense industry…you’re going to have to be good enough…that’s the admissions fee.

BUT, can you write something that gets people’s attention? Can you stand out from the crowd?

That’s the challenge.

And if you stay really honest with yourself and you know deep down this is the career you still want…then your only option is to keep working at it. You’re not too late, you’re not too old, you’re not too out of the loop. If the project is right and gets people excited….none of that matters.

If you let your frustration win and dig your heels in the sand and say “I’m not writing anything new. Something will happen with THESE scripts because I know they are good.” then you’ve stopped being productive. Sure, something could happen, but I promise also that with each new project, with each new way you bend and twist your creative skills…you’re just getting better and better.

And the way you’ll really never know how good you can be is if you stop moving forward.

My bad analogy here, because maybe this will also make you laugh a little when you feel down on your career progress…is this is like me going to yoga class.

I did not win any favors in the flexibility lotto. When I go to yoga often there are old men that are getting deeper into poses, pregnant women contorting themselves into pretzels, while I struggle in the most basic positions. Struggle as in, if a teacher tried to push me further I would probably snap and yell at her “THIS IS SO FUCKING PAINFUL LEAVE ME ALONE” or something equally yoga-worthy.

BUT, last night while I was in class being the least flexible person there, and holding back the urge to cry at how bad I am at this…I reminded myself, “I’m here. I showed up. I showed up KNOWING how difficult this is, and I went for it anyways.” And in each class I do one thing new. One hop, or attempted handstand that I didn’t do the day before. And slowly it’s getting better. So fucking slowly, but progress is being made nonetheless.

Like my yoga fails, writing can be very humbling. Especially when you’re wading through a stack of rejection letters. Bottom line. But, it’s up to us to not let our ego get the better of us. Take the new information in, say thanks,  keep your head down, and show up again tomorrow. And the next day.

Find a pilot idea that excites you, and dive in headfirst regardless of how much pain your past script experiences might have brought you. Rejection in the past doesn’t guarantee rejection in the future. Don’t carry that feeling of rejection forward. Instead, getting excited about new ideas, pushing yourself creatively, this isn’t just about being productive, this is about creatively coping with a career that will always have Rejection ready and waiting. You just don’t have to invite it in. Instead, dive in, have fun, knock out the next script, because who knows which one will hit. (and you’ll really never know unless you write it.)

Just goes to show, no matter how good or bad we write, sometimes studios and networks just have to get their own bad ideas out of their systems too.

Man oh man! I missed writing TV. Fiction writing is a very different set of muscles, and while it’s freeing in some ways, getting through pages and pages (and pages!) of writing prose is a bit like trudging through mud.

So, when it came time to write the new pilot, I wanted to have fun with it.

I let go of all the ideas of structure that are such great guidelines and played it fast and loose.

All it took was a handful of different colored notecards.

I assigned a different color to my various characters and just started scribbling moments I’d like to see in my show. Whether this moment needs to happen in the pilot episode, whether this moment is just a character reveal or a full scene, it didn’t matter. I wrote it all down.

I wrote down how my character is at the top of the pilot and where I wanted to take her. I wrote down ideas of how to get her there, what types of things they’ll have to deal with, an inevitable argument with the person getting in her way. Who knows where these moments all go, but I’ll figure that out next.

I spent about two hours letting my mind wander, getting to know my characters, exploring places my story could go, ways to utilize the town my show takes place in, questions I’ll need to answer.

I ended up with over a hundred notecards.

What happened is that I created the fabric with which I can tell my story. Now I’ve got material to work with. Now I’ve got moments I want to see. Now I can begin to find the specific scenes in this material and start to weave this fabric into my outline.

Outlining doesn’t have to be difficult. Often people get stuck because they simply do not have enough material to play with. It’s a great thing to know you can save some moments for later episodes, others can be combined within scenes, and you’ve still got plenty to choose from.

I think Writer’s Block is what happens when people squeeze too tight. When they are so afraid, nervous, tentative that every idea gets crushed before it can come out and breathe. This notecard-brainstorming was a great way to let the ideas flow, not judge any of it, and afterwards you can take stock of what really the good ideas are in the mix. And guess what? Here’s the secret. Not every idea is great…and that’s fine. But you’ll never get to the other side of that if you don’t stop judging yourself for only the bad ideas. The good ones will come too.

So, take a deep breath, having fun with your imagination. You can get strict with your outline later, but starting off, remember to have fun!

The New York Times did a great piece on White this past weekend, discussing how his own spiritual evolution and upbringing shaped the kinds of stories he likes to tell.

 I personally love it whenever a writer can discuss their POV on the world, and thus the stories they tend to tell. So many of us are still figuring that out, or in the middle of writing enough material to help us see the pattern.

ENLIGHTENED very much has Mike White’s touch. The main character, AMY, is brilliantly played by Laura Dern. The premise is pretty simple, an over-worked, stressed out woman has an angry breakdown at work/ in life, goes to a rehabilitation place in Hawaii, and comes back to her old life at peace and hoping to share that peace with the people in her old life. Can she sustain her new state of mind in the face of her old world?

One of the themes White mentions that he wanted to explore was the idea of “Can people really change?”.

The show is kind of like a beautiful song. It’s subtle, it doesn’t have to be about much more than what you get, and yet, it’s enough to feel satiated. When the episode ended last night my first thought was, that’s it? Where’s the plot? That’s not a full episode?! 

But, I took a deep breath and realized that I was invested in Amy’s journey. Her first baby steps of coming back to work, returning to live with her mother, confronting her ex-lover and trying to talk with her ex-husband…that was enough. The show didn’t need to hit me over the head with a perfectly wrapped up ending, or a big plot twist to drive up the stakes.

The show itself used a fair amount of graceful establishing shots; really nice visuals playing with light, life in the city vs. the peace Amy found in Hawaii. Some could call it slow-paced, I’m choosing to call it relaxing. None of the more “artsy” shots were unnecessary, and that tone reflected how Amy saw the world in her new state of mind.

And what was so great from a writing/character perspective….Amy’s existence back in her old life constantly threatens her newfound peace. White does such a great job also lulling us into Amy’s peaceful mentality, that we feel her concern and stress when that is threatened.

Every interaction she has pushes old buttons. Dern’s face carries the perfect balance of harmony, and then everso slightly shows us the strain of keeping that harmony in the face of adversity. This tension, this struggle, my friends, is what we can all learn from.

As an audience member we are always waiting for the other shoe to drop. At some point she is going to lose it again, or will she? That’s what keeps us coming back.

It’s also a little like Claire Danes’ character in HOMELAND.  We know she’s got a psychotic personality. She’s working on controlling it, but we also now know her medication is dwindling. At what point will we get caught in the perfect storm of work stress, and no meds, and her full level of Crazy will be revealed? This is also a great tension and keeps your audience on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I see a lot of scripts that don’t have this tension. Replacing plot with character struggle is not the same thing. Say you’ve got a housewife that wants to solve a mystery in her suburban neighborhood. Plot.

But, if it’s a housewife that already suspects her husband is cheating on her, or if she’s got x-ray vision and is trying to keep that secret hidden…we’ve got surprises up our sleeves that the audience is looking forward to..on top of your already good plot.

This is similar in when I talk about giving every one of your characters a secret. BUT, giving your character more than a secret, but a real personality issue they are constantly at odds with? That’s stacking the deck in your favor. That tension will drive scenes, keeps audiences invested, and ultimately, that character arc becomes the theme of your show.

THE SOPRANOS is a great example here too. Can Tony balance his anxiety/panic attacks and what he sees as a weakness of needing a therapist, with his Mob boss persona? That tension is what fueled that show. We couldn’t wait to see what Mob Boss stuff he would reveal in therapy,  and if the therapy would change his Mob ways, etc. And really, that’s what made that show different than another GOODFELLAS rip-off.

Have you given your Main Character a struggle? What secrets does your MC keep? If they aren’t there, go back and find them. It’s amazing how much that adds to your scripts.

FREE AGENTS was soon behind.

People are placing bets on how long CHARLIE’S ANGELS will last.

There are many conversations about lack of marketing, miscasting, bad time slot, but that all feels like easy places to lay blame.

The truth remains that in Hollywood, both film and TV, sometimes something hits big, other times even the most promising projects flop. Why?

Yes, there is an element of “no one knows anything” …but these projects all rely on audiences showing up. So, what we should be asking ourselves is, Why do we show up?

My theory is that this is all about an audience resonating with a project. Do I want to dig into your show? Does it tackle questions in life I also find fascinating? Does it have actors that are so damn enthralling, I would watch them do anything? Is the story gripping enough that I HAVE to show up every week?

Let’s try a few examples: PLAYBOY CLUB. Did anyone really care about Amber Heard and Eddie Whatshisname and their plight?  Was I concerned for the welfare of the Club itself. Not really.

Whereas MAD MEN shows us culture differences between the 60s and the 2010′s-> PLAYBOY CLUB just hung out in the 60s, rather than go that one extra step to find a way to relate this to our lives. The result? A big who cares, and thus cancellation.

If you compare that to REVENGE, which might be one of the few breakout hits of the season, REVENGE is keeping people interested. There is something out there that audiences are responding to; the concept of getting even is resonating with people. You don’t know why, but it just speaks to you. Thus, a firm place in the ABC schedule.

FREE AGENTS, and CHARLIE’S ANGELES…I haven’t even watched. Not that I haven’t been trying to stay somewhat up to date with the new season….neither felt like anything I had to watch. Neither reached out and said “THIS is the show you watch this week. Because it’s FOR YOU.”

FREE AGENTS, btw, I must say: I’m always a fan of a British adaptation. However, we have got to get to a place where we don’t automatically make a show just because something is British and we are convinced for that reason alone it will work over here. There are very different tones, voices, senses of humor between our two countries, …so if FREE AGENTS getting cancelled gives one more exec pause before blindly thinking anything from the BBC works over here..then good. I have to believe there are enough writers with ORIGINAL ideas we don’t need to be in a adapt-only mentality.

Or take DEXTER. It’s official, I can’t watch it anymore. I tried to go back last night..couldn’t get past the first 15 minutes..and that was only because of Mos Def showing up.

I feel like the whole season has taken a turn for the worse. When SHOWTIME pre-empted the show with an interview with Scott Buck, I thought, “great, we’ll hear what they’re thinking.” But Scott went on to explain how this season is about a serial killer grappling with spirituality.

SNORE!

Seriously. Look at that on paper..does that really sound intriguing and universally appealing? How does that have anything to do with my life? How does that speak to your audience? Resonate factor = 0

When I have clients pitch me pilots about “A woman finding her place in the world”, “A Man who just wants to be a role model for his family”..Boooooring! When anyone “discovers themselves” “searches for meaning”…be careful. These are often clever ways of saying “Boring! Contemplative drivel.”

Not only are those emotional journeys vague, there isn’t anything for an audience to sink their teeth into here. Nothing resonates.

And when I say resonate…I mean it like a Tom Waits song. Bruno Mars could sing the same song, but his light voice won’t necessarily grab you. You might enjoy it, you might hum along, but chances are, it’s also forgetable.  When Tom Waits does it…you feel him singing in your gut. His voice reaches down your throat and holds onto your spleen. That’s what I mean by resonate. Something that undeniably hooks you.

Don’t forget, our job is still to be entertaining. If I wanted to contemplate life, chances are high I’m not tuning into CBS to do so. Plus, contemplating anything, …you really think that sells Audis during commercial breaks?Never forget, for how amazing the medium is, for however many risks cable allows shows to take, TV is here, in our living rooms, to sell us things. But, the networks keep these nifty shows on the air to entertain us, to lull us into a haze where we escape into different worlds, different characters, and remember to buy a new vacuum cleaner along the way.

We can be numbed by TV anytime…but why we choose certain shows over the other is the real question. As writers, as commentators on the world around us, it is our job to try to find a story, a character, a struggle that draws us in and makes us forget we’re watching a show. Vague worlds don’t hook us. Characters with esoteric struggles don’t keep us interested. We want to engage with a show we watch, so make sure you are engaging on the page.

So if you’re wondering why shows are getting cancelled, why your scripts aren’t getting more attention, especially if people pass on your projects with “It’s good, it just didn’t grab me”…find a way to make it resonate. Find a way to make your script reach out and grab your audience by the guts, and not let go until that Mercedes ad comes on.