TV Writing On Demand

"Introduction Peak TV vs. Pique TV: The Streaming Smorgasbord How to Navigate TV Writing On Demand PART I - SATISFYING THE BINGE VIEWER: NEW GENRES, FORMATS AND TRENDS 1 Blurring the Lines: Redefining Genre and Tone in the Dramedy How Did We Get Here? Dramedies and Life on the Cringe Female-Driven Dramedies You‘re the Worst: The Anti-Romantic Dramedy Baskets and Lives in Disarray Satire as the Weapon of Reason in Dear White People I Love Dick: Exploring the ""Female Gaze"" Master of the Observational: Master of None Better Things: Philosophical Vignettes Love and Death in Atlanta Bonus Content: Further analysis on dramedies, including the rise of the genre, Catastrophe and Casual 2 The Slow-Burn, Season-Long Procedural: From Murder One and Twin Peaks to The Night Of, Fargo, Search Party and More The Season-Long Mystery The Mystery Underlying the Crime: The Night Of The Good Fight: The Procedural Within a Procedural Search Party: Something From Nothing Fargo Is a State of Mind The Season-to-Season Pivot: Broadchurch Truth and Consequences Bonus Content: American Crime, True Detective Season 1, Riverdale, Medici: Masters of Florence, Happy Valley, The Fall, Bloodline, The Expanse 3 Trust Me: The Long Con On-Demand—From The Riches to Sneaky Pete, Patriot, The Americans and More The Put Up, The Play, The Rope, The Touch, The Blow Off The Masquerade: Sneaky Pete The Period Political Masquerade: The Americans Entrapment and Reversals: The Night Manager All Is Not What It Seems: The Good Place The Farce Thriller: Patriot Ozark: Who Can a Con Artist Trust? Bonus Content: The Path, Younger, Mr. Robot 4 Dystopias, Multiverses and Magic Realism The Constructive/Destructive Power of Ideas: The Handmaid’s Tale Our World with a Cautionary Twist Crafting the Supernatural/Dystopian Pilot Microcosmic Dystopias and the Monster Mash: American Gods Portals and Multiverses: Childlike Wonder in Stranger Things Surprise and Shifting POV: The OA Adjoining Realms in The Man in the High Castle Bonus Content: Atlanta, Man Seeking Woman, The Good Place, Game of Thrones, The Young Pope, plus ""The Neurotic Superhero"" 5 Story Tentacles: Making Surprising Choices That Yield More Story Inevitable Yet Unpredictable Keep Your Frenemies Close: Orange Is the New Black You Can’t Always Get What You Want . . . Mozart in the Jungle A Window Onto a New World: Switched at Birth Taboo Relationships in Comedies Points of View: The Affair Ensembles and Backstories When a Flaw Becomes an Asset: Girls The Macro/Micro Approach: The Young Pope Game of Thrones: The Ultimate Story Tentacle Show? The Unreliable Narrator: Mr. Robot Bonus Content: Breaking Bad, Scandal, Mad Men, Taxi, plus the Switched at Birth pilot teaser 6 Spotlight on a Rebel: Ryan Murphy Reinvents the Mini-Series by Embracing His Inner Outsider Why Can’t I Be Audrey Hepburn? In Television, Tone is Everything Reinvigorating a Genre The More Specific You Make Something, The More Universal It Becomes ""No"" = A Rest Stop on the Road to ""Yes"" Limitation as an Opportunity and Differentiator The Pop Culture Junkie The Limited Anthology Series Impossible = Possible Marcia, Marcia, Marcia If You Can Dream Within a Structure, You Can Do Better Things PART II DEVELOPING ICONIC CHARACTERS: RELATABILITY AND AUTHENTICITY 7 Character Empathy vs. Sympathy: How and Why We Align With Characters’ Wants and Needs Touching the Void Nobody’s Perfect Examples of Coping Powers The Dance Reverting to Type Judgment, Morality and Perception The Insatiable Appetite of the Ego Insecure: Authentic as F**k Big Little Lies, Guilt and Shame Sympathy for the Robot: Westworld Hannah, Clay and the Razor’s Edge: 13 Reasons Why Alignment and Allegiance Bonus Content: Mr. Robot, Getting On, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Young Pope, Better Things, Animal Kingdom, plus ""Empathy and the Female Gaze"" 8 Choosing Between Two Wrongs: Characters Trapped by Limitation Creating the Dilemma Homeland: The Lasting Effects of Devastating Decisions A ""What If?"" Exercise Dilemma and Perspectives Politics, Power and Internal Logic: Legion, The Handmaid’s Tale Jessica Jones: How Late is Too Late? Guilt, Maturity and Aspirations: This Is Us The Cleanse and Crossing the Line Bonus Content: Bates Motel, Breaking Bad, Queen Sugar, Orange Is the New Black 9 The Wild Card Character: Power Dynamics and Motivations The Wild Card With a Twist: Mr. Robot The Wild Card’s Wild Card: Mozart in the Jungle The Roommate Soulmate: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt The Pushy Roommate/Friend/Business Partner/Mentor: Silicon Valley Disrupting an Institution: The Young Pope The Role of Destabilizing Characters: Better Call Saul, The Crown and Goliath Bonus Content: Luther, Big Little Lies, Stranger Things, Bloodline, plus script excerpts from Mr. Robot, The Crown, Goliath 10 Writing Smart Dialogue in the Digital Era The Oblique Bonus Content: The Profound Power of Silence plus Better Call Saul excerpt Idiosyncratic Voices: Empire, Silicon Valley Get in Late, Get Out Early Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication Point of View and Subtext: The Last Man on Earth, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Shop Talk: Brooklyn Nine-Nine Naturalistic Dialogue: Profanity in The Wire Backstory: What They Don’t Say Actions—and Triangulation Overlapping Dialogue: Stranger Things Economy With Words E-Communication Listening to Our Characters Bonus Content: Bones, Orphan Black, The Americans, Scandal PART III CAREER STRATEGIES IN THE EVOLVING TV MARKETPLACE 11 To I.P. or Not to I.P.? That Is the Question: The Value of Intellectual Property in the Scripted TV Ecosystem Intellectual Property Glossary Breaking (Through the Noise) and Entering (the Zeitgeist) The Literary Approach Adapting Autobiographical Material Bonus Content: A deeper dive into putting a new spin on forms of I.P., from comics to musicals 12 The Show Bible as an Essential Sales Tool That Was Then. This Is Now. The Need for Reassurance: From Closed-Ended, Stand-Alone Procedurals to Open-Ended, Slower-Burn Serials If There’s a Central Mystery, There Needs to Be a Series Bible Networks That Circumvent the Pilot Process (Tend to) Commission Series Bibles The Following Networks Still Make Pilots, But Do They Require Series Bibles?Half-Hour Sitcoms Rarely, If Ever, Require a Series Bible . . . Drafting the Series Mini-Bible Bonus Content: Examples/templates of one-hour drama and half-hour dramedy series mini-bibles, plus how to create a story area document 13 Trips, Traps, Tropes: Avoiding Rookie Mistakes Become Experts in the Genre ""Great Pilot, But What’s the Series?"" ""It’s Too Wrapped Up"" ""What’s the Franchise?"" ""Who Are We Rooting For?"" ""There’s No Sense of Place or Time"" ""It’s Confusing"" ""The Premise Is Weak"" ""It Doesn’t Feel Authentic"" ""The Dialogue/Style/Tone Are Uninspired"" ""It’s Too Long"" ""The Plotting is Tepid"" ""The Stakes Are Not High Enough"" ""It’s Just Talking Heads"" ""It’s Too Superficial"" ""There Are Too Many Characters"" ""The Good Stuff Appears Too Late"" Know the Industry—Yet Be Innovative The Temptation to Rush Bonus Content: ""The War Against the Kitchen Sink Pilot,"" a/k/a ""The Premise Pilot Blues"" 14 The Creative Entrepreneur: From Kickstarting a Web Series to Hitting the Big Time ""Call My Agent"" Getting an Agent Agents vs. Managers Advice From the (Staff Writer) Trenches Bonus Content: List of the Top Contests and Fellowships More Opportunities Than Ever—Yet It’s Never Been More Competitive Show Them Your Proof of Concept Think Locally, Act Globally What I Really Want To Do Is Direct (a Web Series)—Broad City, Key & Peele, High Maintenance, Awkward Black Girl, The Skinny, 37 Problems, EastSiders Bonus Content: Advice from Kit Williamson Work Begets Work Acknowledgments About the Author About the Editors Index"