TV Writing I
GUIDE TO SCRIPTWRITING COURSES
TV Writing I is a 10-week workshop, which includes lectures, exercises, and the critiquing of student projects. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
The best TV shows are addictive, beckoning us to bring the characters into our homes or devices, episode after episode. The people might be cops, thugs, monsters, geeks, doctors, lawyers, fixers, or just ordinary people with everyday problems. The format might be network, streaming, or a web series. As long as it hooks us.
Each TV show is a unique story-machine, with its own rules and formulas. Here you’ll learn how to write for TV and how to market your work.
Whether you seek to write comedy, drama, or something in between, we’ll show you how to write TV episodes that might, someday, get everybody buzzing.
I was introduced to TV script writing and finished a spec script.
Anne-Louise DePalo
lawyer
Notes
TV writers either work on the staff of an existing series or they create an original show. To break into the business, you need samples of your work—either episodes of existing shows or original scripts, the latter more desirable these days.
TV Writing I focuses on writing “spec” scripts for existing shows, which is the best way to learn how TV episodes work. TV Writing II Pilot focuses on creating an original series and “pilot” episode.
These courses cover “scripted” shows, as opposed to reality TV.
Upcoming Classes
Syllabus
This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of TV writing craft and gets you writing a TV script for an existing show. Course components:
Lectures
Writing exercises
Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two times)
New York City/Zoom classes
The syllabus varies from teacher to teacher, term to term. Many topics will be similar to those covered in the Online classes.
Online classes
Week 1
Introduction to TV Writing: Writing samples—specs for existing shows, original work. Elements of a TV series—type, premise, episodes (self-contained/serialized, storylines, signatures), characters, setting, tone, secret theme. How to choose a show to spec. Studying shows.
Week 2
Episode Ideas: Getting storyline ideas. Finding ideas inside and outside the show. Vertical exploration of regular characters. Interaction of multiple storylines. Using the expected and unexpected.
Week 3
Mapping It Out: Finding the storyline beats. Plot basics. Prose outlines. Segments. Step outlines. Tips for outlining.
Week 4
Character: Understanding the regular characters. Desire—super objective, episode objective. Strengths/flaws. Personality. Relationships.
Week 5
Format/Description: Examining the technical format for TV scripts. How to handle description.
Week 6
Scene: Scene defined. Scene guidelines—importance, desire, structure, character. Scenes analyzed—short, medium, long.
Week 7
Dialogue: Naturalistic dialogue. The art of compression. Stylized dialogue. Lingo. Character through dialogue. Subtext. Stage directions.
Week 8
Drama/Comedy: Drama—character complexity, emotion, suspense, action. Comedy—character folly, extreme situations, verbal wit, physical humor. Comedy/Drama—finding the right balance.
Week 9
The Process: The real-world process of writing TV shows. Your process-beating it out, breaking story, scenes, transitions, length, finishing touches. Making sure a script is ready.
Week 10
The Business: Building a collection of samples. Getting in the door-connections, non-writing jobs in the business, agents/managers, production companies. Who to contact. Query letter. Response. Meetings. Ways to maximize your chances.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
