Monday, September 17, 2007

Kay mops up various thoughts from her inbox, but leaves on crucial question out there that you should be asking, whether you're writing a spec script, or (as seems increasingly popular) a spec pilot:

make sure that your lead character is special. Unique. Because otherwise, why are you telling their story?

That's a terribly good question. Why are you telling the hero's story?

And I'd turn it around to ask: in what way is your hero not special? In what way is his or her problem like yours, or mine? In what way is he or she confronting issues that illuminate the human condition?

It's the tension between the special and the ordinary that makes a series great. A science fiction show that gets too far out there won't work because it's not based in the viewers' reality. A cop show that's just like all the other cop shows won't work because who has time to watch another cop show?

Labels: Crafty TV Writing

8:23 AM

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