Screenwriting : Creative process of TV Shows by Tomás Ruz

It depends on the cast. The main character gets the A. They also are usually related to B plot. C and D will go to the secondary characters, or it's a minor plot that gets mentioned once or twice the A character.

An example The Good Wife - A plot is the case of the week. B plot is the mother in law is in town. C would be a secondary character has a wedding to plan. D plot would be missing dry cleaning.

Here's Steven's tips. He co-created POSE

https://twitter.com/StevenCanals/status/1241458012851560448?s=20

If you haven't yet, write a shitty first draft. Just get through it. Think about characters, think about how long you want it, and just push it out like a corn filled turd. Then look at that turd, and start to make notes. That's probably the most colorful, and also truthful way to describe how I write when I have a decent over-arcing idea, but the innerds of it need work. I will say though, get the pilot as good as possible, but never obsess on it. You do need it to be great, but pilots are rarely ever if...I can honestly say ever perfect. Just remember, the road to doing something great starts with doing it, even if the first draft fails. Best of luck to you, and I cannot wait to see your work on the big screen!

Thank you guys!

I like to start with taking the idea, which you obviously have, and turning that into a well developed concept. I know I'm there when I have a theme that fits with the story world that originally inspired the idea. My main character is a representation of the theme that I want to explore. So knowing the main character's internal conflict is a good start. From that, some ideas should begin to flow about the A plot. Once I'm at that point, my favorite thing to do is forget about the script and focus on the log line. This helps me to weed through my own weak execution of a story idea and make it strong. Once you have a good log line, the main beats of your A plot should easily flow from that. Then from there, I think it depends on what kind of writer you are. Are you strong with dialog, characters & scenes, structure. If you know what kind of writer you are, then you'll know what to focus on to start putting some puzzle pieces on the board. For example, if you have characters talking to you in your, head then you have something to write down and you can hone that scene until you learn about your characters, then create a plot around that. Others may want to complete an outline or beat sheet before beginning to "write." That's what makes screenwriting so difficult in my mind... there's no one right way.

You need to figure all that out before you start writing your script. It's like an airplane pilot has to go down a checklist making sure everything has been done before taking off. He doesn't want to crash and burn. And neither do you as a pilot writer. This might help you. https://www.billtaub.com/automatic-pilot/

I would recommend writing index cards for all the scenes (it can be a list as well, I like index cards) that you know will be in the show. It doesn't have to be complex, just the slug and a quick description ala INT. CITY BANK. DAY. Craig robs the bank, but gets shot while escaping and can't go to the hospital or the police will arrest him.

Once you have all the scenes written down, look to see what's missing, where you need more plot elements, B story, etc. Continue the process by putting these new scenes on cards. Once you feel you have all the scenes, write it and don't stop. The first draft doesn't need to be good it just needs to be finished. Rewriting and the second draft is where you can figure out all the ins and outs of all the plot elements, once you have something to work off of.

Speaking of index cards, here's an episode of "Better Call Saul." Writing by committee/Staff

One exercise that helped me when I was learning how to write A, B, C plots was to break down shows that I loved by reading the scripts and saying "Ok, this is the A, then we go to B and then we set up C." and then I would look for the pattern ie "A, B, C, B, A, C, A, B, C..."

Not as a paint-by-numbers approach, but rather how a show might organically flow. It really helped in guiding scenes and story progression.

Thank you all!!! My story is like Medical / police shows structure. Everyday (In a brand new episode) you will have a new case, but also you start knowing more about the character life’s

sounds cool! yeah, I mean, I would definitely go index cards. I would then start thinking about each individual case and which one allows for which plot point to come forward, because of the situations it naturally throws the characters into/reveals: and this will help you start to interweave your different character arcs together.

To get into more detail - I would take your cards (or pieces of cut up paper haha) and do up a set for each character's arc: and then start putting together cards that would come out when characters interact, or keep the originals and make new "scene cards, to map how their arcs interact: and then do another set for the basic plot of each case, and see what intersects with your character-arc/scene set of cards.

This approach is a lot of work and a lot of cards - but I find it really helps interweave all of the character's arcs within each episode and case.

Thank you Michael! I’ll try do index cards

It's not as simplistic as that. You have many choices. Index cards are great once you figure out what the elements of your series are. There are many different formats. Hill Street Blues had an A, B, C story and one of them was complete in the hour and the other one was serialized. Some are A, B, and runner. And these days more and more things are serialized in one way or another. Even Law & Order is getting into serialized character arcs. These are choices you can make. It's up to you.

I got a giant dry erase board for my office and its easy for keeping things organized. I write certain characters/plot lines in different colors. Also you can divide up your board by acts. Its a 4x8 board. plenty of space. But it really helps to be able to see it all on the board.