Screenwriting : Anna Henry's Write Your TV Pilot in 8 Weeks by Kristin Holloway

Hi, my name is Abigail Levy and I’m tuning in from New York!

Hi, I'm Tamara and I'm based in Kings Langley near London in the UK.

Hi! Carrice Kandeh - tuning in from Tampa, Florida.

Hi, Deb Stenard from Los Angeles, CA.

Hi, I'm Shay - in London.

Welcome everyone! Please feel free to post questions here!

Hi I am Traci from NJ I had to leave the meeting yesterday right at 3. Did I miss anything ?

Hi, I'm Soni from Sweden. It's snowing here.

Anna, thanks for a fantastic lab!

I’m a bit confused about multiple storylines.

In my head I wanted to write my show mainly from my Main Character’s POV. But then I felt it’s not really a TV show. I thought a show mostly should include storylines driven by different characters and told from their POV. But when I broke down the template show "Stumptown," I discovered that almost the whole pilot is told from the main character Dex’s POV. There’s only one real scene (19.42 mark) that is not from Dex’s POV, showing Sue Lynn and the cops. Other moments without Dex are only super short with her friend Grey, the cop Hoffman etc, mainly used to inter-cut with Dex’s A-story.

Is this mainly because it’s an episodic with a case of the week? Or is that OK in other genres as well?

To understand the concept of storylines better I tried to define them in Stumptown and this is what I found - but I’m not sure they are correct?

A: Dex solves a case of the week.

B: Dex struggles with her personal relationships with friend Grey, cop Hoffman, her brother Ansel.

C: Grey/Hoffman/Ansel struggle with their relationship with Dex.

How would you define the storylines in Stumptown?

Hi Soni - It's actually a very typical pilot which is why I thought it was a good template to use. There are many single-lead shows where much of the story is told from the main character's POV. Take a look at my breakdown for Mrs. Maisel for example. Much of the pilot is used to get the audience hooked into the lead, so they tend to be in a lot of scenes. But there are still multiple storylines, exactly as you noted. There are some moments with supporting characters so we get to know them as well and so we can intercut with the A-story, as you say above. These don't need to be long, but I think you can see that the pilot couldn't work without these scenes.

You are pretty much correct about your storylines, except that each separate relationship is its own storyline - and each goes both ways. As in all episodic shows, the A-story is the case of the week. If you were to keep watching the series, you'd find out that they've done something most successful case-of-the-week shows do, which is that the case in the pilot happens to involve characters who 1. have some personal relationship to the main character 2. and therefore will be returning to the show in some way (Sue Lyn). The subplots are all the serialized storylines, which are Dex's personal and professional relationships. Since this is a detective show and its series launch brings together Dex and Hoffman in an uneasy partnership, I'd say the Dex / Hoffman plotline is the B-story. Dex also has two important and related personal relationships, one with her best friend Grey, and one with her brother Ansel. I can't remember exactly which one is slightly more important in the pilot, but Grey ends up being more important in the series, so let's say that Dex / Grey is the C-story, and Dex / Ansel is the D-story. Notice that these storylines have their own beats, separate from the case.

Hope this all makes more sense now!

Anna, you helped me to clarify this. My first pilot case is actually connected to the main character and I was worried that would be too much, so this was great info. And your proposal to use Stumptown as my template is really helpful. Thanks a lot!

Took this lab and it is fantastic. Anna is a huge help and I can't wait to have her review my pilot for my limited series BASED IN A TRUE STORY. If you want to write your pilot for your series, and have it be as good as it can be, take this lab

@Deb Thank you that is so kind! Looking forward to your script!