Thanks people. The episode does have a story, but nothing complicated, but it's not just a collection of sketches either.
Importance of a plot Page 2
I agree, having a story told through your characters is important and you need to always keep that story in mind, for example in one of the episodes of my drama all the characters go to a party at the end and so I try to build everything towards that idea. Or a more famous example, in Friends when Joey throws a Days Of Our Lives party on the roof the whole episode is geared towards that party. Examples always help right? 
That's not a story Zuhaib that's an event. What makes it a story is the question you have to ask yourself.
Lol, no I know that and the story would be the overall point of the sitcom. I was only giving an example of how episodes are written because he's writing a sitcom but you're right
I think you need something to hold a viewer/listener's attention for the half-hour of the show. A casual viewer might just catch half an hour in any week of the run and you want to entertain them for that half-hour, without them being bemused as to character traits/indiosynchrasies/etc. So I do think it's important you have some sort of plot/resolution in that half-hour, regardless of how intricate/convoluted/simple it actually is.
I've told you all this before though, just not as publicly 
Dan
There's a few old sayings that are trotted out, like "A story must have a beginning, a muddle, and an end." Or "Get your character up a tree, throw rocks at him, then get him down again." I've heard these so many times but it's very, very true. Plot is crucial, absolutely crucial to hooking the viewer in, and you MUST plan it out in advance before you even think about writing dialogue, otherwise you end up with page after page of amusing banter with no direction and no satisfying conclusion.
The first sitcom scripts I wrote were basically just starting from a blank page and making it up as I went along. It's a fun way to write because the events that unfold surprise even you, but at the end of it you're left with a mess.
It doesn't haver to a complicate plot either. In my script the central character starts off reading a letter from his doctor to come in about his heart test results. He's been having chest pains and is convinced he's going to die. He then spends the rest of the episode worrying, where it culminates in the resolution at the end where we discover he's okay. That's the A story. Then I have a B story where one of the supporting characters is having a nightmare at home because his missus is desperate to have a baby and he keeps having to skip work to nip home and give her one whilst she's ovulating. Again, that B story is tied up neatly at the end of the episode. So that plot isn't exactly The Da Vinci Code in its complexity, but it's a basic skeleton to hang the flesh around. Without it you just have a puddle of nothing.
So to recap - you need to hook your reader / viewer into the main story (s) of the episode in the first three or four pages, develop it, throw in a curve ball about halfway through where the story pushes off into an unexpected direction, then return everything to the status quo at the end. Easy really. Sometimes.
Quote: Lee Henman @ October 9 2008, 11:05 AM BSTThe first sitcom scripts I wrote were basically just starting from a blank page and making it up as I went along. It's a fun way to write because the events that unfold surprise even you, but at the end of it you're left with a mess.
I wrote a book like that once, a serial killer type story, I figured if I didn't know what was going on the reader wouldn't either.
Quote: Marc P @ October 9 2008, 11:12 AM BSTI wrote a book like that once, a serial killer type story, I figured if I didn't know what was going on the reader wouldn't either.
How did it turn out?
Published next August!
Taa-daaa!
Thanks Dan & Perry
I think what I'm wondering about is the presumption of what constitutes a story. For example I've often seen Withnail & I described as a film where nothing happens. Personally, I don't see that. What I'm writing at the moment is more, as given earlier as an example, like The Royle Family as regards triviality of storylines. I've written two other more surreal sitcom scripts with muddles, subplots and resolutions, etc but that didn't feel right with this.
But I'm also wondering whether any reading a script will absolutely expect it to follow traditional sitcom 'rules'?
Also what do you all make of Human Remains? I think it was one of the best comedies I've ever seen. It was neither Sitcom nor sketch show and you could say that not a lot really happened. I know it born of improv and hugely depended on the performance, but does anyone reckon production companies are interested in anything like this?
Ps Swertyd - I did a re-write which now includes a hostage situation and police show-down!
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ October 9 2008, 11:37 AM BSTPs Swertyd - I did a re-write which now includes a hostage situation and police show-down!
Sounds good! Send it over!
Human Remains I haven't seen. (Along with hundreds of others), it sits on my shelf waiting for a time when there is either nothing to 'catch-up' with on TV, or I invent a way of making one hour, ten hours...
Dan
Quote: swerytd @ October 9 2008, 11:43 AM BSTSounds good! Send it over!
Human Remains I haven't seen. (Along with hundreds of others), it sits on my shelf waiting for a time when there is either nothing to 'catch-up' with on TV, or I invent a way of making one hour, ten hours...
Dan
Will do.
If you get just 30 mins to watch HR, watch the All Over my Glasses episode. Mark Gatis cites it as one of his comedy inspirations.
Rather, perhaps, than thinking in terms of what is the plot of this episode, think in terms of what is the idea of the episode/series. A story after all is only the dramatisation of that idea. If you could sum up the spirit of your series in one sentence - what would that sentence be?
Think in terms of emotional shift. Where are the characters at the beginning emotionally, in terms of each other, and at the end. If there is a shift there is a story.
I f**king hate the expression take your characters on a journey. It kind of makes sense, but I hate it anyway.
Quote: Marc P @ October 9 2008, 11:23 AM BSTPublished next August!
Gah! Shot down in flames!
