Writing a Pilot

I've been racking my brains, trying to think of something to write. I've been worrying about clever plots and story arcs, characters and their history's.

Not coming up with anything, I've decided to try and take this approach, this one here --> Instead of worrying about all that, I try and make it as simple as possible.

I'll create just a "pilot episode". A random episode dropping in on some characters lives, not worrying about history's or anything.

As if I've been channel surfing and stumbled onto the show myself.

I'll write the episode, try and cram in as many jokes and get out. Then hopefully they'll come to life and sprout new ideas and grow from there. If not I'll move onto another random idea and so on.

I was just wondering if anyone else has worked like this or do you plan out characters, stories and plots in great detail and write a whole series at once?

My mind tends to spout ideas out. If I didn't have an idea, I wouldn't know where to start.

Admittedly, most of the stuff I have written has me or a variant of myself as the main character (However, I'm not a particularly interesting person)

Going into a pilot I like to be armed with character names, backgrounds, ages etc. Then I introduce the characters and their situations via the plot. Perhaps two characters meet for the first time, so that's part of the plot.

Everything has to tie up for me and the plot stems from that characters' attitudes. I could never go straight in - though a lot of shows do - I like to set up relationships, running gags and themes from the off.

I think you can do this without being heavy-handed and obviously saying 'This character is like this', though whether I've achieved this successfully isn't for me to judge (the answer, I suspect, is no!)

One common thing I use is having people meet for the first time, then you can set people up early on.

EDIT: Of course, if you did the 'random' episode idea - you could not have that as the pilot, and as you'd know your characters a bit better you might be better prepared for the pilot.

What I tend to do is come with a few ideas and spout out some dialogue around it, getting to know the characters voices and personalties. This equips me to flesh the script out later. (And I also know if it's going to work.)

My plan was to, keep revising it, until I had a suitably structured script.

The pilot does not necessarily have to be an introductory episode does it? I thought it was just meant to be an sample of the show?

I'm no expert because I've achieved nothing writing wise - yet!

But one I've been working on is loads of sketches tied into a story line as I go.

Another one had basic characters and ideas of a running concept of what the characters do. Then I sat down and just let it flow.

That's what I do with dialogue. Write a line - imagine a response and so on.

Of course the voice in my head helps! (He'll be asking for a cut next!)

I personally never start writing without an idea because I know in my case I'll just waffle on and get no where.

I always sort out all the characters, their names, age then write a couple of lines of description for each of them. I work out the plot, where and how it starts and where it's leading to through the series. Write down key points that I want to happen throughout the series and when I want to get to that point. And then I just work around that. I find it's the best way of doing things, things flow much easier as you can just focus on doing the funny because you've got everything else sorted.

My first draft is complete nonsense, i don't flesh anything out. I just let the words go. Then the next draft is when i start meddling with it, characters, etc.

If you know what i mean. heh

I do hotzappa.

I just put a character in a situation and than get going. Things can happen pretty quickly in my imagination and it then goes where it wants to go. Usually I can't type fast enough. One thing quickly leads to another. You can then review it and trim it, start developing the plot and the characters as you go forward. Chop it and change it to your hearts content.

I would find sitting down and writing the plot first from start to finish and then character descriptions, histories and stuff just too mechanical. Anyway, for me I find that the plot and characters develop more interestingly if you keep things more open that that and let it go where it wants to go, give the plot and characters time to develop during the writing process.

The main thing is to write, edit, write, edit, re-write, etc. and do something. If you're sat with a blank bit of paper and can't think of anything, then you may have missed the point. I personally don't believe in writers block. If you think you've got writers block, I think you're just being too self critical.

Maybe you just need to let yourself go and just enjoy words for their shapes and sounds, pull new words out the dictionary, ones you've never heard of before, and put them into a situation. Anything!

I've written a pilot by the way, it's about Douglas Bader, do you think it'll fly? I mean, has it got legs?

Arf! Arf!

Simplicity rocks. The pilot of The Sarah Silverman Program was just about her getting batteries for her remote and ended up with her f**king God. What I would do is just think of a simple task e.g. going to the bank then do it in your head and things will come to you.

Yeah, I think Seinfeld is the king of using simple plots and making something utterly brilliant out of them. I mean they set a full episode with the characters waiting to be seated at a Chinese Restaurant and that was fantastic. And also the one were they can't find the car in the shopping centre carpark, just brilliant stuff.

When I start writing I don't give my characters big historys, I tend to just give them a couple lines of description, usually the key points that seperate them from each other. But when it comes to plot I must say I like to get it perfect before I start writing the actual episodes.

I mentioned this somewhere else before, but I have a tendency for approaching a blank page with no characters or any idea of a plot and improvising a few scenes with no idea of what's going to happen. That's what I did with the Lite Flying bit I posted in the critique area. Sometimes I write nearly a whole episode. I then determine the main characters (some of which start of as minor characters that I just can't stop writing) and decide how to end the plot. Then I start thinking about histories and future plots and whether or not this idea will work.

I love improvising stuff as it's kind of like watching an episode for the first time, as you have no idea what going to happen. Often, if I’m ever walking home (or anywhere else for that matter) by myself, I’ll improvise a scene in my head, either with characters I’ve used before or with completely new ones. When I come up with something good, I’ll start laughing in the middle of the street and get people staring at me.

Quote: earman2009 @ July 23, 2007, 8:02 PM

Often, if I’m ever walking home (or anywhere else for that matter) by myself, I’ll improvise a scene in my head, either with characters I’ve used before or with completely new ones. When I come up with something good, I’ll start laughing in the middle of the street and get people staring at me.

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I do that all the time.

Hey this laughing in the street, do you get more money off them that way?

I wrote a pilot once, but he never wrote back! Wahay!

Now I know why I haven't been commissioned...