When working on a new idea, before you write anything it's obviously best to structure out the episode so you're not writing blind.
My question is: do you have to structure episodes for the series, or just for the episode you are going to write?
The reason I ask this is because I have ideas for four episodes and am working on the remaining two, but is it best to make sure you have a possible series in you before you start writing?
Thanks in advance fellow comedy nerds.
I personally structure episode one, then start writing the pilot; noting down any ideas for future episodes as I go along. I'll only start to properly work through the structure of any future episodes, beyond the paragraph or two idea, once a producer asks me to. But there's no right or wrong way; whatever works best for you.
The fact is though, if your pilot episode gets anywhere, the producer will have a shit load of notes and your show could end up being very different to how you had it; which of course could have a major effect on you future episode ideas.
So I would say, get the pilot sorted, with a bag load of future episode ideas and notes, so you know your idea has legs, then send it out and see what happens.
I'm working on my first episode of my first attempt at a sitcom now, and I've found I'm needing to have an idea what's going to happen in subsequent episodes, so I can introduce the secondary characters and locations I'll need further down the line.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ February 17 2009, 3:58 PM GMTI'm working on my first episode of my first attempt at a sitcom now, and I've found I'm needing to have an idea what's going to happen in subsequent episodes, so I can introduce the secondary characters and locations I'll need further down the line.
Good luck Kevin.
It all depends on whether you a writing a sitcom that has running story lines (Gavin & Stacey) or a sitcom that has just one-off episodes (IT Crowd). For the one-off one you could just write with one episode in mind although you should have loads of ideas for other ones to give it some legs.
Very simply - if a producer likes your story, they'll want to see if you can extend it to a full series and beyond. So just have a short paragraph on each subsequent episode. That's all you need for now - short paragraphs. Don't make the mistake of planning out every episode scene by scene. Not yet anyway. Just a very concise description of where you see each episode going is enough at this stage.
Very best of luck.
An agent I have worked with asked me to do a document bundling up the subsequent episode outlines (basically mapping an episode to its denouement), character breakdowns, overall series description etc. He called this the series bible but it's not really that (from what I understand, you do the bible proper when the series has been commissioned, so everyone is singing from the same songsheet, so to speak). This is submitted by agent alongside the sample script I have written.
Not sure if this is industry standard or not but other people I know have done the same thing. As other posters have suggested, the producer wants to see:
1. that the series premise has legs
2. that you - the writer - know how those legs work.
For a developing series (Gavin and Stacey), you definitely need to show in those episode outlines how the arc goes.