Right - I've got the sit - I've got the characters for my Comedy Drama. You don't need to know what they are but they will involve people in relationships and circumstances in their lives.
How about some suggested storylines.
Storylines
They know one of them is French, but none of them is really sure who it is.
It's like a xenophobic version of cluedo. In the first episode one of them confesses to liking garlic, but is it a double bluff? Tune in to next week's exciting installment to find out.
I'll think of something more interesting after I've finished this script...
Serious question.....isn't that something you should think up yourself?
I dunno, seems a little unbelieveable to me. Hobbits are never lonely.
Quote: Pete @ July 22 2008, 11:35 PM BSTSerious question.....isn't that something you should think up yourself?
Don't be stupid. You know I'll get hundreds of ridiculous ideas but one might
just work.
Who's going to say I'll use ut anyway? Honestly!
Ooh - looks like a good idea there though.
Quote: Griff @ July 22 2008, 11:36 PM BSTLet's ask Plotshot.
Plotshot says...
Our hero, a lonely hobbit playing violin for the pigeons, lives in Elizabethan London and is mad about sport. One day the hobbit meets a drug dealing supermarket checkout girl. Together they try to stop a friend marrying the wrong guys. Along the way they survive driving off a cliff and in the end they become lost in the jungle.
It really works!
Quote: David Chapman @ July 22 2008, 11:18 PM BSTHow about some suggested storylines.
Ok, what about a storyline where a 'war crimes suspect' character goes on the run for 10 years, stays in a densely populated city teaching alternative medicine whilst also regularly contributing to a magazine.
Actually, no-one would buy that. Too unbelievable.
Quote: Flaner @ July 23 2008, 12:05 AM BSTOk, what about a storyline where a 'war crimes suspect' character goes on the run for 10 years, stays in a densely populated city teaching alternative medicine whilst also regularly contributing to a magazine.
Actually, no-one would buy that. Too unbelievable.
And also grows a ridiculous beard and an original comb-over?
No chance!
Quote: David Chapman @ July 22 2008, 11:18 PM BSTHow about some suggested storylines.
Do you want us to write it for you too???
No, that isn't an offer. 
Your own ideas are always the best.
Plus:
Characters should really derive the plot for you. Plots only happen the way they happen because your characters react to a situation or make a choice, and those reactions or choices are inevitably determined by character. For a writer, character is king. Everything derives from character. Their relationships, their choices, their situations.
Put 2 different characters in the same hostage situation and you'll end up with two completely different stories because each individual reacts in different ways to the same initial plot-initiating event.
Only you know the characters, so only you can write a plot true to those characters.
I always think it would be quite interesting to create some characters, and a basic story outline, and then get two or three writers to actually write a script based on that. You'd get wildly different results despite starting from the same point.
Quote: Griff @ July 23 2008, 11:16 AM BSTIsn't that what happens in Torchwood ? The same story written by different writers with differently shit results every week ?
And Star Trek. The Radio Times gave up and just started giving a generic description: "The crew of the Enterprise encounters some hostile aliens."
To be fair, almost any show, no matter how good, establishes a formula and sticks to it. That's one of the reasons we keep tuning back into them.
Maybe if they gave them ridges on their bottoms instead.