There are several kinds of serial dramas, from Jack Bauer's adventures in each epic day of "24", to the short 2, 3, 4 or even 6-part mini-series. What makes this kind of drama different from the episodic series is that there is essentially one main story or adventure that is followed through all of the episodes until it reaches a conclusion in the final episode. On the other hand, in the episodic series, each episode follows the same core group of characters and has a self-contained story which reaches a conclusion each week. Some series (such as "Grey's Anatomy") may have a 'serial element' where the audience will follow love stories which progress and develop though the series.
Some serials are written by one writer, others use a team of writers. In every case, though, is is essential to have a breakdown of the action, scene by scene for each episode.
Why is an Episode Outline Necessary?
A scene-by-scene breakdown of the episode is necessary for three reasons
- It allows the writer to analyse and visualise the dramatic flow of each episode
- It allows producers to see the proposed story development and discuss its potential and any changes that may be necessary
- It allows a scriptwriting team to work to a plan without wrecking continuity.
Developing Stories Across Several Episodes
It is easy, when dealing with drama on the large scale like this, to lose track of continuity and story development. To make the task easier, creating episode outlines can be broken into three distinct steps:
- Create storylines
- Analyse the drama of the storylines in parallel
- Construct the episodes
Create Storylines
A storyline is a step-outline development of each story thread. There will normally be one main story development and several sub-plots involving minor stories for central characters, or involving minor characters and providing dramatic or comic relief or counterpoint for the main story. A step outline is a scene by scene development which follows the story in an incremental progression of plot or character development. It is the same as an outline for a movie and differs only in terms of scale. Some sub-plots will have short, simple outlines. Each story should have a short description of each scene on a separate piece of paper or index card.
Analyse the Drama of the Storylines in Parallel
The next step is to examine all the story developments in parallel. One simple way to do this is by putting the index cards on corkboards across an office wall.
Start by taking the main story and making a line with its index cards from left to right with the main storyline going from beginning to end. This should provide the basis for the timeline which will govern the logical development and progression of all the other storylines.
Below the main storyline add scenes for the next biggest or most important storyline in their correct positions, using the passage of time or development of drama in the main storyline as a guide.
A picture begins to develop of where characters are, and what they are doing at any given time, which will inform your decisions about how and when to place the scenes appropriately for the sub-plots.
Continue to add the rows of index cards until all the subplots and story threads are visible. Now analyse the drama and look for conflicts concerning action or characters. You will begin to see problems which might mean bringing a subplot in earlier or postponing it until later. Eventually a picture will emerge about what story threads match and run easily and logically together.
Construct the Episodes
The final step is to divide the material into episodes and then construct a running order of scenes for the episode ensuring that there are dramatic high points at the appropriate points (ad-breaks or episode breaks).
Getting the dramatic shape of an episode is a complex task. It is not a simple matter of taking the scenes from the step-outlines and cutting them together like a patchwork quilt. The scenes on the index cards are the starting point, showing the rough story development: from that basic material, the episode should now be constructed as a single dramatic entity in order to be the best and most entertaining that it can be. Scenes from the index cards and various storylines will require to be combined, revised and re-thought - always remaining true to the essential story development, in order not to interfere with the continuity in episodes preceding or following.
Find out more about the basics of writing for stage and screen.
Janice Hally - Janice Hally has written more than 300 broadcast hours of prime-time TV drama in the UK, as well as fiction and non-fiction books.
