Writing the Pilot

My plan is to write screenplays as my exit ticket from teaching.So I wrote one. Actually, I've written 2 pilots. One for a 1/2 hour comedy (this book won't help you) and and other for a hour long Sci Fi Drama. This book was recommended to me after I paid someone the money I earned from working 4 detentions after school to read that hour long Sci Fi Drama.I should have read this book BEFORE I paid that woman all that cash, because I would have not sent her that garbage I wrote in the first place. And, for the cost of this book, I would've only had to work one detention, with enough left over to read this book in the Brewpub in the city where I teach High School English and Creative Writing...But I digress.I agree (SPOILER ALERT) that the last chapter should come first. You are not gonna get into writing for TV unless you already have an audience (Instagram Influencer? YouTube Dude? FB Flock Leader?), OR you end up filming the pilot yourself. Although, I do know enough former students that I might just give making this thing on my own another thought...No. I will make it in this industry. In the chapter before William breaks your heart and tells you you will NEVER MAKE IT, he talks about the question Why this Show? Why Now? And I believe that my show will break through the noise and be the one that gets noticed in at least ONE of the 20 or so contests/conferences I will enter it in. One of my former students, working in the industry, will have it come across his or her desk and say, "this needs to get into the right hands..." because my show is totally relevant given our current state of stasis, what with a global pandemic and a shift in our culture caused by the impact a microscopic entity inflicts on our world.It is, after all, a matter of timing.And a lot of happy accidents.SO, yes... READ THIS FIRST. And KNOW that the chances of your pilot actually getting read by someone in the industry is akin to winning the lottery or being mauled by a Polar Bear in a small rural town in mid-Michigan.But, if your hour long drama has chosen you as the vehicle to tell it, then you owe it to your characters to do it right. And this book is a great place to start.

This author offers wisdom and insight and encouragement. This is not a ‘follow this template’ type of book as other reviewers have noted. But his advice, such as starting with the ‘fun,’ feels extremely helpful and practical even so. The feeling as one reads is that his insights are based on long years of experience and one senses that what is being said in this book isn’t necessarily being covered in other TV writing books.To me, the last chapter feels tacked on. As if the author got really down (or drunk) and added it in a moment of bitterness. Some might say he is telling it like it is, but why write a book that attempts to help then throw all that encouragement out the window in this last chapter? I loved his tone throughout the book, funny, conversational, let’s all agree on this point, type of reader-author interaction. There are hints of what feels like slight bitterness (JJ Abrams ‘riding the wave as long as he could,’), but it works.Until, the last chapter when the bitterness takes over.He should have added a bottom line: if you love this kind of writing, write the best pilot you have in you. Then learn from that one and write another. No one person can say doing what you love is a waste of time. My brother sent a spec script in and ended up writing on a top rated tv show for 7 years then landed a multi million dollar contract to write in Hollywood. From one spec script. This story might be rare but good writing is good writing and Swanson may not be looking for recipes for TV dinners but writers who can offer content will always matter.

I'm a novelist, not a screenwriter. I've always been mad when books on how to write a novel reference movies or television shows.Novels are NOT movies or TV shows, especially novels that are part of a series. Novels generally have more complex stories than movies. Often, a lot of what your character or characters are thinking and feeling about events that are happening make up significant portions of a novel. You don't have all the visuals, the pulse-pounding music, of movies to tell your story.But books on novel-writing aren't about writing a series either. They're very heavy on things like the Hero's Journey and character arcs. If they do address series, it's usually a limited series like Lord of the Rings. The arc lasts for three or five or maybe even ten books, but there's always an end.Not all series are limited, particularly mystery series. After writing one series which I abandoned before it was done, and a second that, after six books, had resolved my MC's main internal conflict, meaning there wasn't a whole lot of reason for the series to continue, I started puzzling about what made an open-ended series work?Sheepishly, I started looking at books on how to write a TV series. After all, some TV series last for years, sometimes decades. I'm thinking Gunsmoke and the original Law and Order. That's how I found this book.This book addresses all the issues I was looking at. It isn't just about writing the pilot script, but about how you construct a series that's sustainable. The author keeps mentioning 100 episodes. It's stimulating lots of ideas to enhance the original premise I'd come up with for the next series of novels I want to write. There are plenty of examples of series that worked and series that didn't. Moreover, it explains the WHY.If you're going to write a series of any kind, I highly recommend this book.

I could go on and on about why this book was a great read for me. In a nutshell, this is a great book for anyone who wants to cut to the chase and come away with invaluable information. It's probably the first book I've read cover to cover without skimming in more than 10 years. I enjoyed it! The takeaways were astute, in step with the times, and motivating. DEFINITELY worth a read!

I thought that Writing the Pilot and the Ella Clah script which was extensively mentioned -- and is available as a separate book -- thoroughly described all that is necessary for one to tackle the design of and the writing of a pilot, from which to extrapolate a TV series. References, such as the Rockford Files, Columbo and Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- although fairly historical, in comparison to the more contemporary Deadwood and Breaking Bad -- are very relevant.

The writing is great — lean and swift and punchy. The ideas are.... well they’re a theory about how to write a show. A good theory. Not the only theory or even necessarily the truth, but one man’s truth artfully expressed. And consequently thought-provoking.

One thing I should say is that the book is mostly from the author's perspective so I understand his views and his point. I'm a little disappointed with the lacks of examples, there's mostly talks about other TV shows and the most basic all writers mostly already should know about while purchasing this book. I recommend to read it, but other than that.A little disappointed.

Intelligently written but this is a long thoughtful essay rather than a practical book. It is 90 pages long and thinner than a single DVD case. At £7.00, I was disappointed.

A real insight into the differences in TV and film scripts. For the first time I truly understand what a good series has to have: legs, character, central conflict and location. Doesn't offer a lot of hope but hay ho.