Squeezing It In

I'm applying to screenwriting graduate schools right now, so the Monk spec is on hiatus while I work on pilot scripts. The graduate programs seem to have more of an emphasis on making original work instead of specs, so I figure I should have more pilots to send them. Not working on the Ragnarok pilot I talked about earlier. That one needs tons of research before I can start.

I've written pilots before, but oh, it's so hard! Writing specs for existing shows is so much easier. You have a whole universe of material already available to you. In pilots, it's all from scratch. The style, the characters, the format, and all of the background material. That's the hard part. A pilot needs to feel like you're being thrust into a world that has existed long before you got there. At the same time, you have to be able to understand what's going on. BUT, you don't want to understand absolutely everything, because there have to be a few little mysteries to keep the viewers wanting to see the next episode.

The trouble I'm having right now is giving enough explanation and exposition of the situation and characters without bogging down my entire script. And keeping it to half an hour. Getting across information by showing not telling is always more entertaining, but darn if telling isn't easier to do. It's so tempting to just take a couple of pages and go "This is Marie! This is her past! These are her motivations! Enjoy!" Of course that would make for a train wreck of a script, it'd be so deliciously easy. If only easy equaled good. Until then, it's work work work!

On the good side, I think if I spend enough time on this it could come out really well. That's another thing about pilots, is that you don't know where they're going. With a spec script, you know that in the end you want it to sound like how the actual show sounds, so you have some idea of what the final product will feel like. With a pilot you should have some kind of idea for how you want it to feel, but I think you also need to be flexible and let the project go where it wants to.

Well, back to writing! I'm almost done with the first draft, which is exciting! Wish me luck!