Screenwriter Support: "How Do I Choose a Pilot Story?"
Let's talk pilot story structure options, and how much story you should prep for your series pitch
I’m going to start sharing some Q&A from subscribers (and sometimes I’ll go to my vault of emails from writers I’ve been talking to throughout the years, like this one). If you have a question I can help you with, fill out this form and I’ll do my best to get it into a future post. Note: paid subscribers will be prioritized since their support helps me do this.
Today’s question comes from the vault. A then emerging writer friend getting their start reached out after a Director of Development responded positively to a pitch document, and wanted to know more about the pilot and the series. They specifically asked for a little more detail on the plot of the pilot and the overall season arc to come.
Questions:
Do you happen to have any advice for choosing/pitching the pilot plot? This is not entirely an episodic show. The way I pitched it, there's certain serialized aspects. But there is still a story of the week format, even if it's the B-story. (Maybe I'm overthinking it.)
How much should I know/pitch about the overall arc of the series? I mean, Modern Family went for 11 seasons!!
My thoughts:
Without reading the doc you shared with them for context, I'd guess that what they want is less about the story in terms of beat by beat plot and more about the central tension/dilemma of the series. This is usually what the story of the pilot revolves around because the pilot needs to establish the core conflict that will move the series forward week to week. It's also called a story engine because it's a definable conflict that drives the story forward from episode to episode. You keep adding conflict, characters, goals to this same core tension/dilemma (or engine) and the story drives forward on a connected path. The goal is to have a clear story engine, so when they read or hear it they say "Oh yeah, I can already tell that there are 100 different kinds of episodes exploring different aspects of that conflict".
When you define a story engine, that means you can start to explore the realistic consequences of fanning the flames. That's how I think about multiple season arcs. It's not about throwing some crazy new idea in that sounds cool and unexpected (and especially not one that sends the story into an entirely new direction disconnected from what the audience has been loving so far), it's about exploring the grounded consequences of choices that make the next set of choices even harder.
When it comes to choosing a story for a pilot, a good place to start is what kind of structure you're using to introduce the audience to the series - is this a PREMISE PILOT (by the end of this episode’s events, the premise of the series has been established and kicks off. More common for serialized shows because you need to establish why this ongoing story starts now) or NON-PREMISE PILOT (essentially starting the season with an episode that could’ve been the 2nd, 3rd, 8th, or 15th episode of the series. More common for episodic shows, since things tend to mostly reset by the end and we aren’t following a serialized story). Here's a good article that talks through the general ways most shows use pilots: https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/9666-3-types-of-tv-pilots-writers-need-to-choose-from/
My writing partner and I usually opt for a hybrid approach to a Premise Pilot and a Non-Premise Pilot. For a three-act pilot, we use the first act to establish our premise, and then treat acts 2 and 3 as if they are an example of the kind of story this show delivers in future episodes after the pilot. The goal is to hook your audience early (get to the premise already!), and then show them right away how fun it will be to watch each episode because you're already in one.
Another way to think about it: act one is your pilot, acts 2 and 3 are episode 2.
Now the pressure is off on telling the perfect pilot story, because all that setup is condensed into act 1, and then the rest of the episode you get to have fun telling one of the many stories your show gets to explore based on your story engine.
As far as the arc for the series, I think this should be a logical heightening of the story engine (so you need to establish that first). If each episode explores a different facet of your defined conflict, then each season introduces a shift in dynamics that re-energizes the story engine and allows you to start exploring the next step of your central conflict/dilemma. It's generally good to have an idea of what 4 seasons could look like. Not every individual episode in those seasons, but those high level dynamic shifts that open up more and more stories for these characters in a way that feels new, but connected to what we’ve seen already.
Example: season one is all about your characters stuck in a house together while the teenage daughter tries to get into a private school to get a better life than her mom. By the end of the season, she doesn't get into the school she wanted - but she does get into a rival school that her grandma applied to for her. So now season 2 we still have the same kinds of family conflict, but we ALSO get stories at this new school. The characters kind of get what they want, but not in the way they expect, which means there's more stories to explore as the world begins to open up.
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