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PLOT-DRIVEN DRAMAS

I like to put television drama into two distinctive categories: plot-driven and character-driven. Plot-driven dramas — which are usually more along the lines of procedurals — like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — concentrate heavily on story. Character-driven dramas like Downton Abbey focus more on character. There are, of course, a few hybrids like The Good Wife, which straddle both. But, for the most part, most shows are either plot-driven or character-driven. For you to have the strongest portfolio possible, I would suggest you write one drama in each of these categories. This may sound easier to pull off than it actually is. As you will soon see, both plot-driven dramas and character-driven dramas come with separate but equal challenges. Most writers seem to prefer working in one arena over the other. So where do you fit in? You can easily figure that out by examining the kind of TV shows you find most appealing. Are you someone who doesn’t miss an episode of The Masters of Sex? If so, you are likely more drawn to character-driven dramas. On the other hand, if you find yourself absolutely intrigued by the “who dunnit” shows like CSI, then plot-driven drama is likely more your cup of tea.

Because you will ultimately need two drama scripts, I suggest you write whichever kind of show you have an affinity for first. Once you have the experience of one completed drama script under your belt, it will be a tad easier to spread your wings and write in the opposite arena, which may not come quite as naturally to you. Why am I suggesting you write one of each? First off, just like producers in comedy can be picky about what they like to read, so can producers in drama. A producer on CSI may not be a huge fan of Dr. McDreamy, and so even if you were to write the most perfect Grey’s Anatomy spec, it might not resonate. Second while producers of plot-driven dramas will certainly read character-driven specs and vice versa, I think you’d stand a better chance getting hired on CSI with an NCIS or a Criminal Minds. It just seems more apples to apples. The same goes for character-driven dramas. That’s why I feel that if you have a spec in each of these categories you will pretty much cover all of your bases for possibly getting hired.

So let’s take a look at plot-driven drama. I’m sure you’ve seen the long-running Law & Order: SVU, which falls under the umbrella of the enormously successful Law and Order franchise. (If you haven’t seen this well-written drama, shame on you! I can’t emphasize enough that you need to be familiar with what’s on TV…especially shows that are hits.) SVU is centered on a group of New York City detectives who work in the fictionalized elite Special Victims Unit of the NYC Police Department. Each week, the detectives investigate brutal, sexually based crimes. Every episode revolves around a particularly heinous crime. The show usually begins with a crime — or the discovery of a crime. From that point every scene going forward is about the detectives trying to solve the crime and nail the perp, so that the victim(s) get justice. Rarely do we cut away from the story in order to go inside the personal lives of the characters.

But let me be crystal clear about something. All successful television shows have well-defined characters. It’s the reason viewers tune in. Thus, I am not suggesting in any way, shape or form that plot-driven dramas have dull, poorly constructed characters. Not at all. In fact, usually just the opposite is true; the characters in plot-driven dramas are completely fleshed out and defined. They have backstories and quirks, and definitive points of view. But in plot-driven dramas this information gets sprinkled in over time, and usually emerges because of a case. Take Criminal Minds, for example. In my own mind, this is, hands down, probably one of the best-written shows on television. It’s brilliant. (Again, if you want to write drama and haven’t seen this show, you need to get on the stick.) Criminal Minds follows a team of agents who work in the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), which is an arm of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. All of the characters are rich and interesting. Take agent Spencer Reid (played by Matthew Gray Gubler). He’s young and cool. He’s also a genius with countless Ph.D.s and a handful of other assorted degrees. On a deeper, more personal note Reid’s mother (played by Jane Lynch) is a schizophrenic who is institutionalized. Now, if this were a character-driven drama, there would, perhaps be many episodes that revolve around this storyline. But, in a plot-driven-drama, the storylines will center on whatever particular case the professionals are working on. That story will drive the episode and the personal stuff will be worked in. Even if there is an episode when Reid goes to see his Mom, the main story will still be about the criminal(s) the team is tracking. See the difference?

While we are on the subject of characters and Criminal Minds, if you want proof positive that quirky characters are alive and well in plot-driven dramas, look at Penelope Garcia (played by Kristen Vangsness). She’s the team’s technical analyst, which may sound a tad dry but every time Garcia is on camera, we know we are in for some fun. Garcia is not exactly the typical FBI employee. A genius at computer hacking, the FBI hired her for her skills. Garcia even looks out of place. She dresses funky and cool. We like her because she gets necessary information fast…sometimes before the agents even ask. Garcia’s openly flirtatious and often delivers hysterical one-liners. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find some pain. An only child, both her parents were killed by a drunk driver when she was a teenager. Again, this personal character information gets peppered in. It gets delivered in bits and pieces in various episodes and often over the course of many seasons. Why? Because in plot-driven dramas, it’s all about the story. The story usually focuses heavily on a certain case. Who wants to put the brakes on an investigation, just when we are closing in on a killer to stop and talk about Garcia’s childhood? That would only serve to stall the main dramatic action of the crime story, which in turn would frustrate the audience. Thus, this important character information comes to us in bits and pieces, while the main story drives the show forward.

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES

For plot-driven dramas, a good place to find stories is the newspaper. Law & Order, one of the longest running dramas of all-time (1990–2010), actually bragged that its stories were “ripped from the headlines.” That was part of the show’s appeal. This doesn’t mean, however, that the story that lands in your script should be identical to the one that actually happened in real life. As Dick Wolf, creator of Law & Order has been clear, the writers took the headlines, but that’s it. The rest of the story was of their own making. If you take a story from the headlines, you’ll want to follow suit. Why? To start with, if the story is big enough, the entire world already knows how it turned out. A story where we know the ending before the episode even begins isn’t going to be that compelling. Not to mention that if your story is too on the money with what actually happened, you could leave yourself vulnerable to a lawsuit. The key is to take a real story and make it your own by using your imagination and dramatizing it. Take the seeds of what happened in real life and tell it through the show’s characters, adding in your own plot twists and turns.

Let me illustrate how this is done with an episode of Law & Order: SVU. You probably remember the Anthony Weiner scandal. Weiner is a former U.S. Representative from New York, whose political career came crashing down when news broke that the married Congressman man was at the center of a sexting scandal. He resigned from Congress. A short time later, he decided to make a comeback and run for Mayor of New York City… only to have details of yet another sexting scandal become public. As the country snickered, SVU turned the countless headlines into an episode called “October Surprise.” The episode revolves around a mayoral candidate Alejandro Munoz who ends up at the center of a sexting scandal. Turns out he sexted some sexually explicit pictures of himself to several women, one of whom turns out to be a 15-year-old girl. When the girl sends a naked picture of herself back to Munoz, it crosses the line into child porn. A couple of things worth pointing out here. While Weiner may have lacked judgment in his actions, he did not break any laws. But, for this story to work on SVU, laws had to be broken. There had to be “special victims.” So by making one of the recipients a 15-year-old girl, the writers made the story fit their show. To up the ante, the writers made Munoz a close childhood friend of Assistant District Attorney Barba. The seemingly simple detail of adding a personal connection with one of the show’s regular characters made the story more compelling as Barba is emotionally conflicted. He’s caught between his friend and his job. Making the story personal to a character, or giving a character an emotional connection to a story raises the stakes.

In watching this episode, there is no doubt what headline the story derived from, yet if you took the real story and put it beside the SVU story, you would see that they are actually very, very different.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATING AUTHENTIC WORLDS

Without a doubt, plot-driven dramas can be trickier to write than character-driven dramas. The reason for this is that with the plot-driven drama, the writer usually has to create a world where he or she doesn’t normally reside. Most writers aren’t cops or lawyers or doctors or forensic specialists, etc. However, when you write a script that involves characters that work in these professions, you must become an expert. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of doing the research and getting it right. If you do not, I can promise you that the people who read your script will see holes in it. Once that happens, you will lose credibility as a writer, and more than likely you won’t be hired.

I have been asked many times, “don’t shows have experts on staff that will take care of the piddley little details?” The answer is “yes.” Shows do have consultants at their disposal to check procedures and facts, and to give advice. But this is only for the scripts that are going into production. In other words, staff writers have this luxury. Freelancers do not. You have to come up with the right stuff on your own.

GETTING THE FACTS: HOW TO RESEARCH COPS, LAWYERS, DOCTORS, AND OTHERS

Some writers love research. I must admit that I am not one of them. However, I force myself to do it and do it well, because experience has shown me time and time again that good research can make the difference between a great story and a mediocre one. While researching professions and procedures can seem a bit overwhelming at first, once you delve in, you will come up with story points and ideas that you never would have thought of, simply because you don’t normally live in that kind of world. With each new fact you find, you will get more and more jazzed about your story and script.

There are many relatively painless ways to research various professions that might be in your script, depending on what they are. If it’s a doctor or a lawyer you are looking for, chances are you probably already know one. If not, ask your friends if they know of any. Cops are also fairly easy to get in touch with. In larger cities, police have divisions that are dedicated to serving the press. When placing these calls, ask for the Public Affairs Office. Tell them you are writing a script and you have a couple of questions that you would like to ask. Most likely, they will find someone to help you. The same is also true for hospitals, should you be looking for a certain kind of specialist.

When contacting these individuals, be sure to have a short list of questions ready. These experts are professionals who are extremely busy. They aren’t sitting at their desk, drinking coffee, waiting for your phone call, and they certainly don’t have time to brainstorm your story with you. So be prepared to ask specific procedural questions that will help ensure your script’s authenticity.

Sometimes police will let you go on what’s known as a drive-along. Not all police departments will let you do this, but some will. Generally, you sign a waiver stating that you know the dangers of going out on patrol as a civilian and that if anything were to happen, you (and your next of kin) would not hold the police responsible. This is a personal choice for all writers to make because, while you will usually be fine, your safety cannot be guaranteed. That said, I know many writers who have done this and come back with extremely rich stories that could not have been conceived simply by sitting in front of a computer screen. I can attest to the value of drivealongs, as I have had the opportunity to spend an unforgettable night with a special police unit in the heart of one of Boston’s most dangerous, crimeridden neighborhoods. I was with two cops, and we were accompanied by two bodyguards. Everyone had bullet-proof vests except me. I can tell you that what happens on our streets when the sun goes down defies imagination. It is not the stuff you read about in books and newspapers. If you decide you want to try to do this, I suggest you try doing it in a city if possible. In smaller towns, there is apt to be considerably less action.

If you are looking to specifically research the criminal mind and police procedure, there are a number of good crime reference books out there. I keep a couple on my bookshelf, and am surprised how often I actually refer to them. They cover everything from motive to police investigation and procedure to prosecution. You can find several pertinent medical journals as well. Get into the habit of asking family and friends for reference books as birthday and/or holiday gifts. This kind of information is wonderful to have at your fingertips.

Of course we all know perhaps the best and easiest way to get good research is the Internet. The one thing you have to be careful about when doing research on the Internet is to look carefully at where the information is coming from. Make sure the author of the article is credible and that the information is in fact current and accurate. For example, I’sd assume a recent article from The New York Times or Time magazine is well-researched. But, I wouldn’t automatically assume articles written by a blogger named “Moe” from Micronesia had been completely fact-checked.

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

If you are having a hard time finding exactly what you need, you may want to try calling a professor who specializes in whatever it is you are looking for. For example, if you have a legal question and haven’t been able to track down a lawyer, you might try a law school. Usually, you can find professors by looking in the faculty section of the college’s web site or by calling the school and asking for a specific department. Again, these people tend to have busy schedules, but you may just find a professor in his or her office who is willing to quickly tell you what you are looking for, or at least point you in the right direction. Again, be respectful of that person’s time. Keep the questions to a bare minimum, and don’t keep calling back as if the professor is your own personal script consultant.

THE WGA

The Writers Guild of America is another excellent resource for research. You can log on to their web site (www.wga.org) and look under “writer’s tools.” There will be a link called “fyi/ask the expert.” When you click on this link, a list will come up with contact info for experts in almost every area imaginable from the Air Force to Psychiatry/Forensic to Wilderness Tracking and Survival. And here is the good news: the expert listed in each category has already agreed in advance to offer information about his/her field for the purpose of writing authentic scripts. You don’t have to be a member of the Guild to use this service.

CREATING POWERFUL PROTAGONISTS AND ANTAGONISTS

Good drama is comprised of protagonists and antagonists. It is very easy to keep them straight. Generally, protagonists are the people we root for. The first three letters of the word describe how we feel about them; we are “pro” these characters. They are usually the heroes or heroines of the story. A well-drawn protagonist will always have a solid agenda and clear-cut goals.

An antagonist is much like it sounds. It is that which antagonizes the protagonist. A strong and interesting antagonist also has a set of goals and, in a perfect world, stands in the way of the protagonist achieving his or her objectives. To break it into its simplest form, you can think of the protagonist/antagonist as good vs. evil. How you play protagonists and antagonists off each other is key in writing a successful drama.

Protagonists and antagonists do not have to be human. Lassie, one of the longest running TV series in U.S. had a Collie for a protagonist. Think about the blockbuster movie Jaws. Clearly, in that film Chief Brody was the protagonist. Now, ask yourself who was the antagonist? Of course it was the shark. Both Brody and the shark had easily identifiable conflicting goals. Brody wanted to kill the shark and make the ocean safe for the summer visitors and residents of Amity Island. The shark wanted to stay alive, swim around the ocean and eat people.

Stories can have more than one protagonist and antagonist. Let’s go back to Criminal Minds for a moment. In that series, the protagonists are the agents in the BAU. The antagonists are the criminals, i.e. the cold-blooded psychopaths. The FBI agents want to protect the public by taking the bad guys off the street. The criminals they track want to keep killing and committing crimes without getting caught. So it becomes a clash between protagonist and antagonist, and the viewer sits on the edge of his/her seat waiting to see who will ultimately win.

When creating protagonists and antagonists, try to make them equally smart. In an ideal world, you want to create a battle of wits, where, while we know one of them will be victorious, we aren’t necessarily sure who will come out on top or how. Also, pay close attention to keep both your protagonists and antagonists proactive. Nothing is more interesting than someone who wants something and will stop at nothing to get it. On that note, if you can make the story personal to either the protagonist or the antagonist, that will also up the ante.

BUILDING CONFLICT AND JEOPARDY

Good drama revolves around conflict and jeopardy. The best way to build these elements into your script is to give your characters specific goals and points of view that clash. Make sure that each character has an agenda and is willing to do anything it takes to accomplish that agenda. Your antagonist should come between your protagonist and his or her goal. Once this happens, your protagonist must find another way to meet that goal. Whatever it is that your protagonist wants, your antagonist must purposefully and repeatedly step in the way, thus upping the ante, which in turn ups the action and drama.

It’s like a game of cat and mouse. In order to create tension, you have to keep raising the stakes. What happens at the beginning of your story looks bleak for your protagonist, and it only gets bleaker as you raise the stakes higher and higher. In the end, usually the protagonist achieves the goal and wins. Note: in drama the protagonist almost always emerges a winner because that’s who the audience has been rooting for, which means that’s who we want to win. When the antagonist wins, the audience usually feels unsatisfied because evil has trumped good. And for most people, that’s unsettling.

ONE-HOUR DRAMATIC STRUCTURE

Traditionally, one-hour drama scripts have followed a four-act structure, and usually come in at about 55–59 pages. A few years back, some shows began to follow a five-act — and in some cases — a six-act structure. The reason they’re putting more Act Breaks in dramas is the same reason they’re doing it in comedies: money. Remember, Act Breaks coincide with commercial breaks. The more Act Breaks a show has, the more advertising dollars roll in. Personally, I am a fan of the four-act structure. It has a certain rhythm and balance, which gets thrown off when the acts are shorter and there are more commercials. Others must agree, as more shows seem to be going back to traditional four-act structure. That said, you must find out how many acts that the show you are writing has and follow suit. A word of caution: many dramas contain cold openings. Don’t make the mistake of counting a cold opening as an act.

For the purposes of this book, I am going to talk mainly about four-act structure. If your show has more acts, I would still suggest that you initially structure your story in four acts. It’s just easier. Once you have the story down, you can simply go back and insert the Act Breaks where you need them. If your story is structured correctly, it won’t be hard to find where the act breaks fall. As with comedy, each Act Break must end with a mini-cliff-hanger so the audience will hang in there with you through the commercials in order to see what’s going to happen next. Unlike comedy in which each act ends on a funny moment, in drama shows, each act should end on a dramatic beat. In a one-hour drama, clearly the most important Act Break falls at the end of the second act. This is where your biggest so-called cliff-hanger should come, and it must be a doozy of a moment with huge dramatic impact that holds enormous consequences for your characters.

The reason the end of the second act is so crucial is twofold. First, it generally falls on the half-hour. This is where you stand the greatest chance of losing viewers because they now have other choices. During the first Act Break, they aren’t as likely to stray because all of the other programs are already in progress, so they’d have to catch up. But, at the half hour, there are all kinds of new shows beginning, so if viewers aren’t totally digging your show, they will flip to something else. This can have major repercussions for you as a writer.

The Nielsen Ratings are not only broken down by the hour, but by the half hour as well. The worst thing that can happen to a drama writer is to have a larger audience in the first half hour than you have in the second half hour. What these numbers suggest to the network is that you had the audience — they tuned in and were ready to watch — but you couldn’t keep them. Needless to say, this does not bode well, especially if the network has “delivered” the audience to you by way of a good lead-in.

The second reason that you need a strong second Act Break is that at the top of the half hour the length of the commercial break is double what it is for any other Act Break. This means you need to double the reason for the audience to come back. The best way to ensure that they will hang in with you is to power up the dramatic tension and jeopardy. The idea is to leave viewers hanging, wondering what’s going to happen next.

SCRIPTS FOR CABLE VARY SLIGHTLY

More than likely you have noticed that dramas on cable networks like HBO and Showtime run without commercial breaks. Scripts for these shows reflect that in the way they are written. Like the show itself, the scripts go from beginning to end without Act Breaks. If you are writing one of these shows, you should follow the same format that they do. Even if you use that show as a sample for more traditional dramas, the producers will understand the reason you have not put in Act Breaks.

HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR PLOT-DRIVEN DRAMA

If you took a plot-driven drama and held it in one hand, and put a character-driven drama in the other hand, they’d look alike. They’d both have roughly the same number of pages and the format would be the same.

However, what’s inside each script is different structurally. The easiest way to structure your plot-driven drama is to think of it in terms of building blocks. The first block is the first scene. Often, though not always, in crime dramas the first scene reveals either the crime or the discovery of the crime. Consider that the first building block. Now you have to put another block on top of it, which is the next scene. This might be where the cops search the crime scene and find a clue. That scene would be your second building block, and where that clue takes them would be your third building block. One scene leads seamlessly to another, all eventually building to your Act Break.

Hour-long structure is much more complex than half hour. In plot-driven drama, it is fairly easy to get yourself tangled up along the way. To help you simplify your story, I suggest that your write it out scene-by-scene to the best of your ability, from start to finish including Act Breaks. Then, get out a pad of paper and a pen. Starting with scene one, write down the main action that happens in that scene. Try to fit it into one sentence. Then do the same for your next scene and the next scene after that, all the way through to the end. Now, go back and read the sentences out loud in progression. Do they tell a story? Is this story making sense? Is it moving forward in a way that is dramatic and interesting? If you do this, it will help you find any holes in your story and it should also make you aware of scenes that are redundant.

HOW INDEX CARDS CAN HELP (AND WHY STUDIOS ORDER SO MANY)

Walk into the office of any drama writer and it is quite possible you will find a large cork board with index cards tacked up all over it. Writers commonly use index cards to help them break stories. Each scene is written on a single index card. The cards are then tacked up in order, usually by acts. This allows the writer to physically visualize how the story is coming together. Let’s say the writer is reviewing the story and he realizes that a piece of information was revealed too quickly. He can then take down that index card and reinsert it further into the story. Once the writer is satisfied that all the scenes are where he wants them to be and that the story is working, he can then start to write the outline, by transferring the information on the board into his computer.

CHECKLIST FOR PLOT-DRIVEN DRAMA

If you have answered “yes” to the above questions, you are likely on your way to developing a good story for your plot-driven drama.