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02/06/2007: Meredith is the Drunk One -- You Know the One I Mean


I don't normally like to tell tales from the writers' room in this blog, gentle readers. But I do have to let you in on this. Every day, at 4:15, guess what happens in the writers' room at Eureka? Automatically, apparently unbidden, bowl after bowl of hot fresh buttery microwave popcorn is loaded onto the table in the writers' room. Every day.

That is just *one* of the reasons that you guys should keep polishing those spec scripts!

Speaking of your spec, let's talk stage directions for a moment. You've probably figured out that I'm a big fan of them. I'm always telling you to make them poetic, to use them to convey a sense of style, of fluid storytelling, to do the work that visuals do in a produced episode. However, they do slow down a read, and you need to be careful not to overuse them.

Let's imagine, for example, that you have scripted the following moment (this is adapted from a moment in last week's episode of The Office):

MICHAEL
Wouldn't you ladies like a male stripper at your party?

ANGELA
No. That would be totally inappropri--

VOICE (O.C.)
Shut the hell up, Angela!

The camera finds the owner of the voice -- it's MEREDITH.

In my opinion, this reads better without all the information about how you intend it to be shot -- without the indication that the speaker is off-camera, and without the stage direction. Like this:

MICHAEL
Wouldn't you ladies like a male stripper at your party?

ANGELA
No. That would be totally inappropri--

MEREDITH
Shut the hell up, Angela!

The joke still plays, and it reads cleaner, quicker, and I think funnier, without the indicated direction. I think the second option is preferable, even though the reveal of the usually quiet Meredith was very funny in the produced episode.

It can be tempting to use directions all the time, in order to transfer the episode as it exists in your head, into someone else's head, but you have to be careful not to try to stuff too much in there. You're auditioning for the role of writer, after all, not director.

Lunch: chicken piccata with mashed potatoes and broccoli