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06/20/2008: Breakless Breaking


I have never written for a show without commercial breaks. So when Adam in West Hollywood writes in to ask about structuring episodes of Showtime or HBO shows that air without breaks, I find myself blinking in momentary confusion. He's finding that he's having a hard time structuring a spec because he misses the toeholds that act breaks provide. Yes, I would too.

In standard television writing, you rely on those breaks when you're structuring your story. You generally begin with a sort of grid on your whiteboard or corkboard, with the acts arranged in empty rows or columns before any material is put up there.

I would guess that breaking a show without act breaks probably would be more like breaking a movie. There would be three acts and the breaks would be virtual. We could test this hypothesis by back-forming outlines for episodes of these shows. In fact, this is exactly what you should do, especially if you're writing a spec episode of a show that already exists. Make a little outline of all the episodes as you watch them, and see if there are story turns at anything like predictable intervals. Then structure your spec to match.

If you're writing a spec pilot for a show without act breaks, well, I know what I'd do. I'd break it with four acts, since that's what I'm most familiar with, and then just not indicate the breaks. Either that, or I'd do the same thing I said above -- analyze a show that already exists, then use their basic structure for my show. There is no need to reinvent anything here. People write these shows, and we can see what they've produced. Analyze the product and you can infer the process.

I've heard people say that they can sit down and come up with an outline just by "telling the story straight through," but I find this hard to imagine. My theory is that these people have internalized some sense of structure that they can apply without conscious thought, but that is still there.

I would always recommend against making an outline without something to structure it. And, obviously, I turn pale at the thought of starting to write without an outline at all.

Lunch: In 'n' Out burger