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A Friend-of-the-Blog is writing a spec pilot that he described as Friday Night Lights in a _____ (noun omitted to protect his idea). He recently asked me a question about plotting this pilot. He wanted to know how much plot to put in those first few pages versus how much pure character development. As I think about this now, it occurs to me that there’s no reason that those of you writing spec pilots can’t take advantage of the same system I recommend for those of you writing specs for established shows. By which I mean: look at an example.

If you want your pilot to have the feel of Friday Night Lights… why not look at the FNL pilot? How did they establish the mood, story, characters when they were at square one? There’s nothing wrong with learning from those writers who’ve gone before you. A quick look at ebay reveals there’s a copy of that very script for sale, and that’s after a two-second search. For all I know, the script, or a transcript, is available elsewhere on line for free.

Want your spec pilot to have the mood of House? Grey’s Anatomy? Ugly Betty? I would highly recommend taking a squint at those shows’ pilots. Maybe you’ll like what you see, maybe not, but you’ll certainly learn a lot from contemplating why those shows’ creators made the choices they did in introducing their premises and characters. Don’t lift scenes or words, obviously, but check out where they start their story, how early they establish back stories, how soon the central hook of the show is made evident… all that good stuff is right there to be studied.

Lunch: a chicken salad sandwich from that cute little grocery store in the canyon on Beverly Glen.

Reading a spec pilot can be hard work. You have to figure out a lot – What’s the tone of this? What’s the heart of this story about? What’s going on? And who are all these people? As a writer of spec pilots you want — you NEED — to make the reader’s job as easy as possible. One of the ways you can help is through the way you name your characters.

I hate picking up a script and realizing that I’m going to have to keep Mike, Bill, Jim, Tom and Greg separate and distinct in my mind. It’s just so much easier if I’m dealing with Graydon, Javier, Mr. Vargas, Squeaky and Security Guard. Don’t you think?

Obviously, that was an exaggerated example. But tagging characters in a variety of ways will help make the names more memorable. If it’s done with a light hand, giving them names that help us remember some characteristic of theirs will really help make it easy on your reader. The bad guy host in The Running Man was named Damon Killian. That is debatably a bit too much, but, geez, it sure makes it easy to remember he’s a bad guy.

For a much subtler approach, look at Pride and Prejudice. Who’s more level-headed? Kitty or Jane? Who’s the prude? Georgiana or Mary?

The ironic name can also work, of course, since irony is another grappling hook that memory can seize onto. “Harmony,” one of our great Buffy characters, was an ironic name long before we revealed that she literally couldn’t carry a tune.

There’s a reason that soap opera characters tend to have names like Harper and Ridge and Skye. They have an awful lot of people running around, and they need to be able to hook into them with a memorable name. Take a cue from the soaps. They’ve been around, what, a hundred years now? They must know something.

And yet, if you’re interested in the adventures of two guys named John, check out this. The amazing John Hodgman and John Oliver (you know them both from The Daily Show among other things) are going to be playing Scrabble for charity later this week. You can help them reach their goal!

Lunch: left-over pizza. Onion and double-pineapple. I’ve started ordering pizza with no cheese and extra sauce. It’s actually great.

Oh my! I’m still recovering from the massively successful Mutant Enemy Day picket at Fox today. Did I meet every one of you, Gentle Readers? Because it feels as though I did. What a turn-out! Joss was, I know, impressed and moved by the support, as were all of us, both Mutants and Enemies. Thanks so much to all of you who came from nearby and from very very far away to show your support. It means a lot to us personally, and it makes an impact in the struggle as well. Knowing the fans are behind the writers makes it possible for us to persevere as these negotiations drag on.

Lots of people thanked me for the writing advice I dispense here. Allow me to point a finger off-stage to someone else who is giving excellent advice. I recently stumbled across the book “Writing The TV Drama Series,” by Pamela Douglas, and it’s great. I totally recommend it. Pamela has loads of experience as a working writer and she generously lays it all out and includes input as well from a number of “guest speakers,” including my current boss, Ron Moore of Battlestar Galactica.

One of the big reasons I recommend this book is because it’s so spankingly current. The shift away from four acts to five or more, the move from specs of produced shows to spec pilots… she covers it all. I don’t know Pamela personally, but I’m darned impressed.

Once more… thank you for this morning’s picket. What a glorious thing.

Lunch: grilled artichoke, chocolate-dipped fruit

I have just returned tonight from attending a screening/Q-and-A honoring Larry Gelbart. He’s amazing. If you don’t recognize the name (although I think you do), check him out at imdb and then come back. He said many fascinating things, but the one that I tucked into my brain for later examination was a statement he made about the version of M*A*S*H that had no laugh track (available on DVD and in broadcasts aired in the UK). He commented that in the no-laugh version, Hawkeye came across as “less of a wise-ass and more of a cynic.” Isn’t that a fascinating distinction? I’ve got an instinctive understanding of the two categories, but I’m enjoying trying to articulate exactly what separates them. I think it’s that a wise-ass adopts his attitude in part because of the reaction he gets from others around him, while the same attitude is woven deeper into the fibers of a genuine cynic. Yes? Have you got a Hawkeye-character in your spec pilot? Which is he/she, a wise-ass or a cynic? It’s fun to do minute character parsings like this, and it can really help you develop and distinguish characters.

At the Gelbart event, I was delighted to run into a number of people I knew including my old boss from Ellen (and colleague from Dinosaurs), the incredible Tim Doyle. Tim is another graduate of the Disney Writing Fellowship, having been part of the program in its very first year of existence. The program has had a fine record of producing writers who go on to have long and creative careers, and I hope to see this tradition continue.

Strike:

Special thanks today go to Brijanna (forgive me if I have the spelling wrong, as I don’t have it in front of me at the moment), who brought sweet treats and an even sweeter letter to me on the line this morning. Thank you, Brijanna (repeat spelling disclaimer here)!

Tomorrow is another Special Event Friday, and this one has me really excited. Here’s the official info: “Hollywood Homecoming, an event honoring the veteran writers, directors and stars of yesteryear who helped form and shape the unions we are fighting to protect, will be held this Friday, November 30th, from 10AM-12PM at Sony Studios in Culver City.” Doesn’t that sound amazing? In LA? Got a lunch hour? Come on by!

Lunch: A post-picket Chicken-and-cheese omelet and a waffle (The #5 at Roscoe’s Chicken ‘n’ Waffles). Brilliant.

Happy Thanksgiving! Are you full of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes? I know I am. Mmmm. So sleepy. And there’s still pumpkin pie that needs to be eaten! (By the way, the pie is entirely homemade. By this I mean that I mixed the spices and eggs into the canned pumpkin myself instead of buying the pre-mixed kind. So superior.)

So, I was sitting here, slipping quietly into a food coma, and I started randomly thinking about the nature of competitions. Every entrant in the Miss America competition wants to win, right? But do you root for all of them? Do you root for any of them? It’s not enough for someone to want something, or even deserve something. To really make us pull for someone, it helps a lot if they’ve overcome something. If a contestant can weave a compelling tale of childhood tragedy or mild disability, we root for them. We want them to be compensated.

This can tell us writers a lot about how to create characters that audiences root for — a crucial ingredient in populating your spec pilot. Just making a “good” person or a “deserving” person isn’t enough. A person with impeccable morals who has never had them tested isn’t that compelling. I’ve written here before about how Dr. House and Starbuck are both wonderful characters despite not being “likable” in the traditional sense. We understand them, and the tragedies that have led them to be the wonderful prickly souls that they are, and we want them to accomplish their goals as a result.

So give the main character in your spec script something that they want. Absolutely. But also give them a nice juicy obstacle to getting it. The audience will love them.

And allow me to particularly recommend the application of a special case of this — unrequited love, which instantly wins over any reader/viewer with its power. Got a character who’s a hard sell? Having a rough time in the swimsuit competition? Try a little fruitless yearning. Great stuff.

Lunch/Dinner: You know how it goes: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy and an experimental liaison with a broccoli salad that no one liked.

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