The TV Writer's Workbook: A Creative Approach to Television Scripts »

Ellen Sandler has over twenty years of experience in the TV writing business. She was Co-Executive Producer and writer on the Emmy-winning hit series Everybody Loves Raymond, and has written for over 25 prime-time network television series, including Taxi, Kate and Allie, and Coach. She is a highly-regarded script consultant, and in addition to her Television Writing workshops in LA and NYC, is a frequent featured speaker at schools and universities across the country.

Why is TV writing different from any other kind of writing? How will writing a spec script open doors? What do I have to do to get a job writing for TV? Writing for television is a business. And, like any business, there are proven strategies for success. In this unique hands-on guide, television writer and producer Ellen Sandler shares the trade secrets she learned while writing for hit shows like Everybody Loves Raymond and Coach. She offers concrete advice on everything from finding a story to getting hired on a current series.

Filled with easy-to-implement exercises and practical wisdom, this ingenious how-to handbook outlines the steps for becoming a professional TV writer, starting with a winning script. Sandler explains the difference between “selling” and “telling,” form and formula, theme and plot.
Discover:

• A technique for breaking down a show style so you’re as close to being in the writing room as you can get without actually having a job there
• The 3 elements for that essential Concept Line that you must have in order to create a story with passion and consequence
• Mining the 7 Deadly Sins for fresh and original story lines
• Sample scripts from hit shows
• In-depth graphs, script breakdown charts, vital checkpoints along the way, and much, much more!

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     xiii
"How I Got into TV"     1
What You Need to Know     11
The Spec Script     13
Read to Write     23
What You Need to Do     35
What's a Story     37
Finding Your Story     48
Theme/Plot     61
Synopsis     68
Turning Ideas into Stories     72
The Plot Thickens     78
Treatment     84
Story Structure     91
Rewriting Your Treatment     100
The Outline     112
The Script     128
Rewriting Again, and Again, and Again     140
The Hearing Test     157
Final Polish     163
Looks Matter     167
I've Put This Off Long Enough     175
What You Need to Know Now That You Have a Script     181
The Pitch     183
The Business     200
Now That You Know Some People     207
Agents and Managers     216
To Live and Die in L.A.     226
But What if I Don't Want to Die in L.A.?     229
Tech Support     230
How ManyProducers Does It Take...?     232
To Serve and Protect     237
And Another Thing     239
Last Words     244
Showbiz Meanings for Regular Words-A Selective Glossary     247
The Evolution of a Sitcom Script     252
Spec Script Competitions     259
Sources     267
Recommended for the Writer's Library     275
Index     278