![]() ![]() It’s clear from the Beat Sheet that “ Debate 109” uses the A-B-C story structure. Figure out what your major story beats are and when they occur–Trust me, it’s better to know these things before your first draft rather than discovering them after you’ve written two or three drafts… After you’ve done some brain storming, this is a good place to begin writing. It’s a few years old and it uses Friends as an example, but I believe the same still applies to current shows. Check out this explanation from an MCU class. Each reaction should propel the story forward and possibly into a new direction. (I hope I’ve captured the major beats of the episode, but who knows, I may have missed something…) For newbies out there, a beat consists a character’s reaction to a given situation. I’ve created a very very very rough Beat Sheet using the index card feature of Celtx. Let’s dive into “ Debate 109” and see how the story and structure play out with a produced script. If there’s a strong backbone, or running theme, that tie everything together, it will help readers follow the story and also help guide you as you write the actual script. No matter which style you decide to take, try to somehow connect all of your storylines through an event or theme. ![]() If you’re a product of complexity, then by all means, throw in four storylines! Just remember to try to avoid over-complicating the story so much that no one can tell what the hell is going on. If your style leans toward the more “traditional” writer, then you may be better off using an A-B-C story structure. Aspiring writers have the free reign to choose how many storylines they want to include in their specs, but keep in mind that you should use a structure that showcases your style as a writer and fit the type of story you want to tell. To further complicate things, “ Introduction to Statistics” has four storylines. While, “ Debate 109” has a more traditional an A-B-C story structure. For example, in “ Contemporary American Poultry” there was really just one major storyline that involved the entire study group and Jeff’s loss of power (to Abed) through his own selfishness. The good (and bad) news about Community, is that there’s no set formula to the story structure and throughout the first season there have been a few different story structures used. Tag – A quick joke that may or may not have anything to do with the actual episode. I’ll get into story-specifics in a moment, but here’s a brief description of what each section of the script should accomplish:Ĭold Open – Sets up the storylines and possibly foreshadows of things to come.Īct I – An opportunity arrises, but when the character(s) take advantage of it, unintended consequences occur.Īct II – In order to remedy the previous consequences, a new direction or opportunity is taken, which lead to even worse consequences and a crisis point.Īct III – A final solution leads to the resolution of all previous problems and the character(s) learn some sort of lesson. So, it may be helpful to write from the perspective that your episode is similar to a mini-movie with a three-act structure. I had to write the pilot as if it was a movie. I had to start from a position…that Community wasn’t a sitcom. I like to support my outrageous claims with facts, so I’ll point you to a quote from a Dan Harmon interview: The structure is more noticable when watching the episodes, since there are obvious “cliff hanger” endings to Act I and Act II, prior to the first two commercial breaks. So, for the sake of argument, I would say the structure of Community is: Cold Open – Credits – Act I – Commercial Break – Act II – Commercial Break – Act III – Commercial Break – Tag There are quite a bit of revisions on the latter two, so it’s possible that the Act Three headers were cut. Of the scripts mentioned in my previous post, Community Spec Script Toolkit: Part 1, two have three acts (Episodes 1 & 4) and two have two acts (Episodes 7 and 9). ![]() A lot of sitcoms tend to have a cold open, two acts, and a tag. ![]()
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