ABSTRACT
I know what you’re thinking: now that you have your stories properly structured, you just can’t wait to get to your computer and start writing the script. Not so fast, my friend.
In the professional world of television writing, once a writer has been assigned a story, the first thing he or she does is to write an act-by-act, scene-by-scene story outline. You can think of a story outline as a blueprint to the script. In the same way that a builder wouldn’t blindly start construction on a new house without solid plans etched in stone, professional writers don’t sit down to write a script without the story being laid out in full detail. If the story doesn’t work, the script won’t work. It’s that simple. Therefore, producers insist on having a story outline, broken down act-byact, scene-by-scene, before the writer begins the script.
