Begin to Build the World of Your TV Series

Aaron Sorkin’s advice to new screenwriters is to start with an intention and an obstacle—what is the character’s goal, and what’s stopping them from getting it? But I suspect that Sorkin probably came up with the ideas for The West Wing and The Newsroom by first thinking about the world of his series. Most TV shows are workplace dramas at their core, and so it’s often easiest to start the brainstorming process by thinking about place. Worlds often have a premise and stakes built into them; they have their own rules and their own cast of characters. The success of a show often hangs on the writer’s ability to create a compelling sense of place. Some of the most important questions a writer can ask early on are sometimes the most un-Aristotelian: Who is doing what, what kind of dreams are characters chasing, what is everyone working towards, how are people making money? The day-to-day of a show is determined by nuts-and-bolts questions such as these.

There are a few ways to start thinking about the world of your TV series.

What is a job you’d want to have for only a month?

TV shows take us on a short journey into a compelling universe and then drop us off back at our bus stop. You’re glad to have visited, but you’re also glad to be home. Twice a month when you say to yourself I’m going quit my job, sell all my stuff and go do X, what is your X? What’s a job you’ve occasionally fantasized about, and then almost just as quickly, started listing all the reasons against it? For me, it’s working back of house at a restaurant. This is a question that speaks to your other self. It asks what you might be doing right now if just a few things in your life had gone differently. A darker way to phrase this question is: What job are you afraid you’d be good at? Do you secretly think you’d blossom in the cutthroat world of DC politics? Try to stretch that fleeting thought into a half hour or an hour.

What’s the least desirable vacation spot?

This question has the stakes built into it. It underscores fears, dangers, and character flaws. If you’re a neurotic whose afraid of spiders and snakes, maybe Australia wouldn’t be on your list of places to visit. But wouldn’t that be a fun show to watch? This question can be applied broadly (which cities does the US State Department advise against visiting, for example) but it can also be incredibly personal. Where have you avoided going, and why?

Who is that person at a party that guests gravitated to?

We’ve all met this person. They’re the ones who make money by selling $100,000 bottles of wine out of the back of a banged-up Toyota Camry, or they’re under house arrest for SEC violations. Maybe it’s your cousin who makes a living as a professional poker player, or the friend of a friend who dumped their life savings into opening a restaurant on a whim. No matter who this person is, the second they talk about their jobs a thousand questions start to enter your mind. Their universe is populated with characters and episodic stories. Can you turn that strange and magnetic world into a premise for a show?

What’s your impossible life?

What is your escapist fantasy? What is a feeling that’s missing from your life? Warmth? Which movie do you wish you could inhabit? Who do you wish you were? Do you want to live in a small New England town full of odd characters? Do you wish you were a legendary country star? Did you drive through a small Texas town on game day and wish that feeling of excitement could be stretched out into an infinite plane? Worlds like this are the reason people watch and then compulsively rewatch certain TV shows. At their best, premises like these allow us to not be ourselves for a short while. They provide an blank canvas for characters, and an infinite well of comedy, conflict, and drama, often at the same time. Press that button and bring the fantasy to life.

Prompt: Come up with answers to each of these questions. From there, ask yourself if you’d watch a show that took place in that world?

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If you enjoyed this prompt, check out Alexander’s upcoming Catapult screenwriting class, which begins this November.

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