Ever dreamed of writing a TV show but didn't know where to start? Now's the perfect time to pick up your pen (or keyboard) and dive in - no experience needed, just your imagination.
In a new series, screenwriter Ray Lawlor - creator of RTÉ's popular black comedy series Obituary - offers some tips for the budding TV writer...
TV needs a story engine that is open-ended and can be repeated week after week. Film is a finite concept that concludes in two hours.
My TV show Obituary is about Elvira Clancy, a small-town obituarist who kills people to ensure her articles appear in the paper. Before turning a premise into a pilot episode (the first episode sent out to attract funders), you must attack your premise. And by "attack," I mean answer every awkward question someone interested in making this show might ask. It is through answering these questions that you shape the pilot episode and the rest of the series while discovering if your premise lends itself to being repeated week after week.
Here are the questions I asked myself before writing the show. When you come up with your killer idea, create your own list and attack your premise. You'll be amazed at how doing so forces a structure on your idea, which naturally leads to plot points that begin to fill those daunting blank pages.
Why does Elvira kill people?
It's not enough to simply select people, kill them, and then write their obituaries. Main characters must have no choice in their actions. A character without a choice drives a series forward, and TV constantly moves forward, or people turn off. This narrative drive was crucial, while also being a crucial question that shaped the world in which the story was set. Elvira had to be broke. And not only was she broke, but she was also supporting her alcoholic father. When the paper ceased paying her a regular wage and started paying her per article, she realised that not enough people were dying for her to survive. So she kills people, and she can’t stop as long as she needs money. This simple and effective idea trapped my main character in the story, which meant she had to constantly kill, resulting in more episodes.
Obituary is not about killing and evading capture; it's about a fledgling killer learning how to live that life and how it shapes the everyday life of a young woman.
How will she get away with killing people in a small town?
The answer established the show's rules. Elvira makes everything appear to be either an accident or a suicide. Not only did this create plot points because Elvira had to find a way to make this work, but it also opened up opportunities for mistakes, which she would need to fix, adding drama and comedy.
Where are the Guards in all this?
A vital question. Was the show going to focus on near misses with the police, like Dexter, or was it going to be about something else? And it was this "something else" that shaped the show. Obituary is not about killing and evading capture; it’s about a fledgling killer learning how to live that life and how it shapes the everyday life of a young woman. This answer convinced the funders that the show could run for several seasons. It was going to be a series about the lifestyle of a serial killer, with multiple victims presented to her, not just about constantly dodging the law. The tension stems from living the life of a killer, a perspective that’s rarely explored.
By asking these questions, I shaped the protagonist, her universe, and the show’s central engine, which is: each episode, Elvira was forced to pick someone to kill, pre-write their obituary, and attempt to off them. An engine like this is invaluable. It was now my story. All I had to do was think of an awful person for my Elvira to kill, and the episode was underway.
By examining your one-line idea, these answers will form the foundation for your show. In the next article, we’ll take these rules and character traits and shape them into the pilot episode, which will hook viewers for future episodes while establishing the blueprint for your show, which serves as the basis on which all subsequent episodes are built.
Season 2 of Obituary is on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player from October 14th - catch up with both seasons here
