Writing episodic fiction

After years of writing dialogues, cues and other texts for stories made by other people, I've got a gig writing the series story myself. The task seems overwhelming, I'm not sure how to tackle it: I know a lot about writing stories in general, but this format is new to me. How do I create memorable characters in 4-5 lines of dialogue? How do I make a tiny bit of a story both satisfying and leaving the audience wanting for more, waiting for the next week? I'm a bit lost and really afraid of botching this one. I'd be grateful for any tips, tricks and warnings regarding this story format. I'd also ask you to share your ideas what serialized works have done the episodic storytelling perfectly, no matter the medium — I need some examples to read/watch/play and learn. Thanks in advance!

It would be pretty helpful if you could tell us the medium and genre you're working with. A live-action Cop Show? A video game Soap Opera? An Urban Fantasy serial with vampires and Occult Detectives? It would make it easier to tackle your questions and to recommend specific shows.

Anyway, I don't personally have experience in writing episodic stuff, but from my own understanding I would say that an important part is to both pay attention to the big picture (an overarching season-long plot?) as well as make sure that every individual episode is interesting to the viewer.

In this sense, every episode should be moving your show forwards in one way or the other. It doesn't even need to be something related to a bigger plot but something simple like establishing the setting or developing the relationship between your characters. If the format is sound you can afford to have a couple Breather Episodes every now and then where nothing too plot important happens but these kind of situations should always be used for Character Development.

Effective, concise character development is not an easy thing to do but generally you should aim for making the scene where you introduce a new character already hint what kind of character we're dealing with. Let's say, for example, that you have a scene where a detective meets one of the suspects for a murder. If the first look we get of this character is him lying on his back in a deck chair sunbathing you have successfully established this sort of playboy archetype. Now, if this character suddenly starts speaking in a very sophisticated manner you have already created an interesting break in his character which makes the audience more interested in finding out what kind of character he actually is.

Also keep in mind that one-off characters are tools for you to use to tell something about the reoccurring characters. The way the detective interacts with this playboy suspect can be very professional or it can be extremely disdainful. Be it either way, in a relatively short moment of interaction between two characters the audience gets to learn something about your regular cast.

Regarding your question how to make individual episodes interesting, episodic series' typically have a set format (like a detective solving a crime) and every episode is built around some kind of theme. For example, let's say this playboy suspect is featured in an episode built around the theme of how some people have it easy in life without having to work at all while others have to bust their asses off just to pay the rent.

During this episode you can show the audience how your main cast relates to this theme through character interactions. Typically, the start of the episode already frames the theme in some subtle way (like the detective waking up in his apartment, reading a letter reminding him that he's late on rent, and sighing). Then you proceed through with the episode the way the format requires you to and then, at the end of the episode, you can have your main cast exchange a few words about the subject in a bar or on a date or something like that. Repeat in the next episode with a new theme.

What it comes to keeping your viewers interested in the long run... a good format is king. There are a lot of Police Procedural shows out there but Criminal Minds is to me very interesting in its psychological undertones + the fact that they are trying to catch Serial Killers which is cool and edgy. Interesting characters are a must though you can't really give too much advice on that beyond "give them human flaws and make them as 3D and multifaceted as possible".

Another thing is the overarching plot which can be only vaguely hinted at the start in some short epilogue scenes and later with proper Cliff Hangers. Eventually these hints will be revealed to be something more concrete at which point they will probably find their way into the spotlight of the actual episodes. Once again, it's important that the audience feels like there's some kind of direction the show is heading to instead of just throwing mysteries on top of mysteries like shows like Lost did.

As I said previously, I don't really know what you're working with here but I would personally recommend checking out works like Supernatural (a show with a solid format that manages to be entertaining on its own but is also great at developing its characters and building an overarching plot), Breaking Bad (one long journey of Character Development for a single character + a great show in general), and Life Is Strange (an episodic video game that's extremely good at getting the player emotionally invested in the story of the characters).

Hope this helps!

edited 17th May '16 6:15:46 PM by Paradisesnake

You get to write episodic content? I am actually kind of jealous.

It would help to know the circumstances, like are we talking writing a column in a periodical, or a showrunner, or getting to write an episode, or getting to invent a new show?

I have absolutely no experience in this sort of writing. Which is why I am perfectly qualified to say that each episode, you should establish each important preexisting character and mcguffin as quickly as possible, maybe with a single joking line of dialogue and then spend the rest of the episode telling a separate story self contained in the episode. Unless this is not the type of serial storytelling you are doing.

Borrow plots from the pool of recycled plots that all episodic fiction draws from. Maybe you have one or two original ideas, but you don't have fifty two.

Keep as close as possible to the mood, genre and style of the show you are inheriting. And get the characters right. Nothing annoys fans more than diverging characterisation.

edited 17th May '16 8:05:09 PM by war877

Thanks for insights! I can't reveal much due to NDA, but, basically it's an F2P action videogame with regular expansions. Previously they fed the audience a long, complicated story — just to find out that Viewers Are Goldfish, and nobody is keeping track. So the new approach is something less like Game of Thrones and more like Batman: The Animated Series: frequent short adventures forming self-contained little arcs. The challenge is, storytelling needs to be ultra-minimalistic, and still catch the player. I really love what they did in Fallen London, and looking for more inspiration.

edited 18th May '16 8:46:39 AM by Thainen

Hmm, ok, that helps a bit... Actually, now I'm thinking shows like Justice League Unlimited. On seasons one and two (when it was still simply called Justice League) the show had a regular cast of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Hawkgirl.

From season three onwards, however, they started using a rotating cast where you would only see one or two of the original characters at a time and more room was given to completely new characters. Other times the spotlight was reserved completely to some never before seen character, making that standalone episode basically their own little story.

Being a superhero story, the series obviously still had an overarching plot leading to a big final battle but in general I think this kind of fluid way of storytelling/using characters can be pretty interesting and (for the artist) liberating in a way.

Now that I now you're working with a video game I would also suggest you take a look at Alan Wake. It's a game with an episodic format that was also meant to have a bunch of DLC follow-up chapters (though the game didn't end up being successful enough to justify this). The gameplay is also a tad tedious but the storytelling is some of the best I've ever seen in the medium of video games as a whole.

What it comes to the Viewers Are Goldfish problem, keeping your main storyline as a sort of simplistic thread that the characters are following could help. Video games are not like other media—they are interactive which means they are meant to be played. Players of games like World of Warcraft don't really care about the story beyond "the Witchking is evil, so I must defeat the Witchking". Players can understand story events if they're directly connected to this goal but the meaning of smaller scale events can easily go unnoticed.

A lot of these problems can be fixed simply with solid storytelling in general. Players might not catch every single piece of plot you throw at them but they will always understand basic human interaction and the drama related to it. Sometimes people don't even need to buy the underlining motivations of your characters if the scenes showcasing their devotion are written and set up well enough. So in short: Show, Don't Tell.

Are you going to be the only writer for this project? Because having multiple writers, each with a different take on the main character, was part of the failure of Star Trek: Voyager. Too many cooks, etc.

Paradisesnake, to tell the truth, I've long forgotten the story of Warcraft, but I still remember the characters, from Arthas to Nerub. Maybe if complex stories are off the table, I could lure the players with memorable NPC? Still not sure how to do that. Maybe I should just start with more obvious tools like kicking/petting dogs, and see where it goes...

pwiegle, there's a team, but right now the story is up to me.

edited 18th May '16 10:03:23 PM by Thainen