What novelists can learn from television
Why television?
The world has radically changed over the past 50 years. New technologies have made entertainment something that is taken for granted. It is so accessible that people can watch major, $300 million budget films on the 5-inch screens in their pockets. Video games, TV, movies, and music are now something that isn’t sought out, like the days of drive-ins and arcades, but something that is delivered directly to the consumer. When it comes to that, how can a novel compete? Not only does it take time for someone to peruse and choose a book, but they need to sit down and actually put in the work to get the story. That’s why —
We need to change how we think about writing.
You don’t have to tell me. A novel can be a beautiful thing. Today, however, it is harder and harder to attract new readers (let alone keep them reading). Still, many of the writers I’ve met are enthralled by the romanticism of writing. From winding sentences to purple prose, too many writers out there are getting so stuck in their own loops of what their novel can be that they’re not seeing what it is. A story. So, when millions of people can go out and get a story anywhere, why should they put in the work to weed it out of confusing sentences and long paragraphs? Frankly, they shouldn’t. Rather, the way we write needs to evolve.
The ABCs of script writing
When plotting a television show, especially as a speculative script for a show that was not your concept, it is very important to keep track of the different plots in an episode. We can do this by breaking it up into a separate A-, B-, and C-story. If you’ve never taken a class about writing for TV, then this is probably a new concept.
You’d probably get really bored if a one-hour drama only covered one character doing one thing for the entire episode. That is why any given TV show has a variety of characters who each have their own storyline. This is also where background arcs, or season runners, will get worked in.
Say you have a big bad that is getting built up for the season finale. Plotting out that background story, and how that is building towards something is important for a building suspense. Whenever I write, I roughly keep it as a 70/20/10 ratio. 70 going toward the main character, 20 for any side characters you wish to focus on, and 10 going to an overarching story that is developing over time. While I had only ever heard this concept related to television, I didn’t see why I couldn’t employ it in the novel I’m writing as well.
How to structure a beat sheet
Before writing any script, the first step is to plot out your beat sheet. A beat sheet — for anyone who is unfamiliar — is essentially a bulleted list of every moment that happens in your story. Check out this example beat sheet I wrote below of someone ordering a coffee:
INT. COFFEE SHOP — DAY
• SUSAN enters the coffee shop.
• BARISTA greets Susan.
• Susan approaches the register
• Susan orders coffee.
Simple. Every point is a single action that moves the story forward. In other words, a beat. Usually, I start my beat sheets by figuring out every scene I need to tell my story. Figuring out how many locations there needs to be, (more on that later), and what happens at these places. After that, I’ll expand on it.
INT. CAFFEINE HEAVEN — DAY
• SUSAN, 20s, enters Caffeine Heaven.
• TOBY, the barista, greets Susan.
• Susan approaches the coffee bar.
• Toby smiles and ask her how her day has been.
• Susan ignores his question and orders her “usual.”
• Toby nods and walks to the espresso machine with his head down.
From this point, you already have an idea of Susan and Toby’s relationship. You know Toby is friendly, Susan comes to the shop enough to be a regular, and you get the feeling that Susan doesn’t like Toby for some reason. This is a solid place to start. You can take this skeleton of a story and actually write it while filling in more details. But, there is one more step that I employ before I write anything. That is plotting out my storylines.
Now see how I use the concept of ABC to build it out further.
INT. CAFFEINE HEAVEN — DAY
A. SUSAN, 20s, enters Caffeine Heaven.
A. She turns, and walks immediately to the community board.
A. She puts up a flyer of a missing dog.
B. TOBY, the barista, greets Susan. — “Hey, Sue.”
B. Susan approaches the coffee bar.
B. Toby smiles.
A. Toby asks how the search is going.
B. Susan ignores his question and orders her “usual.”
C. Toby nods and walks to the espresso machine with his head down.
Now, we have some depth. Our A-story is Susan looking for a dog; the B-story is Susan getting coffee; the C-story, or runner, has something to do with Toby being ignored by Susan. While this point isn’t developed yet, we now have the inciting incident for Toby to go on and have a different arc. Establishing it as our C-story means there should be a pay off down the line. We want something to come of this point. Maybe, Toby becomes a villain; maybe, he decides to step up and find the missing dog; maybe, he will decide to tell Susan off and that triggers a change for her. But, if we finish the rest of this plot and Toby is completely dropped from it, then there was never any point to Toby to begin with and he is best edited out. You should never waste time or word count on characters and plot lines that go nowhere, otherwise it is distracting from the main story and the reader may get lost in extra detail. Which brings me to my final point.
Writing economically
Television writing is all about writing economically minded. If you have established characters, you need to use them. Otherwise, the studio is paying them to do nothing. While this isn’t the case in a novel, it can still help to keep these kinds of notes in mind because they help the reader. If you introduce a character and take the time to develop their back story, why not utilize them to the fullest? At the same time, however, don’t go overboard. You don’t need two characters that both provide comic relief. If you find that you wind up with more than one character who are similar in their personality, demeanor, and goals, why not combine the characters into one? Now, they don’t have to split your or the reader’s focus and they become a fuller character. One of the biggest problems with stories that have a huge cast of characters is that it becomes hard to keep them all straight.
The same goes for settings. While it can be fun and interesting to write the story of a road trip, having your characters stop in too many locations can confuse the reader, especially if any of those locations are similar. Remember, keeping the novel short can help entice readers but the shorter the novel, the harder it will be to tell a full story. Adding in too many settings that don’t really add to the story can eat up that word count and make everything else feel rushed. After you write your beat sheet, look at how many settings you have. This is something a producer would do to figure out the budget. Writing a book is free — aside from your time — but think about your words as your budget. You only have so long before a reader loses interest. Keeping your story succinct will keep them hooked and make them more likely to finish it. Even better, it will make them more likely to go out, buy another of your books, and read more.
As a novelist, your words are your budget.
Putting it all together
All of these things don’t seem huge, but they may be a bigger help than you think. I recommend trying each one individually. Start with your ABCs, try out a beat sheet, and then cut your work down like a cheap, Hollywood producer. It tends to go against every creative instinct, but sometimes that is exactly what creatives need.