Writing the Pilot

I love reference books that get right to the point in the friendliest, most straightforward terms with good examples. This is one of the best I've found. Have been developing an original new series with a fellow writer for the past few months, and we had come up with amazing characters, premise, scenes, cliffhangers; basically a ton of good material. And yet something wasn't quite finished yet, not enough to start writing the series bible and pilot with confidence. I sat down to read this book, and within a few pages had several Eureka moments that felt like they were dissolving obstacles to the simplest way to approach our missing element. Right away I wrote to my writing partner and asked him to get this book so we could discuss it, which he did. So many things in this book are things you think you know, but in my opinion no one has ever sat you down and outlined for you before. I actually found myself thinking 'How was I thinking I was ready to write the pilot before I read this?' I credit this book with inspiring the discussions that made us finally ready to take on the new series with confidence and excitement. It's a very easy read and not very long, but in my opinion an essential companion for anyone who wonders why some great show ideas work and others don't, despite a great pilot. Definitely recommended!

This author offers wisdom and insight and encouragement. This is not a ‘follow this template’ type of book as other reviewers have noted. But his advice, such as starting with the ‘fun,’ feels extremely helpful and practical even so. The feeling as one reads is that his insights are based on long years of experience and one senses that what is being said in this book isn’t necessarily being covered in other TV writing books. To me, the last chapter feels tacked on. As if the author got really down (or drunk) and added it in a moment of bitterness. Some might say he is telling it like it is, but why write a book that attempts to help then throw all that encouragement out the window in this last chapter? I loved his tone throughout the book, funny, conversational, let’s all agree on this point, type of reader-author interaction. There are hints of what feels like slight bitterness (JJ Abrams ‘riding the wave as long as he could,’), but it works. Until, the last chapter when the bitterness takes over. He should have added a bottom line: if you love this kind of writing, write the best pilot you have in you. Then learn from that one and write another. No one person can say doing what you love is a waste of time. My brother sent a spec script in and ended up writing on a top rated tv show for 7 years then landed a multi million dollar contract to write in Hollywood. From one spec script. This story might be rare but good writing is good writing and Swanson may not be looking for recipes for TV dinners but writers who can offer content will always matter.

I'm a novelist, not a screenwriter. I've always been mad when books on how to write a novel reference movies or television shows. Novels are NOT movies or TV shows, especially novels that are part of a series. Novels generally have more complex stories than movies. Often, a lot of what your character or characters are thinking and feeling about events that are happening make up significant portions of a novel. You don't have all the visuals, the pulse-pounding music, of movies to tell your story. But books on novel-writing aren't about writing a series either. They're very heavy on things like the Hero's Journey and character arcs. If they do address series, it's usually a limited series like Lord of the Rings. The arc lasts for three or five or maybe even ten books, but there's always an end. Not all series are limited, particularly mystery series. After writing one series which I abandoned before it was done, and a second that, after six books, had resolved my MC's main internal conflict, meaning there wasn't a whole lot of reason for the series to continue, I started puzzling about what made an open-ended series work? Sheepishly, I started looking at books on how to write a TV series. After all, some TV series last for years, sometimes decades. I'm thinking Gunsmoke and the original Law and Order. That's how I found this book. This book addresses all the issues I was looking at. It isn't just about writing the pilot script, but about how you construct a series that's sustainable. The author keeps mentioning 100 episodes. It's stimulating lots of ideas to enhance the original premise I'd come up with for the next series of novels I want to write. There are plenty of examples of series that worked and series that didn't. Moreover, it explains the WHY. If you're going to write a series of any kind, I highly recommend this book.

I enjoyed how the author gave specific examples to explain the ideas he was trying to get across. This book contained a lot of information that was new to me and that is invaluable to writers. Taking Don Miguel Ruiz's metaphor for life being like a movie, Mr. Rabkin's eloquently written examples of characters springing forth from your central conflicts helped me to not only view my scripts in a new light but also helped me see the character I am in this life in a new light. Funny how a technical book on writing can double as a self-help, metaphysical book on uplifting existential ideas. It was a quick read not because it was short but actually the perfect length with a perfect balance between entertainment and instruction.

This book is a slim 89 pages, so immediately you should decipher it isn't comprehensive. I assumed it would be straightforward and efficient, but I assumed wrong. Not to knock the writer who is apparently a successful television writer, but much of this book is simply opinion and wordy examples. No technique, tips, or samples are included (nor are there suggestions as to where to find such things) and while the examples given support the point the author is attempting to convey (and they are actually good points) this could easily have been a blog post or the first part of a lengthier, more comprehensive book. The content is essentially a commentary on the changes in the television writing world and how writing a pilot episode of your own show can be beneficial. It lacks any real depth, but serves as a good motivator for people looking for a quick read and inspiration. Overall I'd recommend buying this book (because the price isn't bad) in conjunction with another book on the mechanics and technique of television screenwriting. Combined the two should be sufficient start to your television writing career!

I had my first Pilot script, or at least the outline of it, pretty well under way before buying this book. It occurred to me that, despite having written a number of short films of varying length, and even a feature-length screenplay, I knew nothing about writing for TV - aside from the fact that there are generally more than 3 acts in an hour-long drama. After reading this book - a quick and easy read - I'm not a whole lot closer to having the format of the teleplay mastered, but I do have a much more concise idea about what it takes to make a worthwhile pilot. It's about ending up with something much more that fifty-some-odd pages. It's about creating something that can sustain dozens and hundreds of such scripts and setting it up properly. The author's advice is very practical and down-to-earth, with plenty of contemporary real world examples. He discusses the viability of the pitch pilot in the contemporary TV business but gives you realistic expectations about the challenge of it. I'm convinced that in the current day, writing a pitch pilot is something every aspiring writer should be doing, not because it's going to sell and make them rich, but because it's part of what makes you a TV writer.

I suppose I was expecting something more akin to a book on processes, like pitching and such. And this touches on those things, but it's not much in the depth of it. It more or less gives you the whys over the hows. Which is actually far more realistic. A book like this isn't going to be able to tell you how to write, or how to break into TV writing especially. That's just impossible. But this one tells you the important things to think about that you might not have confronted in your head yet (or your script), and it reads quickly while entertaining you along the way. I wish it was longer, actually, because I enjoyed the writer's voice a lot and could've spent far more time with it.

Rabkin writes about writing the dramatic 1-hour pilot. If you're planning on writing a half hour, read something else. Half hour comedies are a weird animal. But back to this book: It's a straightforward insightful book that I would suggest you read at the outset of your endeavor to write a pilot. And if possible, know your logline first. Otherwise, Rabkin's ideas will be too abstract if you can't immediately use them to scrutinize what you're working on. This book is not for the novice writer who has never written a play, screenplay or at least attempted to write a dramatic pilot. I say this because it's not a nuts and bolts step by step instruction manual for writing pilots. There are those out there, but this isn't it. Neither is it a book that's going to tell you how to put a scene together or write dramatically. Writing is a tenuous dance between a psychotic dissociative state and structural engineering, and reading books like this is great for reinforcing the engineering. Rabkin takes writing a pilot down to the conceptual fundamentals of conceiving a television series. If you're a feature writer and figure writing a TV pilot is easy--it's just a feature only half as long--read this book. There is so much you have to get right in creating a series, and you'll have a much easier time of things if the scrutiny comes sooner rather than later. And lastly, Rabkin references a lot of shows I really dig, and his prose style is articulate but breezy. I have the attention span of a toddler when it comes to books on writing, but I managed to tear through this book from cover to cover (figuratively speaking) in one sitting. I am now going to write my new pilot. If it sells or I get staffed, I'll update this review ;-)

I'm about to write a pilot and Rabkin's book is beyond the practical help a great inspiration. It's definitley better than Bill Taub's redundant and partly superficial 'Automatic Pilot'.

A great tool to indicate the way for writing the pilot. Some examples about the actual industry and one project that never went to the light. However shows them all the aspects of the TV pilot in a very straight way.

I have to read it again. Otherwise, it's not easy to understand the William Rabkin creative process. I like this sentence: keep going.

I thought that Writing the Pilot and the Ella Clah script which was extensively mentioned -- and is available as a separate book -- thoroughly described all that is necessary for one to tackle the design of and the writing of a pilot, from which to extrapolate a TV series. References, such as the Rockford Files, Columbo and Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- although fairly historical, in comparison to the more contemporary Deadwood and Breaking Bad -- are very relevant.

Para todo guionista aficionado recomiendo ampliamente su lectura.