How Soaps are Written

[English Invader]

Anyone know how far ahead scriptwriters/producers/directors plot the storylines before the actual writing?

I'll give an example: in the pilot episode, Alf refers to his daughter Roo as never being "one for sentiment", which seems to imply that the scriptwriters/producers/directors knew where Roo was going from the get-go.

This make me wonder how much they knew; Did they know Roo would get pregnant? Did they know about Brett and the Macklins? Did they know about Frank and Bobby and that Frank and Roo would eventually leave the Bay together?

In summary, my question is how much of the H&A material is planned before it's written and how much of it is left to natural character development.

[Miranda]

Oh this is a fascinating question to me. I wonder the same as you. I know with novels, writers can go back and 'add bits' to make it look like they were planning the finale all along, but obviously with TV, the series is filmed continuously and they can't go back and alter episodes.

So my guess is they can plan as much as they want BUT can't account for sudden changes cropping up. I've read that sometimes writers suddenly realise that certain actors have great chemistry (or don't) and make plot changes accoreding to this. I read that this happened in Glee, I think they decided to put Sam and Quinn together due to the actors' chemistry. May be wrong but you know what I mean.

I look forward to see what other people think Great thread

[Dan F]

I can't remember all of the details at the top of my head, but the first stage of writing is for the Script Producer to plot out the weekly storylines (a breakdown of the weeks detailing the major story points etc.) which they actually do about 6 months in advance. The beginning of 2012's storylines should actually be starting to be plotted within the next month or so. Once all that is done, they pass it down to the writing team.

Bevan was kind enough to detail out the rest of the process in a feature we have on the site - http://www.backtothebay.net/features/scriptprocess.shtml.

You can also get another perspective from someone else who was working on a placement in the script department here - http://www.backtothebay.net/interviews/clintrolfe.shtml

Bear in mind that they're both 7-8 years old now, but the general idea would still be the same.

[Perry]

Well I think that question was answered and a half, thanks Dan.

[Miranda]

Yes, thanks Dan. sounds like a dream job, doesn't it?

[glbizzie]

I mean they have to plan an Story from A: The Idea until B the last line of the story. and in this they introduced so many things to the story. I mean they don't have an END in every line, but they have plan in months forward.