by Erik Bork | Mar 30, 2018
There are certain fundamental qualities that stories for the screen seem to need, which all writers struggle to master. I see problems related to these qualities in virtually every idea or script — including my own! I have blogged about all of these over the...
by Erik Bork | Jan 26, 2018
I moved to Los Angeles to become a screenwriter. But that was before the internet made the world a lot smaller. So what’s the value of living in L.A. now? Is it necessary? Of course you can write anywhere, and you can learn about writing (and even take courses and get...
by Erik Bork | Dec 16, 2017
At the heart of a good original TV series idea is one big problematic situation. It somehow affects all the series regulars. And it leads to endless new stories. It’s not unique to particular characters, but is the over-arching reason for the series’...
by Erik Bork | Feb 26, 2017
When coming up with an idea for a television series, and writing a pilot script, writers often make the mistake of approaching it like a feature. Meaning, they focus on a single main character, with a single problem and goal. That’s not how television works. I can...
by Erik Bork | Jan 28, 2017
The things that make screenwriting hard to succeed at are not mysterious. They’re just not easy to achieve. Successful scripts differ from unsuccessful ones for some pretty concrete reasons. And usually it comes down to issues with the core idea for the story,...
by Erik Bork | Jan 12, 2017
It’s a constant question producers, agents and executives will ask: What are the stakes? And it’s maybe the most common thing that causes a script to “not work.” If the stakes aren’t big enough, the audience won’t tend to care, or...
by Erik Bork | Apr 17, 2016
What makes an audience root for two people to be together? The Save the Cat books have a name for the type of story where the primary external conflict is that two people who are “perfect counterparts” have something big in the way of “living happily ever after.” It’s...
by Erik Bork | Apr 9, 2016
What’s the key thing to focus on when developing a TV series idea? The answer is simple: the characters. Specifically, a web of entertaining-to-watch characters who have conflicted relationships with each other. Ideally, you would also have a big, intriguing,...
by Erik Bork | Dec 31, 2015
When I work with writers developing a half-hour pilot, whether as private clients or through my course, I often recommend Scott Sedita’s book The Eight Characters of Comedy. Written primarily for actors (Sedita is an acting coach in Los Angeles), it can also greatly...
by Erik Bork | Sep 19, 2015
Somehow an article I wrote for Script Magazine a while back never got added to my own website — and it’s about an important topic that I teach TV writers about all the time: the two different kinds of TV stories, and why it’s important to know which...