Writing for a Web Series

I actually challenged myself a couple of years ago to write a pilot for a series I hope to produce one day.  Needless to say, I placed myself under no pressure to get it done.  However, my school assignment placed me under entirely different circumstances.

For the first time, I was assigned a deadline, and to make it even more challenging, I was given restrictions that I don’t even think professional writers have to contend with.  We were told to create an episode, with both a teaser and a tag… within eight pages.

At first, I was really taken aback.  How in the world was I expected to be creative, or give any depth to my characters in eight pages?  In addition to that, the format we were instructed to use took up more space than that of a feature script.  It double spaced all the dialog leaving me even less to work with.  To say I was frustrated would be an understatement.  Nevertheless, it was a school assignment which meant it had to be done, so I dug in.

To my surprise, it was not as difficult as I thought it would be.  I simply wrote what I wanted, and then performed edits that would meet my instructor’s specifications.  I thought, at least this way, I could save what I really wanted to write, and give my professor what he wanted.  But, it turns out that what I wrote originally was not far from what was required, though I did have to “kill a few of my darlings” as they say.  However, to my surprise, I found that I was more satisfied with what my Professor required than what I originally wrote.

All in all, I enjoyed it, but then I love a challenge.  If I had to choose between writing Web Series or Features, I think I would choose Web Series.  I say that because I’ve also challenged myself to write a Feature.  Coming up with one-hundred and twenty pages that lay out the entire story was not as fulfilling as writing short stories or a short film.  In fact, the very first film I produced professionally was a short film.  Also, everything I wrote for the stage was written in the form of anthologies.  There was always a running theme, but the stories were always unrelated.

Therefore, my Episodic and Serial Writing class was not only a challenging experience it also led to a very important revelation.  Though I will need a couple of features in my portfolio as a writer, my focus will be to write episodes for a series.

However, I don’t plan to take the conventional path that most writers take to achieve my goal.  I plan to achieve it through a truly innovative idea my non-profit will implement, and pray that it works.