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  • Writing the Pilot by William Rabkin book cover
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Writing the Pilot

by William Rabkin

Building a television pilot with a series in mind

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Building a television pilot with a series in mind

William Rabkin’s guide treats a pilot as both a script and a blueprint for a continuing television series. It maps the work from an initial concept to a finished 60-page script, with attention to sustaining a premise over many episodes, developing characters for the long term, and shaping the world they inhabit. The book also considers how a series can establish distinctive elements from its opening installment. Its emphasis is practical and structural: the pilot must introduce a workable foundation for stories beyond the first episode.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Aspiring television screenwriters developing a pilot script
  • Writers who want to plan characters and a fictional world for an ongoing series
  • Screenwriting students studying television series development

Themes

Television screenwritingPilot structureSeries concept developmentCharacter creationWorldbuilding

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Television networks are so desperate for new voices and fresh ideas that for the first time in history they're buying spec pilot scripts and turning them into series. Today's aspiring writer can be tomorrow's showrunner. But it's not easy. Conceiving and writing a pilot that can launch a series is a complex assignment even for a seasoned pro. This book will take you through the entire process, from your initial idea through the finished script. You'll learn how to identify a concept that can carry one hundred episodes or more; how to create characters who will stay interesting year after year; how to design the unique world those characters will live in; how to identify the essential elements that will set your series apart from everyone else's; and most importantly, how to capture it all in one 60-page script. Riverside-Palm Desert's low residency MFA program.
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