How Does A Head Writer Work In Soaps?

OP -

Most head writers are responsible for sketching out a long term plan for the show. This is called a "bible" - also the name of the long term plan when a show starts, too.

This has to be approved by the network, and then there are writers who will do "breakdowns" - pacing out the action a week at a time.

Actual shows are handled by dialogue writers, who fill in the blanks between those goal posts.

HW will sometimes do a specific breakdown or dialogue for a particular story or set of shows......if an important story is reaching its climax. But day to day, the above is generally how it works.

What happens when there is a NuHeadWriter?

They also have to create a long term projection. That's why the network hires them.

They have to keep track of which characters have amnesia and which characters have evil twins.

There's a great series of blog posts out there from when the writer Douglas Marland took over As The World Turns back in 1985, and it showed how he planned out the next year or so of story.

Writing for the Soaps (1984) by Jean Rouverol is now a historical document of the creative process of the American soap opera and if you're interested in the history of the genre, it's a must-read; Rouverol wrote for Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow and As the World Turns. I devoured it when I was a teen in the 80s, hoping someday to be not just a headwriter on a soap, but the chance to create my own soap operas. Alas, that never happened...but I still have my copy of this book!

Thanks, guys!

So head writers don’t do heavy dialogue or none at all? What a cushy job.

R8 If that was your takeaway, you did not in any way, shape or form understand.

OP - here's a really long, detailed answer. It's so long I'm going to do it in two posts as DL will cut me off:

This is how the process works at its most pure. This applies for almost all the soaps, past and present, except for Bold and the Beautiful, which has a really bizarro writing process.

Head Writer lays out long term story for the show. This can be anywhere from 3 months to one year in advance. Depending on the writer, this is either put in writing or merely pitched to the Executive Producer and execs. Level of detail varies also depending on the writer - some project stories for every character on the canvas, so just the big players, etc. Frequency of this pitch happens based on how long the last pitch went for.

On a weekly basis, the workflow is this. Days of the week might change, but you get the gist:

Using the long term story projection as the roadmap, the Head Writer and a team of what are called Breakdown (or "Outline" Writers) sit down and plot out a week of shows (sometimes it's six or seven days). Sometime they do this with something called a "thrust" - authored by the head writer - which is a document that lays out, in very broad terms, what should happen over the course of that week. Sometimes they just go, verbally, by the head writer's guidance.

The team - over the course of two to three days - lay out what will happen each day in an episode. Things that factor into their decisions: Where they want the plot to go over the course of the week, actors that are available (or on vacation), actors that are over or under their contract guarantee (i.e. certain actors are being paid so they need to do more work, or some actors are at the max amount their contract covers them for a week so if they are used more it'll cost extra money) and other physical factors, such as sets that are available (this is why people talk in locales like boathouses when they could just go to a diner...its based on what sets are available and standing, because moving sets in and out costs money).

Once the skeleton is laid out, each of the Breakdown Writers goes out and authors a breakdown (also called an outline). This document lists what's going to happen in each act and each scene of the episode. The length and detail of the breakdown varies depending on the head writer and the breakdown writer. Some breakdowns are 20-30 pages long and includes step by step accounts of what should happen in each scene, including dialogue and physical movements. Some breakdowns are thin on details and just includes where the scene starts and stops (ex: "Victor enters Jack's office. They fight about Billy's influence on Victoria. Jack punches Victor and runs out.")

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Those breakdowns are published and shared with the Executive Producer, select show production people and any network executives that are relevant. All those people read the breakdowns and everyone gathers for a giant notes call. The EP, select show production and network executives offer notes on the breakdowns motivated by the following reasons:

1. Production logistics. This is a big part of what the Executive Producer weighs in on - any physical production limitations or considerations that need to be factored in for the episode (ex: if there's a physical stunt in the outline, etc) 2. Tracking. If the outline contradicts or doesn't acknowledge past events that have happened on the show. 3. Viewer Expectation. Each show's audience expects something different but, in general, an episode of a show should have romance, drama, suspense, people you like and some humor (the latter is not so true of the Bell shows, who either have no sense of humor or don't believe it makes for entertainment). If these are missing, there's a discussion about how to inject them. 4. Quality. Sometimes shows are just BAD. Writing for soaps is a grind and really hard. It's not always amazing. Sometimes the notes are about how to make the week's worth of shows better.

After the notes are given, the breakdowns/outlines are revised. From there they are distributed to a team of scriptwriters (dialogue writers). Each scriptwriter gets a breakdown/outline. They have about a week to write a script that's anywhere from 80-120 pages. This is not easy in any circumstances, but if the breakdown they've gotten is rich with detail (i.e. the 20-30 page ones) it's a bit easier vs. the thin ones, where the script writer is making up most of the action. In the course of writing the script, further holes or problems might reveal themselves (for example, if a character is supposed to be in a set eavesdropping on two characters, but then needs to exit the set without being seen, the physical mechanics of this might be impossible). As these challenges arise, the scriptwriter will often work with the head writer or another member of the writing team to solve them.

The script writer hands the script in a script editor reads it, editing it for time, quality and continuity. They are often aided by someone called a story coordinator, whose job it is to track continuity on a show and help with things like pulling scenes for flashbacks, etc. The head writer will sometimes edit scripts as well.

Once a script is edited, it's sent off to the production department, where it has a whole new life as people like prop masters, lightning designers, producers, etc all read it to start doing what they need to do in order to physically shoot the episode. The actors are also given the scripts during this process.

And that's what it is, week after week, year after year. Each show differs and, as budgets have shrunk, the amount of episodes being written on any given week will increase.

And all the above is done in parallel. Will script writers are writing episodes #1-5, the head writer and outline writers are working on episodes #6-10, which will soon make its way to script writers. And so on and so forth.

The head writer's job is to oversee ALL of the above and continue to generate new ideas, all while dealing with the constant curveballs that are thrown to them - some actor just got another job, another actor refuses to work with another actor, the ratings are down, someone's sick, things are over budget, etc. It's a really, really hard job and 24/7.

Bro, all the HW does is spend a Sunday in front of the tv with plenty of beers knocking out a 3-hour play-by-play full of CURVEBALLS & SWERVES (without worrying about spelling or continuity or decency or what have you - your audience is retarded so it won’t matter) fast enough that it gets to the Boss and the boys on TV by Monday so they can riff off it. Then, you sit back for the week and watch the magic happen. 2.5 ratings. It’s that simple, Bro.

Thank you, R10/R11.

And this isn't exclusive to soaps. Nighttime shows with serialized stories do this to a certain degree too, but obviously for one episode and not a whole week.

So Shonda Rhimes and/or whoever runs it now would lay out the big points for a year, and then they'd break it down over 22 episodes - with the same level of input/feedback/seeing who's available as outlined by R10/R11.

R6 Jean Rouverol and her husband were victims of the Red Scare in Hollywood, moving to Mexico. When they returned they wrote for films and television under phony names By the time Jean wrote the soap book, all was forgiven in the industry. She died at 100 in 2017. Check IMDB for her acting career Saw Jean as W.C. Field's daughter in a '30s movie on television.

With DOOL doing a six-month-ahead taping to save money, How can the HW and writers adjust based on viewers comments about the characters and plots?

A must read for anyone interested is Harding Lemay's Eight Years in Another World.

He doesn't go super deep into the mechanics of it, but you get a sense of how his brain was always filled with ideas for what the characters would say and do.

And he often wrote entire episodes by himself, more so than other HWs, especially when the show moved from 30 minutes to 60 and then, briefly to (!!!) 90 minutes.

Have a feeling this is the new soap book to end all soap books.

DOOL?

No, we don't DOOL here.

Even on soapy serialized nighttime shows, they arc the whole season out of where the storylines are going

Christine Elise, who played Emily on the original Beverly Hills 90210, came back as a writer and she said in an interview that she had to follow the arcs and the end of the previous episode, when she wrote her episode, and keep it in line with how the stories are supposed to go

Like if Kelly dumped Brandon for cheating at the end of one episode, than Christine had to pick up on that immediately after on her episode and deal with the fallout as well as other continuing stories going on. She said it was restricting to be a writer on a serialized show because you had to keep with the basic storyline outlines

It's not easy.

B&B has a hybrid breakdown/script writer set up. The person who breaks the show typically writes the script.

The long story is pretty much gone from soap writing now. It's mostly pitches. The last writer to do traditional old school long story was Jim Reilly. And this was pages and pages of story in narrative form, character motivations, new character descriptions the whole ball of wax.

I believe Ron writes a long story, but it's not the old school, detailed story document that was a real road map of where the show was headed for six months to a year.

These days the HW just pitches story to the EP, the network, and even the top tier stars. And even HWs get pitched. An actor will come and tell the writer that he wants to play a story where he was abused as a child. If the actor is top dawg enough, the writer has to write the story. Shows also buy long story from other writers and even some actors. Which is one of the reasons why the shows no longer seem cohesive and of one voice.

HWing a soap is one of the toughest jobs in entertainment. HWs are paid very well, but a great deal of that is hazard pay. The HW gets all the blame for everything. EPs just skate on by. No one ever gives the HW consideration for story changes beyond their control, network notes, producer notes. It's a minefield of a job.

One situation that comes to mind is when the show's most popular couple started fucking, then broke up, then would not talk to each other and eventually demanded to be broken up on screen. The audience just sees that their favorite couple isn't together and blames the writer. They don't know the real reason why. They just blame the writer.

And when the network gets cold feet about a story, that can be a huge pain. "We will let you do a gay storyline, but they can't kiss. They can only hug. No love scenes. And they can't act gay." And then there is the history you can't talk about or the characters you can't mention for various reasons. While some HWs just ignore history, some want to use it, but can't for various reasons. Soap HWs are not paid enough if you ask me.

[quote] If the actor is top dawg enough, the writer has to write the story

Woof.

When I think of a soap’s pacing back in the glory years, Y&R always got a ton of praise (and sometimes criticism) over their famously slow plotting. Storylines would take years to climax and the ratings clearly proved out that there was a method to their madness. On the nighttime side, Knots Landing also took their time with plot. It would take years for a storyline to come to a head and it was so satisfying when it happened. I would argue plot pacing was as important as cast chemistry and storyline inventiveness.

[quote]Y&R always got a ton of praise (and sometimes criticism) over their famously slow plotting. Storylines would take years to climax

That was Bill Bell, who did the same thing on Days of of our Lives. It took eight years for the truth of Mike Horton's parentage to come out. Nowadays, I see fans grumble when a secret's been kept more than a month.

[quote]Nowadays, I see fans grumble when a secret's been kept more than a month.

A month? I've seen people start bitching after 2 weeks. I'm in my 40s and probably older than most of you posting on this thread, but IMO soap opera was never designed to be fast. Because it plays 5 days a week and year round, writers have the time to tell a story and play each and every beat of that story. The belief was that the average soap viewer watched 3 times a week. You had the Thursday build up, the Friday cliffhanger, and the Monday resolve. The other two days were just recap or the place where the writer laid the ground work for the next A and B stories.

I've seen soap fans bitch because something big doesn't happen every day on their show. But, it's not supposed to. I remember the days when a cliffhanger was a ringing telephone or a knock at the door.

And finally, one of my biggest issues with current soap opera is the retconning of history that we actually saw on screen. It drives me insane, because I think it's lazy writing. There are ways a writer can tell the story without having to blow up established history to get there. They all do it, but B&B seems to retcon the story every 6 months.

Another good book about writing for a soap is Eight Years In Another World by Harding LeMay.

How can a headwriter that lives and works on the east coast be able to work a show set in the West coast? Fax? Email?

R28 Paper airplanes Rose.

[quote] viewer watched 3 times a week. You had the Thursday build up, the Friday cliffhanger, and the Monday resolve. The other two days were just recap or the place where the writer laid the ground work for the next A and B stories.

We call that BWI. That’s, “Booking While Intoxicated”.

For the record, I *was* driving the white Hummer that knocked down Sting.

R26 a 'Search for Tomorrow" writer told me "one day in real life takes five days on a soap."

r31, there was once a party on OLTL that lasted an entire month.

That's one of the valid criticisms of American soaps; the European soaps I've seen do it right: one episode equals one day. Cliffhangers are structured so they don't have to be immediately resolved, but still sustain interest in the story.

R32 nighttime soaps in the US do the same thing, I remember watching Melrose Place and every episode picked up exactly where the previous one ended, so 5 episode's (which aired over 5 weeks) was really like 5 DAYS, because they only about 1 day per episode and before you know it, it's Christmas!

When I was in grad school, I thought it would be a dream job for me to be a writer for a soap, daily or weekly. Especially the mechanics, the work flow, I found exciting. Planning story lines three months ahead, then breaking it down to the level of episodes and scenes, but also driving characters into misery or writing the joy in their life, just keeping the logistics going for 20 something characters. I still find that appealing as a career choice. The nerdy gayling in me back then was really geeking out about that type of profession. Wasn't into acting or directing at all, but writing and producing a soap or TV show is still a fun idea to me.

[quote]I'm in my 40s and probably older than most of you posting on this thread

Oh, honey...

r35, she must've forgot this is the retirement home of the gay internet

[quote]They have to keep track of which characters have amnesia and which characters have evil twins.

The guy was killed in an auto accident! I looked it up! He was driving in the Yukon, in a pink convertible, to visit his brother who's an ex-con named Frances, when a tractor trailer comes along and decapitates him. You know what that mean, it means he doesn't have a head. How am I suppose to write for a guy who doesn't have a head? He's got no lips, no vocal cords. What do you want me to do?

I remember minute details about Days of our Lives from 30 years ago and can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday. It's the strangest thing about soap operas. I use to be amazed at friends who could recall movie lines and recite the classic lines off the top of their heads until I l realized that I could do that with soap dialogue. I guess it's the same skill, just a different form of entertainment.

Only the DL has threads like this, and I love it.