Writing a speech for a television show can be a daunting task for many writers who may be more comfortable creating characters than compressing their creations into a succinct story to present to potential buyers. A large number of television scriptwriters underestimate the importance of selling or presenting their story. Writing the speech is often the first step for many successful screenwriters.
Start your pitch with a logline. Regardless of the type of television show you have created or plan to create, your presentation should include a logline. The logline is a one-sentence description of your concept, fully explaining what your program is about. If you have a clear idea of what you have written, you can write the logline. It is recommended that you write the logline before you even start writing the script for your TV show because it will help you focus on the core of your characters rather than drifting in directions that don’t serve the overall story or worse, that are inconsistent. with the emotions, motives and impulses of your characters.
A good logline will instantly tell people what you are trying to do or what you have already done; the order varies depending on your stage in the writing process. In the artistic but competitive business of TV show writing, first impressions can be the difference between going back to a traditional job and earning enough money to work on more episodes of that TV series.
Here are some examples of loglines to help you get started writing a speech for a TV show:
An incredible race: “Couples from all over the world race around the world to compete for a million dollars.”
The Simpsons: “The hilarious misadventures of a dysfunctional but lovable suburban family.”
Nikita: “A secret agent disgraces herself of her evil trainers, trying to prevent them from wreaking havoc around the world.”
If you’re having trouble writing a speech for a TV show, the logline can help too. Write down a few variations of the logline until you think you have captured the essence of the program. The logline forces you to think deeply about what your show is really about. If you can’t think of a good logline, it’s a good indication that you should stop writing a speech for a TV show and think about the concept of the show again. Once you know what you want to write, the logline will arrive more naturally.
After the logline, one way to proceed is to write a one-page summary of the show, and then the more detailed treatment of the TV show, and finally the draft of the script … then another draft … and usually a few more before it really stands out from the sea of mediocrity. The film’s treatment is a paragraph-shaped outline, using present tense, and is much shorter than the full script, but longer than the one-page summary. Think of it as a quick start guide for your television show to show potential producers that they can commission you to write the script based on the strength of the treatment. Whether you present the treatment to potential buyers before writing the script, it can be beneficial to get feedback on the treatment before writing the draft of the script. In fact, it may be a good idea to get feedback on the summary from a previous page.
Once you have at least your logline and at least a summary and ideally a treatment, you should be able to pitch and hopefully get a chance to get hired to write the TV script and do your own TV show. But without a history of successes or previous connections, producers and filmmakers will prefer to buy an already complete and solid script. That’s not to say they won’t go ahead and send you through another round of rewriting. It’s a collaborative process and it ebbs and flows until the final edit of the film.