Step 2: Write a 1st draft pilot synopsis

Topic · 1 minute

Task 1

With the Step Outline under your belt, you’re in good shape to start writing the narrative synopsis.

All you do in this step, is write out the summary notes for each scene into a compelling story that can be understood by anyone.

If you would like to receive feedback, it is important you keep your completed synopsis around 500 words.

For the first draft, you may start with a longer text, in the range of 750 – 1,000 words. Tomorrow, we’ll trim it back to 500 words.

If you managed to identify 8 sequences, this approach should give you around 100 words for each in this first draft.

Task 2

If you would like to work in television (or serial drama), you will also need to understand how serials are conceived and marketed.

Can you summarize the essence of Yellowstone in one sentence (without cheating!).

In feature film, we would call this a logline.

For TV, the logline rules are a little opaque, and a clear task description falls outside the scope of this course. Just use your intuition, but make sure the summary is specific.

Anyone who knows the show should be able to uniquely identify it from the logline.

Today we only write the first draft of these two summaries. You will have plenty of time to perfect them later.