Title: Beginning Writing for Television (Dramatic, Comedic, & Reality): Creating & Writing Your Own TV Pilot 
Instructor: Bo Kaprall
Dates: 8 Tuesdays: Jan 6, 13, 20, 27; Feb 3, 20 17, 24
Time: 7:00 PM EST – 9:00 PM EST
Location: Zoom
Cost: Nonmember: $416; Writer/Reader Member: $272; Senior Member, Student Member, Librarian Member, Teacher Member, Military/Veteran Member: $240
*Payment plans available! Email sarah@indianawriters.org for more info*

Applicable to comedy, drama, and reality, this unique course is designed for creative  aspiring writers with no prior experience—as well as those with screenwriting  experience—who seek to break into television writing. Learn in an interactive  environment the basics of creating, writing, and presenting your first television script for  both drama and/or comedy, including how to take your idea to the next step and create  a complete half-hour or one-hour television script. Beginning and professional writers  are welcome. Prior screenwriting experience is not required.

The course will cover: 

• The steps usually taken for a first-time television writer towards writing the first  script (general idea, character development, style, story acts, etc.) • Structure
• Character development
• The importance of your first script as a calling card
• How to find an agent and get your script read
• Who should you be writing for
• Who does what job on a television series
• The outlets for new shows and new ideas
• Developing your idea
• The best way to write for you 
• The Writers’ Room
• Collaboration processes
• Overview of winning past and current television show scripts
• Feedback on your current concepts, outline, scenes and scripts

Students will be emailed several TV scripts (shooting drafts) in PDF format prior to the  first-class session (and more during the course) to be read in advance if possible. We’ll  also be viewing videos related to the topics throughout the course.

This course will also include special guests, including WGA writers and producers  working in television today. Students will get the opportunity to ask questions and get a  behind-the-scenes look into how television is made, learning about the different career  paths to becoming a professional television writer and what showrunners, producers,  creative executives, and fellowship competitions are looking for from writers working  today.

Session 1 –

• Overview of the television business including:
• Alternative mainstream network options for pitching and selling opportunities (Hulu,  • Netflix, etc.)
• Realistic advice on getting into the business
• Steps and ideas on getting a job as a writer
• Pitching and selling your first script as a “calling card”
• Sitcom or drama
• Proper formats for above
• How to choose the right script
• Options on getting an agent
• Who you should be writing for
• The writer’s room- the collaboration process
• Overview and discussion of script examples (provided)
• Script writing software best for you
• How to analyze existing shows to help your writing
• Setting up the writing of your outline

Internet: examples of script writing software (Final draft, Celtx, Trelby)

Session 2- 

Continuing answers to questions from session one. Getting started. Your choices and the steps  needed to begin. Various kinds of structures and television formats. The importance of  Characters. Learning proper exposition. Viewing of videos and script samples.

Sessions 3 – 4  

Getting started. Creating characters and stories. Understanding Production. Preparing to write.  A-B-C stories, Antagonist and Protagonist. What makes a good script (hour or half hour).  Samples of both. Your choices and the steps needed to begin. Various kinds of television  structures. Viewing of videos and script samples. Creating unique characters and stories.  Understanding Production. Preparing to write. Sharing of original ideas with class.

Session – 5 –

Starting to write – Importance of the outline. Student presentation of ideas and characters  with teacher and class feedback utilizing information from the first 4 sessions. Explanation  of treatments, presentations and show bibles.

Sessions 6-8  

Continuation of idea presentation. Critiques of student outlines and/or scripts – class and  teacher input. Continue critiques and final answers to questions.

About the instructor:

Bo Kaprall has been a television show creator, director, writer, producer,  executive producer, and actor for over thirty-five years. Currently (2024), he has created  and is Executive Producing a new television series, “Operation Undercover,” for HBO  Max & Discovery ID, which debuts this November.

Bo got his start in Chicago as an actor in the touring company of Chicago’s  Second City. In the seventies he moved to Los Angeles where he started the Comedy  Store Players and joined Kentucky Fried Theatre (Kentucky Fried Movie, Airplane,  Police Squad). He then went on to write and produce several network series including  The Carol Burnett Show, Laverne & Shirley, The Cher Show, Aaron Spelling’s Friends,  Norman Lear’s Year at the Top, and Welcome Back Kotter. In addition, he has written  over thirty network pilots.

Over the years Bo has created and executive produced shows for ABC, CBS,  NBC, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Discovery, TLC, and HGTV. In the nineties Bo  moved to Minneapolis, where he started his own creative production company focusing  on humorous radio and television commercials and corporate communications. Bo has  recorded, written, and produced over 1,000 radio commercials, winning several Cleo  and Radio Best Awards.

He has appeared as an actor on over 50 television shows, the latest being Law &  Order and Third Watch. For the last five years he has been teaching a course in  “Beginning writing for television,” at various writing and film centers in Minneapolis and  across the country (via Zoom).