Screenwriting : Writing Treatments for Original TV Series Necessary? by Nikki April Lee

no point to treatments or 'bibles.' Seminars gonna rob you. Your original drama pilot is just a writing spec sample. Get a TV job. Learn the craft. Get power. Money. Connections. Then undust the spec and pitch to network bosses. Look up Shonda Rhimes, the queen of dramas. Look at her career path. Anyone telling you that your pilot spec will be on network TV is lying or ripping $$$$. No rookie writer in TV History has had a spec pilot greenlit , into a hit TV Show. Just get a staff job. (if u do hit a grand slam, save me a job ?) Best of luck

What he said ...

Dan and Oliver both make really great points. Writing a treatment would at least lay out a plan for the future of the series. Then again, by building a reputation and some credentials is definitely a plus because it would be sufficient proof you are a good writer. My goodness, the industry is so tough. I should have taken the acting route. Haha.

Dan Max is mistaken. Baby writers HAVE had pilots made into TV shows... Mickey Fisher had Extant starring Halle Berry and Kelly Marcel with Terra Nova spring to mind.

psst, look who is the co-creator of the show and who is executive Producer. i stand corrected. a rookie writer can be "CO-creator" of a tv show when spielberg says yes.

Dan Max - I know who did what, but Kelly and Micky still sold their pilots. The fact Spielberg was interested is a testament to the idea and somewhat the execution. Baby writers may need a Showrunner for a show to go and most of them will only do it for shared creator credit.

marvin- when i say "rookie" or "newbie' I am referring to a person who has written 1 script . ever. if u want to drop Mickey Fisher as an example as 'baby' writer, sure he fits. i won't count his nichols script in 2006.

by my math, fisher took 6 or 7 years of writing to get to the TV spec script

Dan - I hear you! And to be fair Mickey did win a competition, but the pilot was extremely underwhelming compared to the hype around it.

@marvin I was on another site and the Writers there went ape-shit when mickey got the deal :) yes, it can happen. but it s like winning mega million. :)

Define Apeshit? Apeshit because they thought it was great or because it wasn't very good?

ape-shit as in jealousy :P

Frankie maybe spend that time perfecting the pilot or move on to a new idea.

No I'm not interested. I'm just saying that instead of wasting your time on dozens of episodes that no one will ever look at put your efforts into the projects that matter. There's just no point in writing more episodes.

@Frankie- Insights don't all come at once- they come incrementally, over time, after a lot of time and effort. The big one just came to me recently- if I had given up, I wouldn't have come up with it, and I wouldn't have come up with it if I hadn't been challenged and tweaked by my co writer to not be satisfied and say it's good enough. There is nothing wrong with simple premises, but, to write a story that is trying to be 'high concept' requires dogged persistence- a luxury that is not afforded to everyone in terms of time and willingness to 'go there'. I agree with Dan that such a thing is not 'practical', but everyone who has ever done something huge has gotten mocked and ridiculed and told that 'it' will never happen. Long shot projects are usually the most classic- because they have true heart and soul behind them. You have have to be a delusional idiot like myself to keep going and not listen to those who give the blunt 'truth' that it's probably not going to happen. I agree, the odds are it won't, but, to stupid, delusional idiots like myself, we don't f**king care. We have no choice. How many people finally gave in to the naysayers ( usually well meaning), and gave up, when success was right around the corner?

I'm working on my pilot now and I plan on writing the entire season. Some projects are done to help your creative drive. If you love writing, write.

If interested and could be helpful... On Scriptnotes, episode #245, John August and Craig Mazin take a look at the non-screenplay things screenwriters end up writing. They include pdfs of their own outlines/treatments that they have written for various produced/unproduced TV series and feature films: http://johnaugust.com/2016/outlines-and-treatments. :)

Depends on what you're looking to do. I wouldn't waste my time writing both until I had someone actually interested in it. Do you want to sell your work or do you just want to write for fun?

@Jody well I was hoping to land a career. I'm about to complete my BA for Creative Writing for Entertainment. While I'm waiting to maybe land a job as a staff writer, I'm pursing other ventures like copywriting for businesess. To answer your question, I do want to sell my works.

A treatment is typically not a necessary document to show externally. But if writing a treatment helps you refine your own creative process, then by all means invest the time.

Oops - I should also add that Treatments are used more frequently as external-facing documents in non-US countries.