BPS 115: Writing the Netflix/TV Drama Series with Pamela Douglas

Our guest today is the award-winning screen and television writer,
professor, visual artist, and author, Pamela Douglas. 

Pamela is a member of the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild
of America and a USC School of Cinematics Arts tenure professor for
screenwriting.  She is credited for her writing on
shows/series such as Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), The
Ghostwriter (1992), CBS Schoolbreak Special (1984), Frank's Place
(1987), and A Year in the Life (1987).

Aside from her awesome career as a screenwriter, she’s an
international writer with multi-lingual adaptations of her books
(German, Mandarin, Italian, French, Korean, and Spanish). Pamela
packed her expertise in her 2018 revised fourth edition of her 2008
book 'Writing the TV Drama Series: How to Succeed as a Professional
Writer in TV', (revised) 'Writing the TV Drama Series: How to
Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV'.

The book is a complete resource for anyone who wants to write and
produce for television drama series or create an original series,
as well as for teachers in screenwriting classes and workshops. It
leads the reader step-by-step through every stage of the
development and writing process, offering practical industry
information and artistic inspiration. The Fourth Edition leads
readers into the future and engages provocative issues about the
interface between traditional TV and emerging technologies. It’s
also the single most comprehensive source on what is happening in
original television drama around the world, with surveys of 15
countries.

As you will learn in this episode, Pamela’s passion for writing
goes back to her childhood. Even though she’s dabbed in
screenwriting for movies, she’s discovered throughout her career
that television carries a bigger pull in terms of communicating
ideas, stories, characters, life, and experience. Its essence
allows for vertical story-telling, expansion, and continuity to
reveal newer plots and characters.

Star Trek: the next generation is a classic sci-fi series set
almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's five-year mission, a new
generation of Starfleet officers set off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D
on its own mission to go where no one has gone before - the
exploration of the Milky Way galaxy. 

The Ghostwriter is an American children's mystery television series
that revolves around a circle of friends from Brooklyn who solve
neighborhood crimes and mysteries as a team of young detectives
with the help of a ghost named Ghostwriter who can only communicate
through writing and words.

Chatting with a seasoned screenwriter like Pamela, there is so much
wealth of knowledge packed in every word. We talked about
presentation reelers, the forex structure and her approach to it,
and why she thinks the Wire is the best show of all time in terms
of character, layering, and sterilized storytelling.

Enjoy this conversation with Pamela Douglas.

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