Film Courage: What does it mean to break a story?
Niceole R. Levy, Screenwriter/Author: Breaking a story is how you figure out what all the actual scenes are in an episode whether it’s your own pilot you’re writing at home or whether it’s an episode of a show that you’re working on. There are different methodologies about how to do it. I can tell you my favorite methodology of doing it. This is a combination of ways I’ve seen it done in multiple rooms that like now this is the system that I like. First of all I think it’s just a question of What did we think our main characters would be doing in this episode? If you’re doing a pilot it’s like What is the story I want to tell about my main characters? You can write on note cards or on a whiteboard as simply as:
I need Niceole to figure this out
I need Adam to go here
We need conflict between the mother and daughter to get us to the place we need to be in the next episode
Big ideas like that, they don’t have to be super specific. It’s just like Here are things we think our characters need to do. Especially if you’re working on staff, you’re in a writer’s room.
The next part of that is:
Do we owe anything from the last episode?
Was there stuff that we thought we were going to include in that script that we didn’t do?…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BUY THE BOOK – THE WRITER’S ROOM SURVIVAL GUIDE: Don’t Screw up the lunch order and other keys to a happy Writers’ Room by Niceole R. Levy
BIO:
After growing up near China Lake Naval Weapons Center in the middle of the Mojave Desert, Niceole escaped to the bright lights of Los Angeles. While studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she realized her true love was writing stories, not playing them out. She worked as a police dispatcher to pay her way through USC undergrad and then completed the Master of Professional Writing program, also at USC. An alum of the CBS Writers Mentoring Program, NBC’s Writers on the Verge, and the WGAW Showrunner Training Program, Niceole has written on “Ironside,” “Allegiance,” “The Mysteries of Laura,” “Shades of Blue,” “Cloak & Dagger,” “Fate: the Winx Saga,” “S.W.A.T,” and “Graymail.” She also co-wrote a feature, “The Banker,” with former “Allegiance” showrunner and director George Nolfi, available on AppleTV+, and is now writing “Spark,” a film inspired by the life of Claudette Colvin. Niceole is currently a co-executive producer on an upcoming Netflix series and has several TV and feature projects in development. Her first book, “The Writers’ Room Survival Guide,” will be released in October of this year.
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