Write it once for the whole series

A script on its own carries everything about itself: its title, its log line, its synopsis, its type and its genres. That is right for a feature. But in a TV series every episode would need the same title, the same genres and the same description of the show, typed again into each script and kept in step by hand.

A Series folder holds all of that once, for the whole series. Write it there, and each episode only needs what is its own, so you can get on with the episode in front of you.

What the series holds

• Series Title, which is the folder’s name. Every episode carries it.
• Series Type, the kind of script every episode is.
• Genres, up to three, and tags, up to ten.
• Series Log Line: one sentence for the whole series.
• Series Overview: a longer introduction to the series, its world, its people and where the story goes.
• The characters and locations that keep coming back. See Why put a TV series, or a movie and its sequels, in one folder?

What each episode holds

• Episode Title, with its Season and Episode. The first episode of Season 1 is the Pilot.
• Episode Log Line: this episode in a sentence or two.
• Episode Summary: a longer synopsis of what happens in it.
• Its own author’s notes, tags and, of course, the script.

Open Edit Script on an episode and you will find the series title, type and genres already there and locked. Change them on the series and every episode follows.

How an episode reads

An episode’s page shows its own log line at the top. Under it, About the Series gives the series log line and overview, then comes the Episode Synopsis. Anyone who opens one episode can see what the whole show is about, without you writing it into every script.

In the folder, the episodes are listed in running order, such as S1 · Pilot: The Arrival, each with its own log line.

Making a series

Click New Folder / Series, tick Make this folder a Series / World and choose Series. The folder name becomes the series title. Fill in what you know now; the rest can wait. To change any of it later, choose Edit Series Info from the folder’s gear menu.

Already have a TV script? Move it into a series folder, or make a new folder from it, and whatever the series is still missing is filled in from that script. The script’s log line stays with it as its episode log line.

Made your series before all this was here? Open its folder and we offer to fill in what it is missing from one of its episodes.

Good to know

• Tags are the one thing each episode can change for itself. When you change the series tags, we ask whether to give them to the episodes too.
• Log lines you generate for an episode are about that episode. Click Use this and it becomes the episode log line.
• A World is for films that share a world, like a movie and its sequels. Its scripts start out with the world’s type, genres and tags, but each film keeps its own title, log line and synopsis.