HI, ok I know this may have an obviouse answer but I need confirmation here,

OK, I started writing a Sci-fi Drama, at first I was writing as one script, after a while I decided to do it in 3-4 part. At the moment its almost 134 pages, and not even finished yet. Ive also hinted where episode breaks and restarts.

Was just woundering how the best way to do this, or should I just leave it as one long script for now and sort it out when finished/later.

TW

It's difficult to say until the script is finished really but breaking up a script into a mini-series is no easy task. You can't just cut at around page 50/60 and call it an episode. Each episode, like any script - short or feature, must have the three act structure, a beginning, a middle and an end. Obviously, the end (save the final episode) should have a cliffhanger-like finish to them so that the reader wants to keep on reading.

Since you're not done with it yet, keep writing. Finish the first draft, and don't worry about the length. Breaking it into pieces is something for the second draft. Once you have the length worked out, figure out how long you want the pieces to be. Like Rob said, each piece needs to be a near complete story, but with a cliffhanger at the end to bring the audience back. Also keep in mind that each half hour piece, if you're going for a TV length, is around 23 pages, so an hour would be around 46, hour and a half would be around 69, etc. you'll also need to work out the exact acts for TV, if that's the point. Unlike movie scripts, you have to specify the act break for the commercials.

Now, that being, said, you are writing a spec at this point, and there are a lot of forgivable items. For instance, you can write it all out, and then break it into pieces without concerning yourself with the act breaks in each piece. The most important thing for the moment is finishing the first draft. Don't worry about any of this stuff till you have that done.

If you want to develop it for television you must write it so it has beats that match the commercial networks breaks and timing.

22-25 pages for every half hour of transmission, with a suitable climax to end each episode on.

Develop a series outline, episode synopses and a Bible.

Writing for TV is much more difficult that a screenplay and requires greater discipline and understanding of presentation and format.

Thanks all, some good points there. Ill just do the draft then sort out rest later, you never know it maybe film quality when done.

Thanks all.

TW