THE WRITING TEAM

The writing team will be assembled after the auditions.

SEASON OUTLINE
The writers meet on chat and discuss the characters, come up with storylines & plot ideas, talk about their plans for the mystery/romance plotlines for the entire season.Once this stage is over, the writers will know how the season will look like and which stories they will tell.Nothing is non-changable in the next stages, but this is how the season will mostly look like.

EPISODE PITCHING
With the outline ready, the writers talk and plan out the episode outlines.They go episode by episode and develop scene arrangement, characters development and place the outline stories into actual episodes.This also contains placing clues to the mystery solution.Once this stage is over, the writers are given episodes to write and they have a good sight of where the episode will go.

SCRIPT WRITING
Every writer will now be left alone with his/her thoughts & plans and will write the script for his/her episode.The writers will have freedom to shape lines and actions in the best way they can.

REWRITING
When they finish writing the script, writers will share it with other writers so we'll all talk about it and give our thoughts and critics.If neccessary, the writer will improve some timeline, plot or other kinds of mistakes.Once this stage is over, the script for the episode will be locked.

PUBLISHING
The edited & finished script will be uploaded to the page.

How does a script look like?
Scripts (written in Celtx or Final Draft) will have this composition:

TEASER
The short scene or 2-3 short scenes which are played right before the intro on TV.It sets the pace of the episode and helps to get the readers into the plot of the episode.

ACTS
A regular episode will ususally have 4 acts, but finales and premieres might have 5-6 or even more acts.The end of an act is marked by "the cut to black" and it happens after a shocking scene, like scenes before commercial breaks on TV.Every act must have a culmination, the part when the reader feels like they're about to jump out of their skin.

CLOSER
The short scene at the end/ending scene, on TV it mostly has credits played over it.In PLL, closers are almost every time "A" ending scenes.