How an episode gets written, and rewritten, and rewritten
As the script coordinator, you're responsible for keeping track of every draft of every episode. It's arduous, unappreciated, and necessary. The sooner you get a hang of it, the faster you can get out of the weeds.
First Things First
The room's broken an episode and the writer assigned to it is off to the races. They’ll retreat to their office, usually adorned with swag from the bygone days of syndicated television, to begin writing an outline — a 6-12 page document with minimal formatting. Outlines demonstrate to the studio and network the basic substance of an episode. Scenes are each given their own slug or scene header, but the content under it is written in plain prose. It describes what’s happand ening in thne, any themes that the conflict touches on, and may include a particularly poignant quote or joke.
Outlines
The first outline to be published is the Writer's Outline, followed by the Studio Outline and the Network Outldocument's name document, after the writer’s draft, indicates its recipients). Outlines arebecausel in tallow the studio and networkportunity to voice their objections and concerns before a writer spends a week developing a draft. This is especially important for premieres and finales.
Outlines are internal documents - they’re never part of the “for your consideration” Emmy campaign rarely see much publicity. It can be wild to find one outside of its natural habitat, but here’s a sample:
As you can see, it’s a stepping stone between the board and a script, a blueprint that conveys the architecture of the episode. Some writers, most notably Aaron Sorkin, eschew the outline in favor of broken noses, but studios generally like to keep apprised of what they’re spending their money on, so mere mortals are expected to publish outlines.
As the script coordinator, it’s your job to ensure whoever is working on a file, whether it’s the writer or showrunner, is writing in the most current version. This can be an exercise in futility – when writers need to prepare for the next version of a document, they generally open up the most recent copy on their computer and get to work. If (and when) that happens, every minute you spent proofreading, correcting formatting issues, and tracking inconsistencies is now lost. This is why it can be valuable to practice Dropbox discipline early: get writers used to navigating to a Dropbox folder (or Google Drive or other cloud-sharing location) from Day 1 so they’re more likely to make their revisions in the correct file.
Drafts
Once the outline is approved, the writer will be off to script. The first draft, generally written by the person or writing team who’ll receive the “Teleplay by” credit, is the work of one writer (or team). Like the outlines, the first draft is called the Writer’s Draft, and generally, writers would like it to be perfect. They’ll employ your help to have it proofread, even if it’s destined to be completely rewritten in the coming drafts. You'll also be expected to troubleshoot any technical issues and perform any research into other episodes, tasks that would distract the writer from their sacrosanct duty.
The Writers’ Draft goes to the writers’ room, where the rest of the staff will also read and point out any typos or inconsistencies.[1] After the showrunner signs off on the writer’s draft, it trickles up the chain of command to the studio next and the network after that.[2][3]
The next major iteration of the script, after the network has signed off on it, is the Production Draft. This draft will have extra components to help production break it down into digestible, producible pieces. This invariably means scene numbers, but in some fields, like animation, can also include numbered dialogue. The script coordinator may also addend reports to the front of the script, called the TCSL (for title, cast, and set list) to flag changes for departments.
Depending on the production's schedule, studio, and crew, there may be other drafts that come between the Network Draft and Production Draft, like a Preproduction Draft, a Table Read Draft, or a Prep Draft. If the studio or network has flagged an issue that they need resolved before progressing to the next stage of drafts, then the room will issue a Revised Studio or Network Draft (or 2nd Studio Draft, or, after that, a 2nd Revised Studio Draft) before moving on to the lauded production draft.[4][5]
Therefore, it wouldn’t be unusual for a script to have the following history:
Writer’s Draft
Studio Draft
Revised (or 2nd) Studio Draft
Network Draft
Preproduction Draft
Production Draft
(Revised drafts/pages)
Or perhaps:
Writer’s draft
Producers draft
Network Draft
Rev Network Draft
2nd Rev Network Draft
Production Draft
(Revised Draft/Pages)
Revisions follow the color wheel and are their own unique beast to issue and will be covered separately.
The Bottleneck
The biggest issue when publishing drafts is the person standing between a pushy showrunner who's ready to publish and a production team that needs to get started scouting locations yesterday. That person is you.
Your work needs time to be done correctly, so don't be afraid to push back. You're a professional whose job is to make everyone's life easier. But to do that, they need to give you time to do your thing. Assure them the wait will be worth it. It might not be, but white lies make the room go 'round.
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[1] A show may sneak a writer’s draft to department heads if production is significantly behind schedule: scheduling talent, securing locations, and getting names cleared all take time). [2] As streamers vertically integrate and utilize in-house production companies, it’s not unusual for the “Studio” draft to be replaced by a “Producers” Draft. This draft will be reviewed by the show’s producers, usually a streamlined development team attached to the pilot and helped champion the script into getting greenlit.
[3] Whether or not there’s a Producers Draft or a Studio Draft, tradition holds that there’s at least one buffer draft between the uncorralled imagination of the writers and the Borg-like execs who attempt to four-quadrant every project on time and on budget. [4] These revised or 2nd studio drafts can also happen at the outline phase [5] With all apologies to those who found excessive footnotes detrimental to their enjoyment of House of Leaves, one of the notes-behind-the-notes* you should take away is that there’s not an entirely codified process between all the different studios. Unfortunately, script coordinators often find themselves hired weeks after the writers’ room has been in (process), and that means you might find yourself behind the ball with the distro. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a coordinator at the studio (or someone who’s received the Producers Draft) to ask for the preferred nomenclature.
[5*] We are unable to determine if the plural of note-behind-the-note is: Note-behind-the-notes (i.e., Dobermans) Notes-behind-the-note (i.e., Passersby, Surgeons General) Notes-behind-the-notes (i.e., Spidersmen) Please advise.
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