I do! I've entered it into a comp, so I don't really think I can talk about it.

I also co-wrote one with my uni class. It was set at the turn of the 19th century, and followed the lives of a travelling carnival. It was really weird and very soap opera. We had a comedic dwarf; a strong man who was secretly involved with a married woman; a bear trainer who's bear was poisoned; two orphaned siblings searching for their father, who turned out to be the resident preacher; out of wed-lock pregnancy... The pilot ep opened with a murder, which pitted the (older) alcoholic wife against the (young) mistress.

Sadly, the continuity was lacking between episode to episode. And the person who had the responsibility of the "season finale," decided to follow their own agenda, and had the entire show moved to Ireland and back to London all in the space of one ep(!), only to blow them all up. This killed it.

What I find difficult, is titles. I always struggle naming projects - they don't come easy 90% of the time.

I love to write, but my writing's never really good. The thing I love and think I can do really well is creating characters, settings, and storylines...setting up relationships and playing it all out in my head. Planning the storylines, plotting it all out...that all works out real well, but the actual writing of episodes never does for some reason. I know exactly what I want, but I can never put it together.

You might have a talent for storylining. I mean, that is half of the work, anyway... right? When writing episodes, do a scene breakdown for the episode - you know: start with a brief synopsis of each storyline that'll play out, breaking them into 'A' and 'B' stories, then plot the scenes in chronological order. Then type it up in standard format, with dialogue. I've made that seem really easy, and maybe you all ready do that...

I also wrote Sunset Beach Fan Fiction, called Sunset Beach Forever. It was published online and I actually had like 50 people that read it daily. I only wrote like 100 episodes, since I realized I didn't have time for it...

I remember reading that! I don't think I read it all, though. It was really good.

Edited October 20, 200817 yr by Ben

I remember reading that! I don't think I read it all, though. It was really good.

Aw, you read it? Wow, thanks for the compliment! It's nice to meet someone after all those year who read my stories! You're actually the second person that told me they read my SuBe...

I have my own version of Days of our Lives, entitled As Days Go By. I created this alternate version of the show shortly after Hogan Sheffer joined DAYS. The actual premiere date is October 20, 2006 and the show celebrates it's 2 year anniversary today! You can find this in the blog section if you're interested.

I've also tried my hands at writing for The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. Unforunately, both projects have failed repeatedly because DAYS is my baby and I focus all of my attention on that. It's my number one priority in regards to writing. But I'll find myself with some extra time on my hands and I start having all of these ideas for Y&R and B&B and I'll start writing, but it never works out in the end because I just don't have the time to write for two shows.

Yes.

This is precisely the kind of answer I feared you would give. Shame, really.

This is precisely the kind of answer I feared you would give. Shame, really.

It made me cackle! So RSinclair.

Funny you should mention this...

I've written my own soap opera since 2002, Heart and Soul, which basically revolves around the wealthy Sterling family and other families who are in one way or another related to the Sterlings. It takes place in the fictional upstate New York city of Oakridge, and the main story for this upcoming season (it runs in a season format even though it follows the formula of a daytime soap) is a love triangle between Greg Sterling, Kristen Masters and Shane Baldwin. Greg used to be married to Kristen's sister, Carrie, and together they have a young son, Adam. Greg and Carrie's marriage disintegrated due to his mother, Diane, and her constant interference in their lives. However, when Carrie hooked up with 'reformed' mobster Nate Rutledge, who came to Oakridge on the order of his boss, crime lord Michael DiCenzo, to kill Greg's sister Megan Sterling for witnessing a murder at the hands of DiCenzo. However, Nate got the wrong girl and kidnapped Carrie, and when they were forced to go on the run after DiCenzo found out about Nate's affair with his wife, Loretta, Carrie and Nate fell in love against all odds.

However, Carrie's family were not happy with her relationship with Nate and her sister, Kristen, set about to try and get Greg and Carrie back together, and ended up falling for Greg in the process, and after a huge fight with Carrie (over Nate), Kristen's loyalty to her sister went out the window and she embarked on a secret affair with Greg, which ended a few months later when Kristen walked out on Greg after he refused to go public with their relationship (for Adam's sake). She then began to see Shane Baldwin, a multi-millionaire and father of Greg's cousin, Leo.

Now this is where things get a little complicated.

The series opened with the murder of Greg's father, John Sterling's, lover at the hands of what appeared to be Diane. However, it was later revealed that John was the one responsible for his lover, Calinda's, death when he poisoned her. Unable to stay in a relationship with Diane, John left town, but not before signing everything over to his sister, Jackie, to avoid Diane getting her hands on anything...but then Diane and Jackie got into a struggle over a gun that left Jackie dead and ultimately led to Jackie's children, Kendall and Leo, inheriting the entire fortune, and Sterling Enterprises.

Diane (along with John and Jackie's devious brother Joseph) set up a plan to swindle naive teenager Kendall out of Sterling Enterprises, but hard partying Leo stopped the plan at the last minute. Kendall decided she needed a partner to look out for her best interests and turned to the best businessman she knew outwith the family, Shane Baldwin, who is Leo's father (but not Kendall's). Leo, at this point, had gotten his one night stand Natalie pregnant, and after months of trying to persuade her to abort the child he eventually came around to the idea of being a father when Kendall reminded him of what it was like growing up without a father. This led to Kendall bringing Shane back into Leo's life, and the strained relationship between the two men drove a huge wedge between Leo and Kendall's relationship, especially when a few months after giving birth, Natalie and Leo's baby, Grace, died of cot death. This drove Leo into a deep depression, and his casual habit of alcohol and drugs use soon became a dependancy...

At this point, detective Rex Davis (who was dating Carrie's best friend, Jessica Monroe), began to investigate a shipment of corrupt drugs making their way through Oakridge, and at the same time Jessica, feeling neglected over Rex's devotion to his career instead of her, embarked on an affair with Shane Baldwin (this is before Shane and Kristen began to see each other), and eventually got pregnant...discovering she was pregnant at the same time as Natalie found her baby daughter not breathing. Kendall then went on to find Leo unconscious in a suspected suicide attempt, although it was later revealed that he had injested the tainted drugs and fell into a coma, close to death. At the same time, Rex discovered that Shane Baldwin was responsible for the shipment of drugs and his links to organised crime were revealed. Jessica realized, at this point, that she had no choice but to abort the child and decided to leave town for a new life with Rex, who had been offered a promotion in Philadelphia. However, as she prepared to leave town Jessica decided to take her own path and start afresh by herself.

Which brings us pretty much to where the new season is about to begin.

EXCEPT...

Greg's younger sister, Megan, discovered that her high school sweetheart, Will Abbot, was actually her half brother as a result of an affair between John Sterling and Alexandra Abbot nearly thirty years ago, causing her to realize just why her parents were so against the relationship and forced an abortion on her that caused her to leave town right out of high school, only to return recently. As the family struggle to accept Will as the fourth Sterling sibling (there is also party girl Kimberley, a celebutante who has been known to foray into pornography), Megan has recently married, and become pregnant by, new love interest Marc Monroe (Jessica's brother)...however, their relationship looks set to take a hit when Megan struggles with bringing up their twin daughters in the new season. John and Alexandra are struggling to start over again now that they are both single, and Diane and Joseph's relationship has gone from partners in crime to loving couple, but how much can they truly trust each other?

I think that's me pretty much established the past of my show (a lot more has happened in the last six years, but this is everything that's integral to current plotlines)...check it out!

This part of your story channels THE EDGE OF NIGHT like you wouldn't believe. EDGE did it pretty much this way with a combination of romances/relationships intertwined with seedy and shady characters engaged in various shady/criminal acts. UKBoi, this is really good and I wish someone would put it on TV! Where can I read more of your series, Heart and Soul?

This part of your story channels THE EDGE OF NIGHT like you wouldn't believe. EDGE did it pretty much this way with a combination of romances/relationships intertwined with seedy and shady characters engaged in various shady/criminal acts. UKBoi, this is really good and I wish someone would put it on TV! Where can I read more of your series, Heart and Soul?

I'm totally unfamiliar with The Edge of Night but it gets mentioned around here a lot in a pretty positive light, so to be mentioned in the same way as that is a huge compliment! You can read more of the series at http://www.geocities.com/heartsoap, and you're at the perfect time to jump in as season 5 just premiered on Thursday.

I do have a fan fic.

But I also have this one that plays in my head. It's about this town of rich people. And believe it or not I have most of it planned. It's got like a 30 year run of plans!!!

I always dreamed that someday I could share it with the world.

And like most of you when I'm bored it just plays in my head.

I even have another soap that I am planning to do a cross over with!!! I know crazy!

All of the characters have names. The weddings, children, deaths, are all planned. So I pretty much have like a 40 show planned. Just need to pitch it!

Edited October 25, 200817 yr by JAYJAY

I've never been a big fan of fan-fictions. I mean, I've never read any, but there's something about them that just drives me away. For example: when I wrote my soap, I did it in a way that it could easily be picked up and shot and put on the air. Even if I knew it was never going to happen. A fanfiction can hardly become the real deal: the product has been online, your ideas can be stolen, readers come and go... it's really weird. At least for me. So that was the idea behind my post, the beloved 'manuscript' whose existence we have never shared with anyone.

Something I noticed about your fanfictions is that (and I mean no disrespect) their contents are kinda old. The small towns, those surnames, the situations, the companies. To me, they sound like a rip-off of the 80s. I see nothing really modern in them. It's not like you have this idea, and you put it on paper. In fact, you take what you've seen been considered a soap opera and tweak it on your own. And I mean no disrespect, really, I'm just saying. Please, correct me if I'm wrong. Sometimes instead, characters are just a projection of ourselves and the fact that we would let them dominate one show, and let it revolve around them, says a lot about our egocentrism.

But one thing I learnt from my time as a 'soap writer' is this: it's so easy to write a cliffhanger every freakin' day. It is easy. Really. I don't why the actual writers can't manage doing that, but you just need to have some imagination, and there you have it. Either your soap is plot driven or character driven, the events will give you a cliff-hanger.

People need a reality check. This very instant.