Confessions of an ex-soap writer

[MarkH]

Thank you! Not just for the information, but the tone!

[Sylph]

That's your post-strike-umatic effect. Right there, on AMC.

[brimike]

To be fair, that was just started before the strike, and they're the only ones who do it that way. So if R Sinclair was referring to most of AMC's run, then yes, they were using the same process as every other soap - head writer projection->breakdown writer-written breakdowns->script writer-written script. I was just talking about the last eighteen months, where it's now head writer bullet points->script writer-written script, with no breakdown process in the middle.

This is different from GL, ATWT and Days, which spent most of last year eliminating the breakdown writer position by having the head writer(s) write all the breakdowns themselves. In those cases, breakdowns still existed and were noted weekly by the network, they just weren't written by breakdown writers. But at AMC, breakdowns don't exist. Each script writer obviously needs to do their own work to outline their episode, but it's part of their weekly individual process, and doesn't ever get read by anybody at the network, as far as I know. But I'm a little fuzzy on how that part works.

LOL! Yeah, I clarified that in this post before I saw you said the same thing, Sylph. Sorry.

[Khan]

Now I really feel sorry for AMC's writers.

[Sylph]

Oh, don't apologize!!! People will appreciate your detailed reply very, very much!

[MarkH]

For those soaps that still have bona-fide breakdown writers, how long do the BDWs have to write their breakdowns? You have already said SW's get 7 days.

[brimike]

It depends, but most have three to four days to write a breakdown.

[R Sinclair]

I was referring to the time period David Hiltbrand was recalling in the article Sylph posted. The 1999-2000 period. I kinda thought that was a given, no?