Anybody Ever Write their own Soap?

[Lust4Life76]

Hi Dylan

  I am so honored, thank you...we even have a character with the same name as yours...

  I have included an attachment of the first trailer we ever did...

 

  And also, I have the podcast and it's free:

  http://bartelltheatre.org/2020/lust-for-life/

  The episodes run an hour and twenty minutes, BUT each ACT/Part, was written and separated by commercials so to run the length of a daily installment as I had observed when I listened to the radio version of "Guiding Light" and a more esoteric radio soap "Hearts in Harmony". 

Thank you again!

Erik

Edited August 25, 2020 by Lust4Life76
To give easier access to the trailer.

[lucaslesann23]

NP

[Lust4Life76]

Here are the other three trailers...we had to stop short of episode 5 because of Covid-19...

Episode 2...

 

Episode 3...

And Episode 4...

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Lust4Life76
Capitalization.

[Manny]

Wow! You guys did a really good job! Really nice! 

[beebs]

Definitely check out Days of the Week. It's all on YouTube. I'll be honest, whoever wrote that sketch had NBC daytime on all the time, cos there was a lot of little things that stuck out to me as familiar. 

 

Thank you! It's probably just my own impossible standards that make me self-critical, but it's reassuring to hear others enjoy my ideas. 

 

We have a world of talent in this forum, and it frustrates me so much that none of that talent is ever seen onscreen on any of the big shows. We struggle through our own little projects here and there, thankfully. But it really annoys me how insular the TV soap world is. Its basically eating itself. 

 

The ones that seem to get ahead are definitely NOT the ones whose ideas I enjoy seeing actualized. 

Edited August 25, 2020 by beebs

[Lust4Life76]

 

Okay, so I wasn't crazy for thinking Catherine O'Hara's "Violet McKay" reminded me of Another's World's Beveree McKinsey's "Iris"? 

Check it out...

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[Faulkner]

This is such a genius thread. I don’t remember all my ideas—they’re stored away in notebooks at my childhood home—but I was a weird kid, so I created an alternative universe with soaps on nearly every cable network, all themed to the networks’ brands. So I had a slate of black soaps for BET, some melodramas for Lifetime, a sports-oriented soap for ESPN, etc. And I wrote weekly synopses for each as would have appeared in SOD or SOW, and even had fake comings and goings of the fictional actors, interviews with the fictional EPs/HWs, fictional Daytime Emmys, etc. I wish I could find them. But it was a very fleshed-out alternative universe. With all that energy, I could have written my own Game of Thrones.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Faulkner

[Manny]

While I do agree that there are some great creative people here, I would not only blame today's writers for the state of soaps. I think a lot of them don't get to write what they want. Us here writing our own little projects, we don't have budgets or corporation managers to approve our stories. I think it is not that easy to be a soap writer these days. I would actually blame more the network managers for the state of soaps than writers. Although I am sure some of them at least are useless and stuck in the past. 

 

Sounds fun the way you did your stories

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I mean, making up actors and interviews, must have been fun. 

I never did that part. I just "cast" already known actors in the roles on my show. In the beginning I was casting almost exclusively actors from soaps. But as they got cancelled one by one, I had to extend my casting pool to other tv shows or movies

[AbcNbc247]

Sounds good!

 

I'll have to sign up

[beebs]

Yup. Mojo was absolutely Vivien. And I feel like Clay Collins was this fusion of David Banning and Chris Kositchek in mannerism. I'm sure I'm missing a couple more moments that stood out to me, but... Yeah. The similarities absolutely did not get past me. 

Edited August 25, 2020 by beebs

[AbcNbc247]

I'm a little self critical myself, which is probably why I haven't started writing my soap again. Back then, if it was bad, I could just blame it on the fact that I was a kid. Nowadays I don't really have an excuse lol

[beebs]

No, it's a fair point. I think there's too many cooks in the kitchen right now for anything good to come out. 

 

I just wish there was at least some coherent story as the end result. I don't understand how the execs are so allergic to compelling storytelling. 

[Manny]

 

Oh yes. I don't think my writing is amazing or anything, but I do hope I have gotten better at least since my teens year back in the late 90s haha

But to be honest, I find writing as sort of a way to vent. It helps me relax. That's why I continue with it in spite thinking it is no good haha

 

 

I wish we could know which stories really came from the writers and which were mandated by the budget/corporate. But I guess we will never know this. I was hoping some of the writers would delve more into this during the chats at Alan Locher zoom meetings during this covid times, but other than the Reva Clone story, I don't think I have heard much about this.

[adrnyc]

 

Please do! It's all FREE this year during the pandemic. I had originally planned on a releasing the first few months for free and then charging but with so many people out of work AND needing entertainment, I just decided to give it away freely until things get better. So far, the residents of Harmony Haven had dealt with plenty of romance, blackmail, secrets, lies, and now murder! It's quite fun for me to write and just hope that it's as fun for people to read.

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[Melroser]

Okay...i'm going to be shameless and plug my novel...

 

Chick Lit Cafe says, "Pressing Matters, by Bruce A. Fleming, is an exciting whodunit that will keep you guessing to the last pages."

 

Pressing Matters is the first in my series set in the fictional Milliken Mills, Maine. It follows the powerful Nolan family and their newspaper publishing empire. They battle the changing times and each other.

 

I started writing this around 2001 because I missed Melrose Place. I created it with MP and Dallas in mind. I often refer to the series as "my Dallas in a book." I initially self-published four volumes through Amazon's Createspace but then wasn't happy with the way things were going so I regrouped. I'm now relaunching through a different publishing venue in Maine. Pressing Matters is the first book. The second is slated for January. I have two others fully written, a fifth book half-done with an ending in mind, and a sixth book I have in my head as a "spinoff" to a different town for three of the characters. 

 

It's extremely soapy. I can't help it. I've grown up watching soaps and just love the genre. 

 

I hope maybe some of you will give it a try. 

 

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https://maineauthorspublishing.com/pressing-matters/