Everything’s a Writing Prompt part 7: TV
TV, like the internet, is simultaneously among the best and the worst things for a writer. It can absolutely be a distraction that can prevent you from writing if you allow it to be. But it’s also a potentially valuable source of inspiration and ideas, and one that I think gets overlooked because it’s viewed as an unproductive time sink.
What’s great about TV for a writer is that everything on-screen is edited and packaged for maximum viewer retention. It’s a case study in creating emotional hooks, setting up cliffhangers, establishing tension and intrigue, and building characters through dialogue and actions—all things that are very useful for both prose writers and poets.
You can also get more direct story inspiration from watching TV, and not always in the ways you might expect. Here are three prompts that can encourage you to see TV in a more creative way:
Exercise 1: Channel listing collage.
This one will be easiest if you have cable or a service like Sling or Tubi that have an actual channel listing, but you can also do it browsing through content on a streaming service if that’s how you watch your TV. The idea is to introduce an element of randomness and chaos into the prompt, so if you’re using a streaming service go to the “Trending” or “Newly added” tabs—something that’s not tailored specifically to your viewing habits.
Here's what to do:
Scroll until you see 3 consecutive listings for shows from completely different categories (e.g. golf on channel 10, a game show on 11, and Law & Order on 12—not just 3 channels with different sitcoms).
Use the first listing as inspiration for a character—so, if it’s a football game, the character could be an athlete, a ref, a fan, etc.
Use the second listing as inspiration for a setting. This can be slant or broad—it could be the city where the show takes place or is filmed, or the type of location in the show (e.g. an office, a game show stage, a newsroom, etc.)
Use the third listing as inspiration for the plot. Again, this can be broad—if you’re basing it off of Law & Order the plot prompt could be as vague as “someone committed a crime”.
Set a timer for 10 minutes and freewrite a story or poem that integrates those 3 elements. Aim to keep writing continuously the entire time and go wherever the elements of the story want to lead you.
Exercise 2: File off the serial numbers.
I’m not a fanfic writer as a rule, but I have played around with writing in other people’s universes as an exercise, and it’s one that I find valuable. Writing stories involving other people’s creations lets you really dig into why they work and how the creator brought them to life. At the same time, you can focus more on other aspects of the storytelling when you don’t need to create the characters or setting from scratch.
There are also ample examples of stories that started as fanfic until the writer tweaked the details to make them a separate thing. This is often colloquially referred to as “filing off the serial number”, and is a kind of middle ground between true fanfic and original content. It’s like the literary equivalent of jazz musicians writing a new melody over familiar chord changes—a way to riff off of familiar ideas without doing a straight-up cover.
That’s what you’re going to do in this prompt. Here are the steps:
Pick something you enjoy watching. This can be a fictional show, but doesn’t have to be—you can do this exercise just as well with true crime shows, documentary-style shows, reality TV, sports, etc.
Take a second to brainstorm the things you like the most about this show. What keeps you watching and engaged? Who are your favorite characters (or hosts, or players, etc. depending on what the content is) and what do you like about them? It may be helpful to put an episode of the show on the background while you’re doing this step (or even while you’re writing) as extra inspiration.
Freewrite a scene that is true fanfic. With most shows, even reality shows, true crime, and sports, you can write the scene as if it’s playing out on the screen, mimicking the pacing of the action and the tone of the original. For instance, if you’re writing a fake hockey game, you could write it as the commentator describing the play. This could get a bit trickier with true documentary shows—in that case, it may be more productive to go meta, writing a scene of the experts conducting research or interviews, or planning how the show will be put together.
Go back through the scene and rewrite it to remove any identifiable details from the show itself. This might be as easy as changing the names, though sometimes you’ll want to tweak other details, too.
Read back over the newly vague-ified scene. Where do you think things are going next? Do you want to see that happen? If so, keep writing and see where that takes you. If it doesn’t have energy—why not? What is your scene missing that the original show gives you? Try editing the scene to see if you can give it that same appeal.
Exercise 3: Commercial break.
I am eternally fascinated by the people in drug commercials. There’s often a surprising amount of narrative constructed about their lives—you see them at work, at home with their families, hanging out with their friends and neighbors, almost always doing something active and interesting.
Another equally compelling group for me are the “before” folks in infomercials—the comically inept ones who struggle greatly to perform basic, common tasks as proof for why you need whatever the commercial is selling.
The point is: there’s storytelling in advertising, too, and you can riff off of this the same way you can off of a show. Let’s do that, but with a slight twist:
Watch a commercial that you find amusing or interesting and take notes on it while you do—who are the characters, and what are their defining traits? Most importantly, what are their “pain points”? What big challenges or problems are they facing? What points of tension or conflict are established in the commercial, and how are they resolved?
Characters in commercials usually have their problems solved by the end—that’s kind of the point. But let’s pretend the product or service being advertised doesn’t exist. Brainstorm some other solutions they might try. Don’t worry about whether these are plausible—in fact, the ones that are the most absurd or bizarre might turn out to be the best in terms of storytelling potential.
Pick the new solution from your list that is the most intriguing to you, or you feel would be the most fun to write. Now, write a scene or poem that involves the characters from the commercial implementing that new solution.
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