I ran into a buddy the other night. He’s a musician, or more specifically, a rapper. He’s had great success with it and in the last couple years has decided to move into television development. So, like many of us, he started writing down some ideas.
His first show idea was pretty good and garnered some interest from people in the biz but ultimately but it never found a home with the Broadcasters.
So it was Friday night and we were both out with friends. He said he’d received my Christmas card and meant to call: he has some new ideas for some shows he wants to kick around with me. He pulled out this folder and said, “Take a look at this next week and call me.”(NOTE: giving someone your show ideas in a pub on a Friday night is generally not acceptable but we’re pals so there is some license here)
Well here it is Monday morning and I look in the folder and what does he have but 25 show ideas. Twenty five!!!
Now they’re not ready to pitch: some of them are still raw, but for some of them he has a rough One Sheet, a Logline, the demographic he sees tuning in, and which Broadcasters he thinks they would be suited for.
From all I have seen I believe this is one of the most important reasons to never quit building your show. Once you have worked through the creative process of developing a show the first time, it is soooo much easier to do it again. No, I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m saying it’s easier.
Once my friend knew the principles he learned building his first show he was able to duplicate the same steps for all these other ideas he had.
Yes you still need to have a good idea, and you still need to do the work to put it all together. But once you’ve done it once and you know the process of how to put one creative foot in front of the other, it isn’t such a massive deal to take another idea, flesh it out, and build the materials you need to pitch your show.
Now, 25 shows is a lot, and I’m not suggesting most people will be that prolific once they’ve built their first show, but, it is an example of what can be done once you’ve learned the system.
So keep going and don’t let the struggle of building your first show make you quit, because as my friend proved, it is incredible what you can get done once you’ve done it before.