storylining ...

Today we had Kim in the morning again. Over the last week we have been in groups (Harry, Ada, Meg and I) and we've been storylining a new character into a week of Corrie. Our character is Jackie Morgan and she is the half-sister of current character Kelly. We wrote out an episode each following the story that Jackie is a lesbian, gets close to Carla (her boss) and kisses her! Kelly sees them and uses this to her own advantage (the two sisters don't get along.)

SO...today we wrote out the main 'tag' (the hook) from each episode under its day. For instance, I wrote Monday: Jackie and Carla exchange numbers. Each group had their own colour..ours was green, yay!, so when we put them on the wall there was a column of four grabbing stories under Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

The stories were all scrambled (in order of importance) to begin with but we started establishing the 'A story' by putting the most gripping idea in the top row and doing the same with the second most amazing idea in the row below - the 'B' line. Then there were 'C' stories etc. With a couple we put them further on in the chain - either in a row or a column in order to deliver emphasis or to tie up a story.

This was a really, really, really good exercise to have done with Kim because firstly, it was so visual. The colours were a simple but extremely effective way of drawing the eye to where the thread of the story was being put. You could easily see, almost at once, what would not sit well and what worked.
Secondly, you suddenly had a very clear time scale plan without going nuts looking at days and dates on a piece of paper. I'd imagine you could have a whole wall - with or without as much detail desired - outlining a week or a month of soap storylining.
Thirdly, it's an exercise you can apply to most types of programmes to help you plan ahead: dramas, soaps, maybe even documentaries?
FOURTHLY...you could even work out likely dates for higher viewings and arrange big 'boom-booms' accordingly or vice versa (:

River City don't use this method but Coronation Street do and Eastenders are starting to. Already the ratings for Eastenders have gone up, which is very interesting!

I'll be using this method myself plenty of times I'm sure, I really feel like I learnt a new way to storyline today and in a fun way!