# TV writing exercises: A, B and C stories, setups and payoffs

> Three TV writing exercises from writers' room practice: break a pilot into A, B and C stories, map setups to payoffs, and build a scene on dramatic irony.

*24 September 2026 · television, structure · [ScripTao blog](https://scriptao.com/blog)*

Most lists of "TV writing exercises" are scene prompts that would work just as well for a feature or a play. The exercises TV writing courses actually set are about the things only television has: several stories in one episode, act breaks, and secrets and promises that run across a whole season. Here are three of them, built on what published syllabi set, with the syllabi's page counts and a worked example you can copy.

## What TV writing courses actually assign

Published TV syllabi follow the same ladder: study a show, break a story into A, B and C lines, write a short beat sheet, expand it into an outline, then write pages. The documents are graded separately, which tells you how much weight the planning carries.

| Course (published syllabus or catalogue) | What it asks for |
|---|---|
| [USC CTWR 534, Advanced Half-Hour Comedy, Fall 2024](https://web.archive.org/web/2025id_/https://web-app.usc.edu/soc/syllabus/20243/19253.pdf) | Watch at least the pilot and the two most recent episodes of each show the class is speccing, then a reverse beat sheet of a recent episode of your own show. Written pitches for "free-standing A, B and C stories (at least 3 of each)". A 2-page beat sheet, then a 5–7-page outline. |
| [USC CTWR 421, The Hour-Long Dramatic Series, Fall 2023](https://web.archive.org/web/2024id_/https://web-app.usc.edu/soc/syllabus/20233/19203.pdf) | A spec of an existing drama. Beat sheet ("skinny beats") 20%, outline 20%, first draft 25%, final draft 25%. The outline is 5–8 pages. |
| [NYU FMTV-UT 1102, Writing for Television: The Half Hour](https://bulletins.nyu.edu/courses/fmtv_ut/) | "From premise lines for A, B, C stories to the beat sheet, outlines to script pages", ending in a half-hour spec or an original pilot. |
| [UCLA FTV 131A, Intro TV Writing (sample syllabus)](https://summer.ucla.edu/app/uploads/2021/12/2026-FTV131-Intro-to-TV-Writing_Example-Syllabus.pdf) | Ten one-sentence loglines, then two potential A and B stories to pitch, then "logistical tracking" of a comparable show. The outline is written act by act, and every student's material is read aloud in class. |
| [UCLA FTV 133B, Intermediate TV Writing (sample syllabus)](https://summer.ucla.edu/app/uploads/2023/01/2026-FTV133B-Intermediate-TV-Writing_Example-Syllabus.pdf) | Two possible A and B stories, a beat sheet, then an outline in two 5-page halves, then a first draft. |

If you're self-taught, that's your curriculum. The three exercises below are the parts of it you can practise on their own in an evening or a weekend. The film-side versions of these skills are in [our outline exercises](https://scriptao.com/blog/outline-exercises-step-outline-reverse-outline) and in [the round-up of what film schools assign](https://scriptao.com/blog/screenwriting-exercises-film-schools-assign).

## Exercise 1: Reverse beat sheet an episode, then break your own into A, B and C stories

**Time:** 2 hours for the reverse beat sheet, 2 hours for your own break. **Deliverable:** a one-page reverse beat sheet of an aired episode, three pitches each for an A, a B and a C story, and a 2-page beat sheet of your episode.

### Step one: take an aired episode apart

Before you can build an episode you need to see how one is put together. USC's half-hour comedy course has students choose the show they'll spec, then "make a reverse beat sheet for a recent episode of that show. Note the Act structure." Do it with the sound on and a notepad, pausing after every scene.

For each scene write one line: who it belongs to (A, B or C), what changes in it, and whether it ends an act. You'll probably notice three things:

- The A story belongs to the lead and gets the most scenes. TV writer Eric Haywood [describes the A as](https://scriptmag.com/features/writers-room-101-beats-breaking-blending) "the most important (and longest)" story, followed by a B, a C and sometimes a D, which is sometimes called a runner.
- The stories rarely share scenes until late in the episode. They hand off to each other.
- Each act ends on an act break, which Haywood says will usually involve "some kind of big plot twist or revelation".

### Step two: pitch before you plot

Next comes the pitch. USC asks for at least three free-standing pitches each for the A, the B and the C. Each pitch is a few sentences: whose story it is, what they want, what's in the way, and roughly how it ends. UCLA's intro course starts with "two potential A and B stories". Pitching several options stops you marrying the first idea.

### Step three: break it on a board

"Breaking" a story means turning a pitch into an ordered list of beats. In Haywood's account of how a writers' room works, the staff break each story on a whiteboard and then "blend" them, deciding the order in which the episode cuts between them. He sometimes identifies the act break first and works backwards to the beats that lead up to it. The USC course asks for a 2-page beat sheet with "emphasis on creating cohesive structure for A, B & C stories (keep storylines separate for now)". Keep them separate first and blend them second.

### A worked example

Here's an original half-hour comedy pilot, *Open Late*. Priya, 29, has just taken over her father's 24-hour laundromat. The theme is letting go of how things used to be done.

- **A (Priya):** a fire inspector is coming Friday, and the dryer vent has never passed.
- **B (Dev, her "retired" father):** he keeps showing up and undoing her changes.
- **C (runner):** Mrs. Okafor, a regular, washes the same wedding dress in machine 7 every night.

| Act | A | B | C | Act-out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold open | Priya finds the inspection notice taped to the door | | Mrs. Okafor, machine 7, the dress | The notice names the last failed inspection, under Dev |
| One | Priya prices a new vent and can't afford it | Dev arrives with donuts and rehangs his old sign | Machine 7 is the one the plumber wants to pull out | Inspection moved up to tomorrow morning |
| Two | An all-night repair with borrowed tools | Dev admits he hid the vent problem for ten years | Priya asks Mrs. Okafor to switch machines, and she refuses | Dev: "If you fix it, it's not mine anymore." |
| Three | The inspection. A near-fail, saved by Dev's knowledge of the building | Dev gives Priya the keys he'd kept | Mrs. Okafor moves to machine 8 | |
| Tag | | | Machine 8 ruins the dress. Or does it? | |

Filter that table down to one column at a time. Each story should still have a start, a turn and an end. If the C disappears for two acts, it needs a beat or it needs to go.

## Exercise: Break a pilot into A, B and C stories

*Advanced · 2 hours.* Three stories, one theme, act-outs marked. The way a writers' room breaks an episode.

**What it trains.** Weaving storylines so they share a theme and hand off to each other, with an act-out that makes the audience stay through the break.

### The exercise

1. Reverse beat sheet one aired episode of a show you know: one line per scene, marked A, B or C, with the act-outs starred.
2. Name the A story (the lead's), the B and the C, and say how they share a theme.
3. Put beats on the board by act: cold open, then acts one to three.
4. Mark each act-out, the beat that ends an act on a question.
5. Filter to each story in turn. Does it start, turn and end?

### Doing it in ScripTao

1. Start this exercise: it opens the Story board of a half-hour pilot with A, B and C storylines
2. Name the storylines under Storylines
3. “+ beat” under an act; double-click a card to edit it, pick its storyline and tick act-out
4. Filter the board to one storyline to check it's complete; Scene outline → “Create scenes from beats” when you're ready

**You're done when:** Beats in every act, each act ending on a ★ act-out, and every storyline visible on its own when you filter the board.

### Read or watch alongside

- Pamela Douglas, Writing the TV Drama Series (recommended on a UCLA intermediate TV writing syllabus)
- Neil Landau, The TV Showrunner's Roadmap (same list)
- Eric Haywood, "Writers' Room 101: Beats, Breaking, and Blending" (Script Magazine)
- Pilots on a published UCLA TV writing syllabus: Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Insecure, Black-ish, Killing Eve, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

[Start this exercise](https://scriptao.com/app/exercise/abc-story-break) — free, no sign-up. Opens a practice project set up for it.
## Spec or original pilot?

A **spec** is an unsold episode of a show that already exists. A **pilot** is the first episode of your own show. Many courses still teach through specs because they force you to learn how an existing show is built. USC CTWR 421's stated objective is to "write a spec script for an existing TV drama series". Gotham Writers' [TV Writing I](https://wp.writingclasses.com/courses/tv-writing-i-foundation/) focuses on specs, calling them "the best way to learn how TV episodes work", and notes that original scripts are "more desirable these days" as samples.

The industry has moved to pilots. The [2027 Disney Entertainment Television Writing Program](https://sites.disney.com/ctdi/wpapplication2027/) asks for two original writing samples and says plainly: "Both scripts must be original pilots." Its checklist also asks whether "the underlying conflict, setting, and circumstances of the next 99 episodes" are clear from the script. TV writer Michael Jamin [explains why](https://michaeljamin.substack.com/p/should-i-write-a-spec-or-an-original). When there were a few giant hits, every reader knew the show you'd specced. Now, if you spec your favourite streaming show, "there's a very good chance that your reader has never watched it."

Here's how the two paths compare, pulling together the course, fellowship and Network ISA sources above:

| | Spec | Original pilot |
|---|---|---|
| What it proves | You can match someone else's voice, tone and structure | You can invent a world that runs for many episodes |
| Where it's taught | USC CTWR 421 and 534, Gotham TV Writing I, NYU (student's choice) | UCLA FTV 131A and 133B, Stowe Story Labs Writers Room, NYU (student's choice) |
| Disney's 2027 program | "Spec scripts will not be accepted" | Two original pilots required |
| Length | Match the show you're speccing | See below |

On length, a [Network ISA article](https://www.networkisa.org/screenwriting_articles/view/the-length-and-look-of-your-pilot-or-screenplay) by a screenwriting career coach gives these limits: one-hour pilots "up to 65 pages", ideally 55–60, and half-hour pilots "up to 38 pages", with a minimum of around 32 for new writers. For a spec, open the show's own scripts and match them.

If you want the room experience outside a university, [Stowe Story Labs' Writers Room](https://stowestorylabs.org/the-writers-room) is a 12-week remote program capped at 12 writers. It ends with "both an outline and a complete pilot episode", and participants leave ready to write a series bible.

## Exercise 2: Map every setup to its payoff, across episodes

**Time:** 45 minutes. **Deliverable:** a ledger of every plant in four episodes, with the episode it's planted in and the episode it pays off in, and no row left empty.

The principle is older than television. In a letter of 1 November 1889, Chekhov wrote that one must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it. He [repeated the point in other letters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun), which is why several versions of the line survive. What TV changes is the distance. A plant can sit for half a season.

*Breaking Bad* season two is the clearest example. The teddy bear floating in Walt's pool appears in the opening teasers of "Seven Thirty-Seven", "Down" and "Over", with no explanation. The season finale, ["ABQ"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABQ_%28Breaking_Bad%29), written by Vince Gilligan, pays it off. Jane's grieving father, an air traffic controller, causes a mid-air collision overhead, and the bear falls from the sky into the pool. The audience has carried the image for most of a season.

Comedy does the same with jokes. *[Arrested Development](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrested_Development)*, created by Mitchell Hurwitz, keeps "numerous running gags and catchphrases" going across a serialized story. In season two Buster's hand is bitten off by a loose seal that Gob had accidentally trained to crave meat. The name is a pun on Lucille, his mother, and NPR's [chart of the show's recurring gags](https://apps.npr.org/arrested-development/) flags the lost hand as one of the jokes the show foreshadowed.

### How to do it

1. List every plant in your episodes: objects, lines, habits, promises, open questions.
2. Beside each one, write the episode it's planted in and the episode it pays off in.
3. Anything with no payoff gets one or gets cut. Anything that pays off without a plant gets planted earlier.
4. For comedy runners, make each return different from the last, not just a repeat.

Here's the ledger for *Open Late*, episodes 1–4:

| Setup | Planted | Pays off | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dev's old sign, "OPEN LATE, NEVER CLOSED" | Pilot | Episode 4 | Priya rehangs it herself |
| Mrs. Okafor's wedding dress | Pilot | Episode 3 | We learn whose wedding it was |
| Priya can't fold a fitted sheet (runner) | Episode 2 | Episode 4 | She teaches a new night clerk, badly |
| Who called the fire inspector? | Pilot | Episode 4 | Dev did |

That last row is a question, not an object, and it leads straight into the next exercise.

## Exercise: Map every setup to its payoff

*Intermediate · 45 minutes.* Chekhov's gun, tracked: nothing planted is forgotten, and nothing pays off from nowhere.

**What it trains.** Planting and paying off on purpose: runners and callbacks in comedy, clues in mysteries, and objects that come back changed.

### The exercise

1. List every setup in your story: objects, lines, skills, promises, questions.
2. For each, write where it's planted and where it pays off.
3. Any setup with no payoff gets a payoff or gets cut. Any payoff with no setup gets planted earlier.
4. For a comedy runner, make each return different from the last.

### Doing it in ScripTao

1. Start this exercise: it opens Setups & reveals in a four-episode half-hour comedy
2. Add each thread: Setup → payoff, or Open question
3. Pick the episode it's set up in and the one it pays off in
4. The counter at the top shows how many threads still have no payoff planned

**You're done when:** Every thread has a payoff episode, and “no payoff planned” reads 0.

### Read or watch alongside

- Breaking Bad, season two: the teasers of "Seven Thirty-Seven", "Down" and "Over", paid off in "ABQ"
- Arrested Development, seasons one and two (runners and callbacks, including the loose seal)
- Anton Chekhov's letter of 1 November 1889 to A. S. Lazarev (the "loaded rifle" remark)

[Start this exercise](https://scriptao.com/app/exercise/setups-and-payoffs) — free, no sign-up. Opens a practice project set up for it.
## Exercise 3: Who knows what, when (dramatic irony across a season)

**Time:** 45 minutes, plus an hour for the scene. **Deliverable:** a grid showing the episode in which the audience and each character learn one secret, and a 2–3-page scene played in one of the gaps.

The standard teaching text is Hitchcock's bomb under the table, from his interviews with François Truffaut. Two people chat, a bomb goes off, and the audience gets a surprise. Now show the audience the bomb first:

> "In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed." (Hitchcock, quoted in [Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/building-a-better-bomb-the-alternatives-to-suspense/); a shorter version is quoted in [New Left Review](https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii40/articles/sven-lutticken-suspense-and-surprise.pdf))

Television can stretch those fifteen minutes to years. Three shows mark out the range:

- **One episode.** In *Columbo*'s ["Murder by the Book"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_by_the_Book_%28Columbo%29) (1971, written by Steven Bochco, directed by Steven Spielberg), we watch Ken Franklin kill his writing partner and set up his alibi. The episode's pleasure is watching Columbo close in on something we already know.
- **Most of a series.** *Breaking Bad*'s audience watches Walt become Heisenberg while Hank doesn't know. In ["Gliding Over All"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliding_Over_All) (written by Moira Walley-Beckett), Hank leafs through Walt's copy of *Leaves of Grass* and finds a note from Gale to his "other favorite W.W." The handwriting matches, and Hank finally realizes the truth.
- **The opposite choice.** *[Broadchurch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadchurch_%28series_1%29)* series one, created by Chris Chibnall, withholds the killer from everyone until the eighth episode, when Joe Miller confesses. That's surprise, not dramatic irony. It's a valid choice, but it's a different tool.

UCLA's intro TV course teaches "logistical tracking as a tool for story structure" and has students apply it to a comparable show. This grid is one version of that: a row per secret and a column per person, including the audience.

### A worked grid

For *Open Late*, the secret is that Dev called the fire inspector on his own daughter.

| Who | Learns it in | Gap versus the audience |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Episode 2 (a phone call we overhear) | |
| Mrs. Okafor | Pilot (she saw him make the call) | She knows before we do |
| Priya | Episode 4 | Two episodes of dramatic irony |

The scene to write is in episode 3. Priya thanks Dev for helping her pass the inspection, and we know he started it. Keep it to 2–3 pages and never let either of them name the secret. For more on keeping things unsaid, see [the subtext exercise](https://scriptao.com/blog/subtext-exercise).

## Exercise: The bomb under the table

*Advanced · 45 minutes.* Decide when the audience learns a secret, and when each character does.

**What it trains.** Choosing between surprise and suspense on purpose: when to let the audience know before a character does.

### The exercise

1. Write one secret that could end a relationship in your story.
2. Decide the episode the audience learns it.
3. Decide the episode each character learns it.
4. Look at every gap where the audience knows first, and write one scene that plays that tension without naming the secret.

### Doing it in ScripTao

1. Start this exercise: it opens Setups & reveals in a four-episode drama with three characters
2. Add a thread and choose “Reveal / secret”
3. Under Who knows what, when, set the Audience column and each character's episode
4. Cells where the audience knows first are shaded as dramatic irony

**You're done when:** At least one shaded cell: the audience learns the secret before a character does.

### Read or watch alongside

- François Truffaut, Hitchcock/Truffaut (the bomb under the table)
- Columbo, "Murder by the Book" (1971, written by Steven Bochco): the audience watches the murder first
- Breaking Bad, "Gliding Over All" (2012, written by Moira Walley-Beckett): Hank finally catches up
- Broadchurch, series one: the opposite choice, a killer withheld from everyone until episode eight

[Start this exercise](https://scriptao.com/app/exercise/dramatic-irony) — free, no sign-up. Opens a practice project set up for it.
## A two-week plan

If you're working alone, this is roughly a course's first month compressed:

1. **Days 1–2:** choose a show, watch the pilot and two recent episodes, and write a reverse beat sheet of one.
2. **Days 3–4:** pitch three A, three B and three C stories, then pick one of each.
3. **Days 5–6:** break it into a 2-page beat sheet, stories separate first, then blended, with act-outs marked.
4. **Day 7:** write the setup/payoff ledger and the who-knows-what grid for four episodes.
5. **Days 8–10:** write a 5–7-page outline for a half-hour, or 5–8 for an hour.
6. **Days 11–14:** write the cold open and act one. Read it aloud.

You can do all three exercises in [ScripTao](https://scriptao.com/features/story-board), which is free, needs no sign-up and keeps your work in your browser. Each box above opens a practice project already set up for that exercise.

## FAQ

### What is a spec script for TV?

A spec script is an episode of an existing show that you write without being hired, to prove you can match its characters, tone and structure. Courses such as USC's CTWR 421 still use specs to teach episode structure. Fellowships increasingly want original pilots instead. Disney's 2027 program says "Both scripts must be original pilots."

### How many pages is a one-hour pilot? A half-hour?

One Network ISA guide puts a one-hour pilot at up to 65 pages, ideally 55–60, and a half-hour at up to 38, with about 32 as the floor for new writers. For a spec, match the page count of the real show's scripts.

### What does it mean to "break" a story?

Breaking a story means turning a pitch into an ordered list of beats (roughly, scenes), then blending the A, B and C stories into one running order with the act breaks in place. In a writers' room it happens on a whiteboard. On your own, index cards or a board of cards work the same way.

### What is the typical structure of a TV episode?

It depends on the show. The USC hour-long syllabus asks students to examine "Teaser, Act Breaks, character arcs and storylines" and to ask "How many acts, how many storylines/runners? What does your show demand?" So count the acts and storylines in the show you're writing for rather than using a universal template.

### How do I write a script for a TV show?

Follow the course ladder: study the show, pitch A, B and C stories, write a beat sheet, expand it into an outline, then draft. In the two USC syllabi above the outline alone is worth 20–25% of the grade, which shows how much of the work happens before pages. The [logline exercise](https://scriptao.com/blog/logline-exercise) is a good place to start if you don't have an idea yet.

### What are some good exercises for TV writers specifically?

The three above: a reverse beat sheet plus an A/B/C break, a setup/payoff ledger across episodes, and a who-knows-what grid. For character work that has to hold up over a season, try [want, need and wound](https://scriptao.com/blog/character-want-need-wound). Once you have a draft, [the rewriting exercises](https://scriptao.com/blog/rewriting-exercises) cover turning notes into a second draft.