Wow, what a detailed analysis....

Okay, some good thoughts here. Quick responses.

The best way to approach this is to discuss my approach to writing in
general. I've now written two published novels, and have a third ready to
be written as soon as I have six months to a year to spare (i.e, not for
a while yet). My structure is always very tight on these things, in the
sense that I plan out the basic *spine* of the novel. I know I'm starting
at point A, I want to end at point Z, and I want to hit a certain number of
spots along the way. Then I start writing. Once I've committed to that
STRUCTURE, everything else becomes expendable or fluid. I've ha
background characters suddenly lurch into the foreground, and major
characters (or characters I *thought* would be major) fall into the
background. Sometimes, while chugging along the structure highway, I'll
see something interesting just off the main road, and I'll go poke around
in there for a while.

Basically, I like being *surprised*. And I think, in general, that
readers do as well. At no time do I diverge from where I want to go; the
spine never alters. But the details are absolutely fluid.

When I write an episode, I do exactly the same thing. I *HATE* to
outline; I think it freezes the story too much. So in general I just sit
down at the keyboard, knowing the title of the episode, the primary
incidents that have to happen, and a few character moments, and stgart
writing. And things suddenly occur to me, I get surprised by moments when
the characters turn to me and say, "Hey, stupid, don't do THAT, do *THIS*."
And I go where they tell me. The result is that the scripts I write tend
to be VERY tight: they go where they're going, and move like a house
afire...BUT there's the real sense that ANYdamnedthing can happen at any
moment, because I'm not locked in.

The same applies to the series overall. I know *exactly* where the
series is going, the final denouement, the benchmarks of each season, and
have brief synopses on most of the episodes. But you have to be open to
surprises, have to allow yourself to be pulled one way or another on the
details, otherwise you get predictable, and you lose the spark. Also,
the reality is that actors are human; there can be contract disputes,
health problems, any number of things...so there have to be trap doors
built into the storyline for *every single one of the characters* without
exception.

The closest comparison, I suppose, would be doing a story about
World War II. The individual pieces can move around, people can come and
go, live or die, suddenly be revealed to be counterspies...but the basic
progression, the storyline of the war, is not changed. (Unless you're
doing alternate history, which we're not.) When I write, I basically
carry the whole storyline in my head, and I run the episode through that
to make sure that it all parses.

It's as if you've flashed back in time to WW II, and you're in a
battalion going into Normandy Beach. You know that in the long run, the
Allies will win the war...but you look around at the other people in
the landing craft with you, and you have no idea which of them is going
to make it through to the end. One is set. The other is fluid.

The final destination of the story, and the chief points along the
way...none of that has altered so much as an inch. Within that structure
I may move some elments up, push some back; you have to find the *feel* of
the story as you write it, something you can't prepare for until you're
actually writing it. But the structure remains, giving me freedom to
roam where I want...if I decide to kill off one of the three really major
human characters in year three (and I'm NOT saying I'm planning on it, I'm
just discussing hypotheticals), I can do it, and the overall storyline
isn't touched.

A destination may be fixed on the horizon...but sometimes the most fun
you have is getting lost from time to time on the way there.

jms