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                   The Recipe to Writing Soap Opera Scenarios
                                    release 2

                           by Burnin' of UNKNOWN Prez
                                 Oct 16th, 2001
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 Dear reader, today we will have a look at the basics of creating soap opera
 scenarios. There are, as by everything, several different ways to accomplish
 this task. We shall describe only one of them: customizing an already existing
 good scenario. This variant is more preferred over others because good scripts
 aren't too hard to find and the whole process is relatively painless. For
 starters you need a good scenario, a script which has enough action, funny
 humor, a good story, deep characters, interesting situations. You know the
 saying: the better the building material the better the result, so choose
 carefully. Probably best would be the scenario of a late 90's action series,
 mainly because they have all the needed ingredients. But let's go on, next you
 take the amount of humor that occurs in one, ONE, episode of that good show
 and minimize it to 64,4 per cent. Now you take the action and repeat the
 minimizing on it. Then take the thrill, story and the count of different
 backgrounds (often referred to as the places where the show will be shot) and
 minimize them too. Multiply the amount of text with twelve hundred and tripple
 the amount of main characters. Put this all in a pot and mix well. Let it stay
 for a month or so. Share then the mix between all 1233 episodes. Done? Good,
 there you have it: your average soap opera scenario which can be marketed in
 every part of the world. If you want more success to the script then you
 should change the amount of some ingredients according to the country. For
 example, if the target is Mexican TV then following steps should be taken:
 take at least one of the show's dominating families/groups and add about 4
 zeroes (plus/minus a zeroe) to the sum they have on their bank account or
 change their money's currency from the native to US dollars. After that
 multiply the jealousy with eleven and the fighting between female characters
 with six, include an amnesia by a main (preferably male) character and if
 most characters are over 24 then include also a rape or two. If you on the
 other hand are thinking about the American market then forget the rape and
 half of the fights, add those zeroes to everyone's money, include about 3
 psychos and let at least one of them develop into a complete nutcase. Extra
 spice can be added by letting that last psycho kill a couple not so often
 occurring characters. You can also use a clever trick which is known from
 Spelling's shows: triple the amount of backgrounds. Additionally a little
 kidnapping and/or a twin brother/sister can be quite successful. By the way,
 twins and psychos can be combined. For Australian market take the original
 average script and make sure that one third of the action takes place outside.
 Also take care that every 4th scene in that one third is filmed in a beach.
 That's it. As you can see, it's very easy. So the next time you have a free
 afternoon why not sit down and write a soap opera scenario.


