I like to add a quotation relating to each character under their name the sort of thing they are most likely to say or something that alludes to their particular storyline. Visualise and describe for us what is going on. Use your visual brain and set out some key moments - they need not be the first ones seen in the first scene of your pilot - but they could be ‘set pieces’ or significant moments in your story for your main character. You need to entice them into the storyline, to make them want to see it too. Imagine you are telling your friend about a film you have just seen that truly made an impact on you. Here the job is to be as descriptive and evocative as possible. ONE PARAGRAPH OF TASTY DESCRIPTION SETTING OUT THE WORLD: This is to what your Producer/Commissioner will keep referring in your conversation about the drama and its future development.

You need to convey the main narrative here - the set up, the jeopardy or challenge for your protagonist and to give a sense of style and tone by the way you word this. In a small paragraph a cluster of lines 3 - 6 maximum (otherwise it’s a pitch paragraph, not a logline!) summarise your idea as succinctly and entertainingly as you can. Here in your treatment you state how long your series or serial is x 3/4/6/8 parts or is it a series of 13 or more parts? For example: ‘The Wrong Mans’ ‘Prey’ ‘My Big Fat Teenage Diary’ ‘Peaky Blinders’ ‘Poldark’. A core cast of returning characters and an over arching storyline, but in this case the storyline is ultimately resolved. Serial: A drama of more than two parts with a strong serial element. For example: ‘Waking The Dead’ ‘Coronation Street’ ‘Downton Abbey’ ‘Scott and Bailey’ ‘Skins’. There may be several stories per episode which are resolved, but the series storyline, that which is carried by the core returning cast, remains open. The backdrop remains the same and is returned to each week. These are the definitions that describe my working day and most of my television career in drama production. Sometimes it’s better that the title describes what’s in the tin, so to speak eg: ‘Good Cop’ or, to take an example of a show for CITV that I Produced ‘My Dad’s A Boring Nerd’.

Make yours really sell your idea by being the best you can make it. TEMPLATE FOR TELEVISION TREATMENT - SCRIPT ADVICE .uk I wanted to make available, for all writers my condensed, no-frills Treatment Template which I believe is the quintessential DNA of a good treatment and will not fail you or your project, should you follow this layout and content. It was fabulous to see so many enthusiastic faces in the packed out Tuke Hall and to learn that my book sold out as a consequence of the session.

As many of Script Advice Writer’s Room members on Facebook and followers of my Twitter feed may know, I delivered a session on Treatment Writing for Television at the London Screenwriter’s Festival in October.

My fat teenage diary