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Foxwolf writes...

Hi Greg

As someone who is interested in writing episodic stories, I was wondering if you could tell me your approach on how you write a season for a series like YJ? I remember seeing an image on Brandon Vietti's blog where he had post-it's on a board mapping out all of season 1. Do you start with the season's overall story first, eg. The Light wants to take control of the Justice League and Red Arrow is the mole who will help them?

Then do you just come up with events that move the story forward and scatter them across episodes? Do you come up with plot points and character development separately or in tandum, eg. Superboy's growth would work well with this event? I ask because in my own writing I have season arc's and checkpoints on where I want some character's to grow but have struggled with "filling in the blanks".

Just off the top of your head, would you be able to share a few of the post-it's from a particular YJ episode?

And what are your thoughts on "filler story episodes". My interpretation was "Secrets" and "Performance" were filler in that they didn't drive the overall season story forward, but did have character development. Do you think it's important in writing for a series to give the audience a break from the story arc at regular intervals?

Thanks for your time Greg on sharing your writing process.

I was also wondering if you could please identify which voice actors voiced the following uncredited characters? Thanks.

120 - Coldhearted
Boston Police Officer
Chicago Police Officer #1
Chicago Police Officer #2
South Dakota State Trooper

121 - Image
Biaylan General

124 - Performance
Dragon's Breath
Carlo
Carlo's Brother

Greg responds...

1. Yes, we start with the overall story first and then break it down in smaller and smaller bites (using index cards - not post it notes - on a bulletin board).

2. We didn't have any filler episodes in this series. Everything played to one degree or another toward the end game. But some episodes are more intense than others and some are more directly involved in the arc than others. For example, after the triptych of mole episodes (121-123), we wanted to use 124 as a bit of a breather before launching into our resolution in 125 & 126. Having said that, 124 still kept our focus on on-going issues from the arc, like who Red Arrow suspected as possible moles, and how Superboy was abusing his shields.

3. I'm afraid my season one record draft scripts are boxed up. So I don't have access to who played minor bit parts handy.

Response recorded on August 30, 2012