I attended Bumbershoot 2009 in Seattle on Labor Day and slipped into one of the last available seats for a Q&A panel with staff writers for the ABC hit series Lost.
Why did I attend? There was a time in my life (can’t say it has expired) where script writing for television held a lot of appeal for me as a possible career choice. Unfortunately, my university did not offer any script writing or screen writing classes (I looked) and I didn’t know how else to pursue it (I was young and silly). But the concept of writing a story with a team of creative people still appeals, especially for an ongoing story with a definitive end (i.e. not a sitcom or a soap opera), so I was excited by the opportunity to hear professional television writers discuss the process of writing for a hit series.
For fans of the show, or just the curious, here are some things that were said:
- About Season 2010: Season 2010 is a mystery the writers can’t discuss (not a surprise). However it was said that we might see some dead or missing characters, such as Charlie (whoo hoo!) and maybe Cindy (a flight attendant?). It was not revealed if these characters would appear in flashbacks, in real time, or in “rewritten” time.
- Consulting the Internet: The writers for Lost do not check the Internet or read comments from fans. Critiques mid-writing can interfere with the writing process (I know this from experience, so that makes a lot of sense to me). However, the Lost team does employ two guys (just two?) whose jobs (or part of their jobs) is to peruse the Internet conversation. One of the guys is named Greg Nations. The League of Nations is an internet group of Greg fans.
- Timeline Graphs: The staff of writers for Lost have timeline graphs that run along the walls so they don’t get lost (har har). I imagine them to look kind of like the graph that Doc Brown draws for Marty McFly in Back to the Future II, especially with the time divergence, only more detailed and more interesting. Also, something other than the flux compacitor and 1.21 jigawatts makes time travel possible in Lost (not sure what…).
- Mythology: When asked about how much the writers ‘know what is going on’ in advance to writing it, the answer is that the mythology is pretty deep and that what viewers see in the show is the tip of the ice berg. However, many things are affected by the organic nature of television writing. For example, the characters Jin and Michael were supposed to hate each other, but the actors got along together so well on screen they ended up being written as friends.
- How Cool Stuff is Decided: The writers talked about how fun it is to write for a show like Lost where there is so much room for zany happenings. The writers spoke about feeling confident pitching even the ‘worst ideas’ and that sometimes the best ideas came from ideas that were originally rejected. The writers specifically mentioned the decision to show the “whole statue” (only one foot is seen in the ‘present’). The idea came out at the discussion table in which someone simply proposed it as ’something cool’ they could do.
- Why is Jack…? The first and best question came from someone who asked why Jack reminds us of that ex-boyfriend who needs to get up early in the morning to train for a Triathlon. This was hilarious on many levels. The response from the writers indicated awareness that they know Jack’s character is ‘like that’.
- Other Character Stuff: Hurley was a favorite character of the writers present. One writer felt that Jin should be written as shirtless more often. The character Mr. Eko was supposed to have more of a story, but the actor had a difficult time living in Hawaii and had to leave the show.
- Most Difficult Episode: The Constant was apparently a very difficult episode to write.
- Keeping the Mystery: One questioner asked if the writers were concerned that the end of the series would reveal too much of the mystery that made the show enjoyable. The writers responded that they were conscious of that struggle and had learned from the example of the Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menanace and midi-chlorians.
- Sequels or Spin-Offs?: One questioner asked if any sequels or spin offs were in the works following the end of Lost. It seems obvious to me that the writers would not know this as the show belongs to the network. However, one of the writers joked that perhaps there would be a cartoon miniseries called “Locke and the Monster” with moral/spiritual lessons. I would watch that noise.
There was more, but that’s what stayed in my head. Discuss!