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pitched stories. The breakdown and/or script writers for today's episode are: Suzanne Flynn and Charlotte Gibson.

This is a little long, but a nice explanation of how things generally flow for a daytime and also most primetime shows. And this is why I stand firm in executive producer Frank Valentini should shoulder a lot of the blame for the state of the show. He approved all of this!

Here's a really long, detailed answer. It's so long I'm going to do it in two posts as DL will cut me off:

This is how the process works at its most pure. This applies for almost all the soaps, past and present, except for Bold and the Beautiful, which has a really bizarro writing process.

Head Writer lays out long term story for the show. This can be anywhere from 3 months to one year in advance. Depending on the writer, this is either put in writing or merely pitched to the Executive Producer and execs. Level of detail varies also depending on the writer - some project stories for every character on the canvas, so just the big players, etc. Frequency of this pitch happens based on how long the last pitch went for.

On a weekly basis, the workflow is this. Days of the week might change, but you get the gist:

Using the long term story projection as the roadmap, the Head Writer and a team of what are called Breakdown (or "Outline" Writers) sit down and plot out a week of shows (sometimes it's six or seven days). Sometime they do this with something called a "thrust" - authored by the head writer - which is a document that lays out, in very broad terms, what should happen over the course of that week. Sometimes they just go, verbally, by the head writer's guidance.

The team - over the course of two to three days - lay out what will happen each day in an episode. Things that factor into their decisions: Where they want the plot to go over the course of the week, actors that are available (or on vacation), actors that are over or under their contract guarantee (i.e. certain actors are being paid so they need to do more work, or some actors are at the max amount their contract covers them for a week so if they are used more it'll cost extra money) and other physical factors, such as sets that are available (this is why people talk in locales like boathouses when they could just go to a diner...its based on what sets are available and standing, because moving sets in and out costs money).

Once the skeleton is laid out, each of the Breakdown Writers goes out and authors a breakdown (also called an outline). This document lists what's going to happen in each act and each scene of the episode. The length and detail of the breakdown varies depending on the head writer and the breakdown writer. Some breakdowns are 20-30 pages long and includes step by step accounts of what should happen in each scene, including dialogue and physical movements. Some breakdowns are thin on details and just includes where the scene starts and stops (ex: "Victor enters Jack's office. They fight about Billy's influence on Victoria. Jack punches Victor and runs out.")

Those breakdowns are published and shared with the Executive Producer, select show production people and any network executives that are relevant. All those people read the breakdowns and everyone gathers for a giant notes call. The EP, select show production and network executives offer notes on the breakdowns motivated by the following reasons:

1. Production logistics. This is a big part of what the Executive Producer weighs in on - any physical production limitations or considerations that need to be factored in for the episode (ex: if there's a physical stunt in the outline, etc) 2. Tracking. If the outline contradicts or doesn't acknowledge past events that have happened on the show. 3. Viewer Expectation. Each show's audience expects something different but, in general, an episode of a show should have romance, drama, suspense, people you like and some humor (the latter is not so true of the Bell shows, who either have no sense of humor or don't believe it makes for entertainment). If these are missing, there's a discussion about how to inject them. 4. Quality. Sometimes shows are just BAD. Writing for soaps is a grind and really hard. It's not always amazing. Sometimes the notes are about how to make the week's worth of shows better.

After the notes are given, the breakdowns/outlines are revised. From there they are distributed to a team of scriptwriters (dialogue writers). Each scriptwriter gets a breakdown/outline. They have about a week to write a script that's anywhere from 80-120 pages. This is not easy in any circumstances, but if the breakdown they've gotten is rich with detail (i.e. the 20-30 page ones) it's a bit easier vs. the thin ones, where the script writer is making up most of the action. In the course of writing the script, further holes or problems might reveal themselves (for example, if a character is supposed to be in a set eavesdropping on two characters, but then needs to exit the set without being seen, the physical mechanics of this might be impossible). As these challenges arise, the scriptwriter will often work with the head writer or another member of the writing team to solve them.

The script writer hands the script in a script editor reads it, editing it for time, quality and continuity. They are often aided by someone called a story coordinator, whose job it is to track continuity on a show and help with things like pulling scenes for flashbacks, etc. The head writer will sometimes edit scripts as well.

Once a script is edited, it's sent off to the production department, where it has a whole new life as people like prop masters, lightning designers, producers, etc all read it to start doing what they need to do in order to physically shoot the episode. The actors are also given the scripts during this process.

And that's what it is, week after week, year after year. Each show differs and, as budgets have shrunk, the amount of episodes being written on any given week will increase.

And all the above is done in parallel. Will script writers are writing episodes #1-5, the head writer and outline writers are working on episodes #6-10, which will soon make its way to script writers. And so on and so forth.

The head writer's job is to oversee ALL of the above and continue to generate new ideas, all while dealing with the constant curveballs that are thrown to them - some actor just got another job, another actor refuses to work with another actor, the ratings are down, someone's sick, things are over budget, etc. It's a really, really hard job and 24/7.

And this isn't exclusive to soaps. Nighttime shows with serialized stories do this to a certain degree too, but obviously for one episode and not a whole week.

So Shonda Rhimes and/or whoever runs it now would lay out the big points for a year, and then they'd break it down over 22 episodes - with the same level of input/feedback/seeing who's available as outlined above.