Real Life and Writing

I’ve been trying to write a radio themed spec for some time now but it never seemed to come out right. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted it to be slap stick funny or satirical or witty or whatever… nothing seemed to work.

What was happening was this: I kept trying to write a story that centered inside of a radio station and that stopped me from developing relationships the way I should in the script. I was making the radio station the main character instead of my protagonist. I think that as much as I hate to admit it, one of my strengths is romance. Like real romance, not having-sex-in-the-control-room romance. So, I decided to try something different.

What I’ve done is created a character who works at a radio station, but the story centers around his relationship with his girlfriend. Radio plays a large part in his way of life and causes conflict between the two of them, but the whole story does not take place in a radio station. Setting wise, it’s more Frasier than WKRP.

I’m very excited to take this story beyond outlining. Sometimes, it feels like I’m fighting for ideas, but every now and then, I just get struck with a story that I can’t wait to tell and I get super wrapped up in it. I can tell that this script is going to be one of those stories and that makes me smile.

Right now, though, I’m looking for some formatting advice. The story starts at one point in time, and then we rapidly speed through the next few years, seeing only snippets, before settling four years from the starting point. How should I format this? I pulled out my trusty ‘Screenwriter’s Bible’ and flipped to the formatting guide, but I’m not sure if I want to use the very simple ‘montage’ option given. Any suggestions?