Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction: Writing for Online Series -- Getting Started -- Design Concept and Production Parameters -- About the Authors -- Accessing the Web Series We Talk about -- 2 What's Your Show About? -- The Idea Phase -- Generating ideas -- Going beyond listing scenarios -- Crafting a premise -- Box: Why you should not focus on your friends -- The central question -- Designing Your Characters -- The main character -- Secondary characters -- Antagonists: Tormentor, Threat, Rival -- The Story World -- Pacing the explanation -- Setting boundaries -- Box: Co-authors Yuri and Vlad on creating a story world -- 3 Episodic Story Structure -- The Setup -- Rising Action -- Obstacles and conflict -- Escalating tension -- Box: Dramatic arcs within dramatic arcs -- Resolution -- 4 Dialogue -- What is the "Job" of the Dialogue? -- Nothing extra -- Subtext -- Foreshadowing -- Exposition and backstory -- Is It a Comedy or a Drama? -- Comedic Dialogue Techniques -- The call-back joke -- Playing the opposite -- Double entendre -- Absurdism -- Mumblecore -- Comedic and Dramatic Styles: What's Yours? -- 5 Revising and Polishing -- Checking Your Structure -- Does the setup open with a bang? -- Does Act I feel like a story? -- Does Act II drive the story forward? -- Does Act III pay off? -- Checking Your Characters -- Checking the Economy of the Writing -- Getting Feedback -- The workshop -- The staged reading -- The table reading -- Sifting through the critiques -- Working with bosses -- 6 Episode 2 and Beyond -- Serialized vs. Standalone -- The standalone approach -- The serialized approach -- Recurring themes and characters -- Three-Act Structure for a Serialized Show -- The setup -- Rising action -- Resolution -- Looking ahead -- Secondary Story Arcs -- 7 Format