sw-chinese-series-practice

国产剧创作体系与制片链（Chinese Series Practice）

Output language = language of the question; terms are always anchored back to the original word, see sw-workflow/terms.md, do not coin translations.

The writing system, document chain, adaptation craft and production/censorship chain of mainland Chinese TV dramas. Five sources each serve their own role:

Yao Kougen, Introduction to TV Drama Writing(Shanghai Theatre Academy Playwriting Studies Textbook Series, Shanghai People's Publishing House, January 2016, 1st edition revised and expanded) =academic system: triple characteristics, typology, four script formats, structural rules with the episode as unit, four levels of suspense, scene studies, 36 situations.
Zhang Wei et al., TV Drama Adaptation Tutorial(China Film Press, September 2014, 1st edition) =adaptation craft: typology of five sources, selling-point transfer, thematic coordinate system, segment-by-segment copy/delete/adapt, six episode-by-episode, scene-by-scene case studies.
Zhang Mingzhi and Song Peiyi, TV Drama Presenter and Producer Tutorial(industry training textbook of the TV Production Committee of the China Radio and Television Association, China Radio and Television Publishing House, October 2016, 1st edition) =production chain: the four forms of a script and the "dramatic eye", hard runtime data, eight administrative systems, two stages of censorship, scene breakdown sheets, contracts, copyright.
Zhao Binbin, Film and TV Drama Excerpt Adaptation Tutorial(China Film Press, January 2016 edition) =excerpt adaptation: thecompressioncraft from finished film to an 8–20 minute stage excerpt, opposite in direction to Zhang Wei'sexpansion.
Douglas, Introduction to American TV Writing, Chinese translation(translated by Yan Min, Shanghai Sanlian, April 2009 = English 2nd edition) andBlum, Television and Screen Writing, Chinese translation(Huaxia Publishing House, 2003) =terminology: a comparison of official Chinese translated names with current conventional translations.

The American method itself is not here: for single-episode act structure see sw-series-structure, for the engine and bible see sw-series-engine-bible, for the writers' room see sw-writers-room, for scene-numbering layout conventions see sw-format-adaptation section 2-2, for general dialogue methods see sw-dialogue, for American TV case studies see sw-series-case-studies. This skill only writes "how Chinese dramas do it themselves" and "the correspondences with and differences from the American TV system".

For format samples, planning document samples, single-episode scene sheets, the list of 36 situations / 36 comic situations and the terminology dictionary, see the same directory reference.md(sections 1 to 12); for the comparison table of six adaptation cases, the index table of 26 excerpts and the red-line classification table see reference-cases.md(sections 13 to 15).

⚠️ Policies, institution names, rates and platform landscape are all labeled according to the source book's year (2014/2015/2016); current documents must be checked before citing.

Which sections to read according to the task (do not read straight through)

This section is 44 KB, and the four reference volumes total about 200 KB; reading section by section is usually a waste.

Task	Read	Skip
Judging the differences between Chinese dramas and American dramas	One (correspondence and difference table)——this is the backbone of this skill	Other
Determine volume, calculate word count and page count	Before One-Two (page count conversion), Two	Six–Nine
Submit documents (synopsis / character bios / episode outline)	Three	Five–Nine
Arrange individual episodes and seasons	Five (structural rules with episode as unit)	Six, Seven
Adapt a novel or IP into a growth drama	Six → case moved to reference-cases.md	Seven
Do scene adaptation (finished film → stage)	Seven → moved to reference-rules.md	Six
Submit for review, check red lines, read contracts	Eight → red line table moved to reference-rules.md	Three–Seven
Check Chinese translations of terminology	Nine → full table moved to Section 8 of reference.md	Other
Diagnose an existing draft	Eleven (diagnostic checklist)	Other

I. Correspondence and Difference Table Between Chinese Dramas and the American Drama System

Issue	Chinese Drama	American Drama Orthodoxy	Which to Use
Structural unit	Episode / segment / scene. "Drama needs division into scenes and acts, film needs division into shots and scenes,television drama needs division into scenes, segments, and episodes" (Yao p0188)	Act + act out	For documents for Chinese platforms, use episode-segment-scene; when pitching to the American side, separately make an act table
Lineage of closing each episode	Li Yu, Xianqing Ouji, "closing": "temporarily hold back the situation, briefly close the gongs and drums,make people speculate about what follows, not knowing how this matter will turn out" (Yao p0260) + Song dynasty storytelling "listen to the next chapter for the breakdown" + Dickens weekly serialization + radio drama end-of-episode narration (Yao p0272, p0044)	Act out comes from radio-television advertising production	Use the Chinese lineage to explain "why it must close"; use the American style to calculate page anchors
Repetition	In long works, "repetition rises to a technique with an essential nature"(Yao p0313): all four types—pattern / plot / detail / beginning-and-end—are encouraged	Information economy; repetition = wasting space	For long dramas of 30+ episodes with two episodes broadcast back-to-back daily, use the former; for short dramas of 10–13 episodes, use the latter
Protagonist agency	Passive protagonists are allowed: "always passive,maintaining a desire within passivity" (Yao p0179, Oshin); endurance, self-justification, and panic all count as counter-actions	Passive protagonist = structural flaw	For suffering-and-growth female legends and family ethics dramas, the former can be used, but she must be given "one active action within each episode's passivity"
Season form	Closed long-form: "Chinese television dramas are basically all fully shot and produced, then broadcast completely in one go on the television station platform,therefore the story is more complete, and the structure is also more rigorous" (Zhang Wei p0043)	Open engine + season-finale hook, designed for unlimited renewal	Top-tier broadcast dramas must always be closed-ended; web dramas or those with planned sequels may be exceptions (the TV adaptation of "Myth" left an open ending, Zhang Wei p0211)
Bottle episode	RejectedA rejected draft Zhang Wei personally experienced: one episode "had only two characters appear, and neither was a protagonist...obviously making it feel very unprofessional and very non-standard at first glance"（p0035）	A legitimate means of saving money while being profound	Domestic projects switched to "shooting multiple episodes in the same location in one block" to cut costs (see reference.md Section 7)
Episode without the protagonist	Prohibited: "The protagonist must appear in every episode and have sufficiently substantial screen time" (Zhang Wei p0035)	Ensemble rotation episode is legitimate	—
Dialogue density	Moderate redundancy is an industry requirement: viewers "often may have many accompanying activities of daily life...so that viewers do not easily lose the main information even when they occasionally leave the TV" (Zhang Mingzhi p0055); "action cannot outweigh language, but must assist language, and even appropriately be subordinate to language" (Zhang Wei p0046)	Dialogue economy; action outweighs language	Long-form TV dramas use the former; short web dramas and film-oriented works use the latter. For the general method see `sw-dialogue`
Stability of theme	"The highest standard for reviewing film and television dramas is not the state apparatus, but the audience"(Zhang Wei p0026); the theme must be equipped with an enlightener + reward-and-punishment mechanism + a protagonist who does not stray off-topic (p0232–0233)	The theme may be ironic, suspended, or morally ambiguous	Top-tier broadcast dramas aimed at the broadest audience use the former
"Enter late, exit early"	Same name, opposite meaning: Yao's version of "enter late" =first build up and render the atmosphere, let the audience become familiar with the scene and accumulate expectations, then light the fuse（p0367–0368）	enter late = skip the buildup and go directly into conflict	Long dramas with 25–35 scenes per episode use Yao's version; American-style episodes of 45–60 pages use the American version.Ruling (the interface with the next line's "no tracing back to origins"): Yao's version of "buildup" must be carried by action that is currently happening, and must not be carried by exposition—you may enter slowly, but you may not first explain the backstory; rendering the atmosphere relies on what the characters are doing at this moment, and the two lines will not conflict
Opening	No tracing back to origins: "One must abandon and avoid tracing back to origins through complex factors,often opening right away with blowing wind and falling rain: the event is happening...all necessary explanations must be inserted wherever possible in the development of the event" (Yao p0044–0045)	The pilot must establish the world and the characters	Domestic episode 1 must do both, completing the establishment by "inserting wherever possible in the event"
Unresolved threads	Legitimate: in a network structure, "many threads are intermittent,having a beginning but no end" also plays a role (Yao p0286)	Every thread must pay off	—
Final act / episode ending	At the end of every episode there must be another big hook, closing a loop immediately opens a new hook (Yao p0268–0272). ⚠️ Half-hour comedy exception：`sw-sitcom-comedy` The divergence table gives the criterion "has ad slots → must have an act out; no ads + emotional-bet type → may substitute one earned emotional moment." A Chinese-language, no-ads, emotional-type half-hour comedy falls under both this line and that one—follow that one, but still leave an entry in the episode outline for this episode that is designated to be paid off in some later episode(see `sw-series-engine-bible` bookkeeping-style unit), so that "not teasing" does not equal "not generating a reason for the next episode."	The final act only does pay-off, introduces no new information（`sw-series-structure` Diagnosis 15)	Direct conflict, choose by medium: domestic single episodes are all handled as domestic; the American line is used only for season finales.`sw-series-structure` That entry has been annotated.
General principles	"Film is written for the classics, television is written for 'ratings'"(Yao p0042)	showrunner auteur theory	This is the basis for Yao's book's "popularity, entertainment value, fashionability, maximization of spatial coverage"

Three additions:False cliffhanger Yao frankly admits that "sometimes this kind offeint is better than none, because after all it has suspense" (p0272); the American view regards it as deceiving the audience;The technical boundary between serial and seriesYao divides them by "whether the scene has an obvious ending"—if there is an obvious ending, it "cannot generate the next wave of storms...thereby turning a serial into a series"（p0252）；Ready-made material libraryYao directly gives Poole's 36 situations and Li Tianji's 36 comic situations and explicitly says "they can also be borrowed" (p0207); the American view avoids formulas.

Before One-Two: how to convert the "pages" of a Chinese script (the conversion principle has been moved to `sw-format-adaptation` Two-Two, unrelated to medium; here only the specific numbers for episodes are kept)

Chinese scripts have no page standard, only a word-count standard, yet clients, platforms, and various writing guides all speak in terms of "pages." This pack uniformly uses the following chain for conversion; when using it, you must state that it is a converted page:

One American page ≈ one minute (from American formatting, not Chinese). So "N pages" is first read as "N minutes of drama"。
The word count per minute in Chinese has two sources: a 40–45 minute episode is about 12,000–15,000 characters (equivalent to 300–370 characters/minute); dialogue-dominant is about 18,000 characters/episode (about 400 characters/minute), action-heavy is 12,000–15,000 characters/episode (about 270–330 characters/minute）。
Value selection:Dialogue-dominant long-form drama: 370–400 characters/minute; those with lots of action and reaction (single-camera comedy, suspense, action): 300–330 characters/minute.

Convert to word count by duration; do not apply long-form drama numbers by episode count: a 28-minute half-hour drama at 330 characters/minute is about 9,200 characters/episode, not 16,000–18,000 characters; a 12-minute short drama is about 4,000 characters. When writing "about N pages," also write out the conversion basis (word count ÷ characters per minute = converted pages), otherwise the same script will be read with a twofold difference by two kinds of "pages."

1b. "How many episodes per case" is a spectrum, not a true/false question

Yao's dividing line (scenes have clear endings → serialized drama becomes episodic series, p0252)is warning about a cost, not prohibiting a practice. Domestic long-form dramas actually fall at any point on this spectrum, and the value is "how many episodes one case / one event occupies":

Episodes per case	Form	What it buys	Cost	Suitable for
1 episode	Episodic series (anthology series)	Easy to enter at any episode, rerun- and second-run-friendly, easy to cut into clips	Characters do not accumulate; around episode 12 viewers begin to feel repetition	Sitcoms, workplace procedural series, daily broadcasts
2–3 episodes	Episodic serial (mainstream domestic long-form drama)	A complete payoff every 2–3 episodes while still retaining character change	24 episodes can hold only about ten cases; the subject matter seems under-exploited	Workplace dramas, crime procedurals, period episodic dramas
4–6 episodes	Block form (one movement, one major event)	Each block can be written to the end; large emotional capacity	The first two episodes are slow; the platform's greatest fear, "can't hold viewers for the first three episodes," is exactly here	Family dramas, ensemble casts, adaptations of long works
One case for the whole season	Pure serial	Maximum tension	No single episode stands on its own; reruns and second runs suffer	Miniseries, short-form series

Three criteria for choosing the point: ① If the platform wants second runs and reruns, lean toward 1–3 episodes; ② if the subject matter has limited sources of disputes/cases (calculate the maximum number of types), lean toward 4–6 episodes when sources are few, otherwise the bottom will show by episode 8; ③ how much space the protagonist's change needs—do not put slow-changing characters into a 1-episode-per-case format.

Two legitimate hybrid methods：

Ledger-style(recommended for the 2–3 episode tier): the unit closes as usual, but each unit leaves one debt to be paid off in a later designated episode, so "having a clear ending" no longer equals "not generating the next wave of trouble"—this precisely bypasses the cost Yao warns about. See sw-series-engine-bible Article 18.
Three-track system: Case A closes in the current episode, Case B spans 3–6 episodes, and Line C runs through the whole season, all three running simultaneously. The cost is that each episode must serve three rhythms at once, and the episode-by-episode outline must indicate for each episode where each of the three tracks stands.

What not to do: Do not take a position in the proposal. If you do not choose a point on the spectrum, the 24 episodes you write will be half like an episodic series and half like a serial, and the platform's first round of review will ask, "What kind of drama is this exactly?"

2. Hard constraints on scale and length

Episode count: Zhang Wei p0033–0034, "the total length is generally between 20 and 60 episodes. TV serials under 20 episodes are currently very rare," each episode about 40 minutes; Zhang Mingzhi p0055, "Chinese TV dramas are currently generally as long as 30–50 episodes." Prime timetwo episodes broadcast back-to-back daily(the convention began with Niezhai, Zhang Wei p0017).Premise: 20–60 episodes is the market range for satellite daily broadcasts(the numbers propped up jointly by two episodes airing back-to-back daily, per-episode pay, and ad scheduling), is not a general rule for series;streaming short-form series (12/16/24 episodes, released all at once or in batches) do not apply—episode count instead follows sw-series-engine-bible the engine pressure-loss argument of Article 10: write as many episodes as the engine can supply without repeating, and if you can't reach 20 episodes, write it anyway; don't pad to hit a range.
Per-episode runtime(Zhang Mingzhi p0048):Total length 45 minutes, main content no less than 41 minutes 30 seconds; opening credits usually 60–90 seconds, end credits 120–150 seconds.→ Write one episode at 41.5 minutes, not 45 minutes, and leave room for the "next episode preview" (p0143).Antecedent: this is the technical delivery standard for satellite broadcast(the portions taken up by opening and end credits and ad slots are fixed).Streaming does not leave a next-episode preview slot, and the main content runtime is also set by the platform, often fluctuating between 35–50 minutes; in this case 41.5 serves only as awriting target(to ensure the per-episode capacity is not inflated); delivery follows the runtime field given by the platform, and do not write "leave a preview slot" into the episode ending for streaming.
Word count(Zhang Wei p0076–0077):A 30-episode script is at least 400,000 characters, with dialogue mostly accounting for more than 50% of the total capacity; popular full-length novels on the market are mostly 150,000–300,000 characters, so "the vast majority of adaptation work is not simply dividing the novel into scenes and shooting it, but a completely new re-creation."
Variable episode count: the contract states "the episode count shall be subject to the final approval by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television"; adding episodes = proportionally adding investment (Zhang Mingzhi p0302, 2016 institutional name). Screenwriter remuneration is calculated per episode (Table 7-1, p0146)—this is the economic structure behind "padding."

The triple characteristics of TV drama (dramatic art + visual art + television medium) and typology (six classification systems, complete entries for the seven categories of single-episode drama / series drama / medium-length serial drama / long-form serial drama / documentary drama / sitcom / studio drama) see reference.md Section 1.

III. Document chain

There is no single document chain for domestic dramas;three sets coexist, and before starting to write you must ask clearly which set the other party uses.

The client's format requirements take precedence over all conventions in this skill. The three chains below, the line format of the episode outline, and the per-episode word count and scene count ranges are alldefault values, not hard constraints. If the other party gives page count, word count, columns, or a template, follow theirs; the conventions of this skill are only used to fill in blanks the other party has not specified. Typical conflict: the other party requires "one 100-character paragraph per episode," while this skill's episode outline convention requires the three items "dramatic hook + event + ending state"—in this case compress the three items, do not exceed the word count, and save an expanded version for your own use (see sw-series-engine-bible the diagnostic checklist "who is this page for").

A. Yao Kougen (academic/planning perspective, p0328–0348): the three systems of script development = adapted script / commissioned creation / speculative script (spec). Sources of adaptation are further divided into "traditional classics" (diachronic vertical combination: classic novels, plays, films) and "crowd-selected classics" (synchronic horizontal combination: web novels, comics, games, "using voting, clicks, purchases, reading and viewing, etc., accumulating quantities for selection"). Planning document =Plot summary + character design + main scenes + creative notes, plussample script：

For a comparison table of the length and required items of the six documents (plot summary / character design / main scenes / creative notes / plot flow / sample script), see reference.md Section 2.

⚠️ Yao Shu does not use "episode outline / scene outline"(its chain is story synopsis → sample script → full-series script); "character biography" appears on p0147 as "character event biography".

B. Zhang Mingzhi (producer-side review criteria, p0067)：① Story outline(time, place, main characters, character relationships, plot development; "one can fully judge whether the story has a distinctive spark, whether it has novelty") → ② Episode synopsis("one can see the chapter structure of the whole series, the setup, development, turn, and resolution of conflicts, as well asthe 'dramatic eye' of each episode"; when written by multiple people, "it has even greater significance for holding the whole work together"）→ ③ Episode script("the main content is a small amount of plot exposition anda large amount of actor dialogue"；"one can even prepare a TV drama production budget based on it"）→ ④ Shooting script(⚠️"in current Chinese TV drama production, usually because the production cycle is tight and the plot volume is large,few directors make a formal shooting script"）。 → "Dramatic eye" is the core term in Chinese episode synopsis review: each episode must have a dramatic eye that can be identified in one sentence. The budget is calculated from the episode script; once the script changes, the budget changes.

C. Contract criteria("Film (TV Drama) Screenwriter Employment Contract" 1.4, p0330):script concept → master outline and character biographies → episode synopsis → first draft of episodes N to M (may be delivered and accepted in batches) → overall final draft of the script. "TV Drama Script Commissioned Writing Contract" (p0318) uses another chain:story outline → episode outline → first draft → second draft → final draft before shooting begins, corresponding to six payment stages (see reference.md Section 7).

⚠️ "Scene outline" appears in this batch of sources only in Zhang Mingzhi's description of American writers' rooms(p0060, a Chinese translation of outline),not a domestic standard deliverable. The domestic counterpart is thescene breakdown table—a production document made by the continuity person after the final draft (see reference.md Section 3).

IV. Chinese script format

General layout rules (scene-number system, △,人名：台词, no transitions written) see sw-format-adaptation Section 2-2; not repeated here.

Paragraphing and scene heading rules (scene vs. sequence), the comparison table of Yao Kougen's four coexisting formats, the 19A/19B numbering rules during revision, and the nine fields of the scene breakdown table see reference.md Section 3; copyable examples of each of the four formats ("April Rhapsody", "Oshin", "Sixteen-Year-Old Flower Season", "New Shore"), where each is used, and the side-by-side comparison of the literary script of "New Shore" → 10 storyboard shots see reference-samples.md Section 9。

V. Structural rules with the episode as the unit

5.1 Single-episode skeleton: 3 minutes + 15 minutes + episode ending (Yao p0259, quoted verbatim in sections)

The first three minutes must grab the audience, then every 15 minutes there should be a small hook, and at the end of each episode, a big cliffhanger... As for needing a suspense point every 15 minutes,in the past it was for inserting commercials... now it is about considering the segmentation within an episode, using 15 minutes as a plot point to construct what is called a "fragmented dramatic structure". That is to say,each segment must have a "local vivid point," and the kite that has been let out must be reeled in from time to time, stirring up one small climax after another... An explosive event that will cause flesh and blood to fly is about to happen... Sorry, please wait until tomorrow.

Key point: the 15-minute node was retained in the ad-free era and reinterpreted as an inherent need of the "fragmented dramatic structure." Hard rule: "every 15 minutes is a time segment, and this fragmentation and each episode's 45 minutes are basically fixed and unchanging...at most there is some flexibility of about one minute up or down" (p0272). Production reality: "Sometimes... according to the director's preferences, the plot is arbitrarily expanded or reduced, so that the end of the time segment is moved earlier or dragged out.But once this is done, it will destroy the suspense of the segment and the suspense at the end of the episode, affecting the viewing effect. Strict producers generally will not agree to do this."

Segment boundary verification (run through it again after dividing the segments): 15 minutes only givesposition, notreason. Each segment boundary must fall on atransfer of information or power; use succession-series-writing the invisible act triple criteria of Erzhi S1 to recheck—① whether the story day changes, ② whether the location or means of transportation switches, ③ whether the core question turns; at least one of the three must be met. If none of the three is met, it is a fake segment boundary cut by the clock, and the segment boundary should be moved to the nearest transfer. When streaming has no ad slots, this step replaces the stopwatch.

5.2 Four levels of suspense (Yao p0270–0275)

Overall suspense of the whole series: "Several small suspense rings are interlocked to form the overall suspense, and the revelation of the overall suspense depends on the resolution of one small suspense after another." Two ways of presenting it: directly present it and then extend it to branches (Yongzheng Dynasty: the treasury is empty → raise funds in Jiangnan → recover the treasury silver);bring the main suspense that has not yet appeared to the front and then go back to narrate how this situation was caused(My Fair Princess Part One "real and fake princess," Part Two "hunting down the princess"). The overall suspense of a series ="the endless attraction and rejection between the sexes"(Hunter, Grand Hotel, Stories from the Editorial Board: "the two of them never reach the point of discussing marriage,the author keeps blocking the audience's expectation that the two will eventually be together"，p0271）。
End-of-episode suspense（⚠️ for a drama released all at once, the reason must be changed；if the platform and satellite TV broadcast simultaneously (most common in domestic productions), then both reasons must be given—the satellite TV side has an overnight gap, while the platform side does not, so the end of the episode must be both a real cliffhanger (for viewers following the broadcast) and leave an account designated for redemption (for viewers binge-watching). Criterion:first ask on which side this drama premieredthe premiere side determines which reason is primary: the mechanism of this rule is the "gap" caused by next-day broadcasting, whereas when streaming releases a whole season, viewers click on the next episode three seconds later,that gap does not physically exist. At this time an open ending should still be left, but the basis is changed to "Leave an account that must be settled"—what is resolved in this episode must be paid off in a specific later episode, see sw-series-engine-bible the ledger-style unit;stop expecting "overnight preoccupation" to sustain tension for you, because when binge-watching, a weak ending propped up by suspense will be exposed immediately): the mechanism is "blank"—the period between episodes forms a blank between two scenes of the story... skillfully interrupting the narration creates a kind of extended tension...submitting the conflict to the audience actually leaves the audience room to ponder and speculate。"
time-slot suspense(every 15 minutes): it is also a transition opportunity. Multi-thread indicator: "maintain as many as five or six simultaneous storylines", but still adhere to "one problem"—"no matter which line it comes from, one problem still has to be resolved before a new one can be introduced"。
opening suspense: the duties are the opposite of the five for stage plays/films (see section one). For the opening paradigms of four dramas ("April Days on Earth", "Oshin", "Palace of Desire", "Red Carnation"), see reference. Metaphor: "quickly dam the flow, drawing the audience's attention from real life or from the middle of other television information streams toward the TV drama, just like the role of a headline in a newspaper or magazine."

four rules for setting up suspense（p0262–0267）：① be based on characters—the time/space/events/character relationships in the situation must be made clear to the audience; "characters must win the audience's feelings...stage plays and films do not necessarily need a likable and an annoying character,but television dramas place great importance on it"。② follow the situation along—overall suspense + a series of small suspenses; diagnostic sentence: "the reason some dramas cannot grip the audience is not that the author failed to propose an overall suspense, but often that they lack a step-by-step series of small suspenses." ③ use parallel montage to create an "ultimate limit"—each time one suspense is resolved, immediately add a new suspense with a hard time limit, and turn the limitinto a visible meter("Red Carnation": the file-copying progress bar vs. the continuously rising elevator indicator light). ④ the "one problem" format—five requirements: appear as early as possible / reduce loose threads / be specific and clear / be strong and forceful / immediately introduce a new one just as one has ended. Negative example = the 1993 30-episode "Gen of the Imperial City" (nine concurrent mysteries + four romance subplots, "only in the last three or four episodes did it suddenly reveal the big payoff, leaving the audience 'spun' around and crying out").

5.3 Five techniques of delay (Yao p0267–0268)

the typical beginner's mistake: "often it islike a bear breaking off corn cobs, taking one and dropping one。"

gathering dark clouds above people's heads, with disasters growing bigger and bigger—"the more problems are solved, the messier the problems become," while the final deadline is already pressing close.
suddenly interrupt at a tense moment and leave it aside for the time being——"if the interval is too long, it must be brought up again at the right time. Although the narration is interrupted, the situation must not weaken."
divide one complete large action into fine actions of multiple beats, with each action given a small suspense—"the protagonist will surely encounter a great disaster when going to the appointment, so set up various small problems when he leaves the house, goes downstairs, and is on the way,Only after solving these small problems can he meet the final big problem"。
Add storylines——expanding toward social breadth and psychological depth; the conflict draws in new characters, and new characters bring new events.
Rhythm regulation, tension alternating with relaxation——placed in "strong and weak (force), fast and slow (speed), large and small (amplitude), and substantive and insubstantial" in contrast.

Rhythm mnemonic (Yao's summary of "24 Hours" S2E1, p0205): "When quiet, like a tree; when in action, like lightning and thunder; when acting on emotion, as diffuse as flowing water; when narrating events, concentrate superior forces like a military offensive."

5.4 The first three episodes of the opening (Zhang Wei p0035–0037)

"Be sure toestablish the situation of the whole series as early as possible, create the core conflict of the whole series as early as possible, throw out the overall suspense of the whole series, and have the protagonist appear as early as possible.""In traditional thinking, Chinese aesthetics often emphasized leaving the good things for later. But now, such thinking is clearly outdated."

The version driven by submission for review(same page): "Reviewers... have a large number of shows to watch every day... they will certainly put their main energy and focus on this series'first few episodes...So even considering it from the perspective of review, adapters should try their best to put the most exciting parts of the story... at the opening,especially the first three episodes。"

Supporting point:core characters who only gain momentum in the later half must appear in Episode 1("Ma Wen's War" moved Li Qin's appearance from "when Li Yi and Yang Xin got married" earlier to Episode 1, p0124).

For the single-episode quantitative indicator table (number of scenes / plot points / main events / climax spacing / number of reversals / word count), the three responsibilities of a scene, and the dual-line formula of career line + private life line and its examples, see reference.md Section 4.

5.5 The two-step method of situation and the composite principle (Yao ch9, replacing the driving mechanism of "act")

The driving mechanism of long-form drama (p0193): "At the beginning, a TV drama mustset up the situation, forming the driving force of the whole series... prompting characters' psychological activity to condense into specific motives and leading to specific actions. Thus, the actions of the main characters affect the actions of other characters, giving rise to new conflicts, forming new events, and leading tochanges in the partial situation...advancing layer by layer, moving toward the climax."

The screenwriter's two-step method（p0202）："The first step is to do everything possible to set up a situation; the second step is to let the characters struggle and scramble within this situation, always maintaining a state of action."——the series engine of Yao's book version.
The situation dictates that actions must repeat: revenge situation → "the grudge cannot be easily resolved, and the action of revenge often must be carried out again and again"; running-in situation → "a long-term process of both maintaining independence and integrating"; misunderstanding situation → "once created, the more it is explained, the less clear it becomes."
Composite principle(p0203–0204, specially for long-form drama):Hang 4–5 different types of situations on the long-form drama's protagonist at the same time("The Grand Mansion Gate" Second Mistress: family feud / family property / unruly son / peer competition / survival of the old brand),and stipulate that at least one of them transforms midway("'Revenge' transformed into 'pursuit,' 'adjustment' became 'competition,' and 'romance' sometimes turned into 'revenge'").
Peripeteia is the device by which domestic dramas replace "act out"（p0210）："Because television dramas emphasize the alternating appearance of each action line and emphasize creating a small climax on each action line in every episode, they make greater use of the peripeteia technique……The 'peripeteia' in television dramas is almost dispersed throughout each episode and each fragment."Reverse deduction method: to turn toward the negative, first fully develop the positive passage, and vice versa (p0218).

5.6 Structural Types (One Divergence That Must Be Preserved)

Yao Kougen（ch13）：Dramatic / prosaic / psychological / narrator-presenter styleThe four types are juxtaposed, and the latter three do not take conflict as their skeleton. Two other classification systems: by character setup (one person, one matter / one person, many matters, the "gourd-string style" / many people, one matter / many people, many matters, the "group-portrait style, exhibition style"); by mode of plot development (open style / locked style). Three types of线索: single line / multiple lines (main-secondary type or parallel type) / network ("a net has a main rope...there is always a main line playing a dominant role, although sometimes it is not obvious").
Zhang Wei（p0032, p0038）："In television dramas, it is almost impossible for a prosaic structure to exist, let alone a psychological structure or poetic structure. Almost all television dramas on the market belong uniformly to the dramatic structure." Two basic types = chronological order style ("applicable to almost all television dramas") and time-space interlaced style (most common in time-travel subject matter).
Which one to use under what circumstances: tribute dramas, platform-commissioned works, and satellite-TV dramas of more than 30 episodes follow Zhang Wei (dramatic + chronological order style); single-episode dramas, documentary dramas, auteur projects, and short online dramas may use Yao's prosaic/psychological/narrator-presenter styles, but must bear the risk of "loose structure and weak appeal" - Yao himself writes this too (p0288).
Zhang Mingzhi's third set(p0073, from the producer's perspective): ① the fate evolution of one or several families (clan-gate dramas) ② changes in one or several sets of character relationships (family emotional dramas) ③ the issuing and completion of a mission (police-criminal dramas, spy dramas) ④ the growth of characters (wuxia dramas, youth idol dramas); "the above several structural types may be used in combination in one television drama"。

6. Adaptation into a Long Drama (Expansion Direction)

For the five-source typology comparison table (structural handling and character handling in the adaptation of novels / films / biographies / dramas / foreign dramas, selling-point transfer, the coordinate system of theme and the three elements of the thematic expression environment, the trinity of character and the segment-by-segment [copy / delete / adapt] method, the four methods and three steps of expansion, the three disciplines of dual-time-period dramas, and IP assessment (Zhao Junkai's three foundations + Zhang Mingzhi's two judgments), see reference.md Section 5.

For the "original work -> drama" comparison table of six cases (Du Lala, Ma Wen, Mei Lanfang, Myth, Iron Pear Flower, Drawing Sword) (original work length / type -> number of episodes, thematic coordinates, major character surgery, structural handling, transferable techniques, with a horizontal summary table of the six cases appended at the end), see reference-cases.md Section 13- ⚠️ Among them, that version of "Mei Lanfang"was not put into production, and is the only one among the six cases without broadcast data support. For the judgment on the drama engine, see sw-series-engine-bible; for general adaptation methods (Field's "apples and oranges," McKee's "reinvent from the inside out"), see sw-format-adaptation Section 5.

7. Fragment Adaptation (Compression Direction)

The direction of Zhao Binbin's book is the opposite of Section 6completely opposite: Finished piece → an 8–20 minute stage segment for 3–8 people. Four laws (rationalizing the stage-scene setup / the material-selection veto gate / one core event and cut point / completeness), four specific techniques, and a formatting conflict with sw-format-adaptation is found in reference.md Section 6; for the index table of the 26 segments (segment name | source work | subject matter | number of people | which part of the source work it is taken from | demonstrated technique), configuration statistics, 5 representative dialogue examples, and the delivery format reverse-engineered from these 26 drafts, see reference-rules.md Section 14。

8. Production chain and review

For the eight administrative systems (2016 version) and the sequence of project initiation/registration, script delivery milestones and the six-stage payment table, script evaluation and producer notes, the seven avoidance techniques, first/second/third creation and the screenwriter's position, viewership and platform scheduling constraints (2014–2016 data), screenwriter contracts (2016 model) and the copyright framework (2010 Copyright Law version), see reference.md Section 7; for the item-by-item self-check table expanding the more than sixty items in the ten major red-line categories of Article 5 of the General Rules for the Content Production of TV Dramas (2015-12-31 version), the three categories requiring expert review under Article 6, and the eight advocacy items and phased script-reading checklist under Article 3, see reference-rules.md Section 15。

For American contracts, credit arbitration, and the rank ladder, see sw-industry-business and sw-writers-room。

9. Chinese-English terminology dictionary

Official Chinese translation = terminology notes from the Chinese translation of Douglas's Writing the TV Drama Series (2009) and terminology comparison from the Chinese translation of Blum's Television and Screen Writing (2003);current common translationis current industry colloquial usage. For the complete table (more than 60 entries + title comparisons), see reference.md Section 8。

For the full four-column table of English—official Chinese translation (Douglas 2009 / Blum 2003)—current common translation—domestic counterpart and China-specific terms, see reference.md Section 8.

10. Disagreement table (between books)

Issue	One side	The other side	Which to use
Theme first vs. character first	Zhang Wei's theme chapter: "Theme is a guiding principle for adaptation...the establishment of theme equals the establishment of scope, the establishment of genre, and even the establishment of character relationships" (p0023)	Zhang Wei's character chapter opposes "theme first": "There are no vivid, profound, lifelike, vital characters. Once the characters are there, emotion, mood, temperament, and motivation naturally follow too"（p0044）	An internal disagreement within this book. Solution:Theme determines "whether it can be adapted and where it should be adapted toward"; characters determine "whether the adaptation comes alive"
Structure types	Yao: the four types are parallel, and ER single episodes, The Snowstorm Tonight, and The Female Reporter's Voice-Over are used to argue for the latter three	Zhang Wei: "We have also never seen a TV drama that succeeded by narrating with these structures"（p0038）	See 5.6
Whether a romance line is necessary	Zhang Wei's general rule: "There is not a single TV drama aimed at a relatively broad audience that can abandon the emotional line" (p0085)	Drawing Sword "only one female character appears in the first 19 episodes", and claimed that "the script even committed one of the taboos of TV drama writing" (p0292)	Mainstream military/war dramas may be exceptions, but they must have an emotional axis that can substitute for the romance line (comradeship, brotherhood).Exemption is judged by function, not by genre: any independent emotional axis that is mutually causal with the main line (family ties, mentor-apprentice, comrades-in-arms, sworn enemies are all acceptable; non-romantic is also acceptable) satisfies it—family dramas, workplace dramas, and crime dramas are equally applicable; "mutually causal" is a hard condition, and an emotional line that merely runs parallel without interlocking does not count
Define characters first or choose conflicts first	Zhang Wei advocates: define the character relationships first, then generate conflicts from the relationships	Zhang Wei himself points out that "contemporary TV dramas, mainly American dramas, also often use 'effect determinism', that is, first pick out the most watchable and most effective conflicts, then use characters and plot to make them reasonable and plausible" (p0242)	Genre dramas (espionage, criminal investigation) may use effect determinism; family ethics dramas and period dramas prioritize character relationships
ensemble writing method	American dramas have multiple equally weighted A/B/C lines (Zhang Wei acknowledges that "this kind of dramatic method, in which different characters have independent action lines and are ensemble-style, appears mostly in American dramas")	Zhang Wei's localization:one absolute main line + two auxiliary lines with genre elements(p0164, "Mei Lanfang")	For mainstream Chinese audiences, use the latter; the function of the auxiliary lines is to "provide other genre elements for this drama"
Whether to write shots	Zhao Binbin "must use shots to describe the story" (p0014); Yao's format 3 also "takes one shot or a group of shots as the sentence unit"	`sw-format-adaptation`: never mention the camera	Manuscripts delivered to the market/platform do not write shot terminology; in the wording of Chinese academic textbooks, understand it as "conceiving with shot thinking"
character list/character bios	Zhao's segment formatmust write; in domestic contract deliverables, "overall outline and character bios" are required items	British and American spec explicitly prohibit writing them	divide by audience
closed vs open	Zhang Wei: domestic dramas are closed long-form works broadcast all at once (p0043)	The TV version of "The Myth" left an open ending for a sequel (p0211); Yao: "TV dramas......have no ending, the story is never finished"（p0045）	Broadcast TV dramas are closed; web dramas and IP dramas with planned sequels may leave an open ending

11. Diagnostic checklist

length: Is one episode calculated at 41.5 minutes? 25–35 scenes, of which 4–5 are excellent main scenes? (unit: During diagnosis, directly use thescene numberson the scene breakdown to compare with this range. One scene is usually one scene, and an occasional long scene may span two scenes—do not convert first, and do not go looking for the theoretical distinction between "scene vs sequence"; that is a concept for writing, not a unit for assessing a manuscript. If you get an outline written as "52 scenes," it is 1.5 times beyond the range.) About 13 plot points per episode? For 30 episodes, has it reached 400,000 words and 50% dialogue?
single-episode skeleton: Is there something gripping in the first 3 minutes of the opening? Is there a "local vivid point" every 15 minutes? Is the big cliffhanger at the end of the episode a real cliffhanger or a feint (acknowledge feints, but don't feint every episode)?
Opening: Is the first sentence writing about "what is happening right now" or tracing back to the roots? Are explanations slipped in during events?
First three episodes: Situation, core conflict, overall suspense, protagonist—are all four things delivered within the first three episodes? Does a core character who only gains momentum in the latter half appear in Episode 1?
Each episode: Is the protagonist present and given enough screen time? (Exception: The protagonist may be absent for an entire episode, but must satisfy succession-series-writing the two premises of S7—still exerting will during the absence, and this episode is about his absence; and a sense of presence already has accumulated stock.What should be asked is "did any action occur during the absence," not "is he present".) Is there one main event? Is there any episode left with only a two-hander between two non-protagonist characters?
Suspense: Is the overall suspense one question or nine mysteries (the disease of "Huangcheng Gen'er")? Is there a progressive series of small suspense threads? Each time a suspense is resolved, is a new suspense with a hard time limit immediately added, and is the limit materialized as a visible meter?
Delay: Which of the five techniques were used? After holding back and when the interval is too long, is it brought up again? Is there "the bear picking corn"—a good fulcrum used only once and then thrown away?
Situation: How many situations is the protagonist carrying at the same time? Does one transform midway (revenge→chase, adjustment→competition)? Has the action prescribed by the situation been repeated enough times?
Lines: Do the career line + private life line each have a goal, obstacle, and climax? Are the two mutually causal? Does a subplot steal the spotlight? Are there more than 5–6 parallel lines? Regardless of which line, do they all follow "only after one problem is solved is a new problem introduced"?
Repetition: Pattern repetition (a three-step pattern once per episode), detail repetition (one贯穿 prop), head-tail repetition—which were used? Does theconnotationof each repetition change (otherwise it is mechanical repetition)?
Adaptation: Has the original work been summarized in one sentence? Have you counted how many protagonists and lines it gives, and whether that is enough to fill the target episode count? Have you made a paragraph-by-paragraph [copy/delete/adapt] table? Have the selling points been migrated (all selling points exclusive to the original audience replaced, keywords retained)? Is expansion done through the four methods or through padding? Do new characters pass the "three questions"? Is there a pure friendship line between new characters?
Dual timeline: Is the switch sutured by the same object/location/scene? Is a single line too long or the intercutting too dense?
Theme: Is there an enlightener (and not the protagonist)? Are actions that violate the theme punished and those that comply rewarded? Has the protagonist's motivation gone off topic?
Format: Has one of the four formats been chosen and unified throughout the draft? Do scene headings mark location/interior-exterior/time/day-night? Are revisions made with 19A/19B and "66 delete"?
Scheduling: Are scene names consistent throughout the draft? Are similar locations distinguished? Can day and night scenes in the same set be grouped? Have a batch of small scenes with "few actors, no special locations, unaffected by weather" been written for contingency planning? Are there expensive props that must be destroyed, avoidable extras and night shoots?
Review: Have you gone through the ten major categories of Article 5 of the General Rules (2015) item by item? Are negative characters the main subject of depiction? Is there any exposure of investigative methods and detection details? Is the boundary between good and evil clear? How are extramarital affairs/one-night stands/abnormal sexual relations handled? Is there any "rehabilitation" of historical figures whose verdicts are already settled, game-style portrayal of revolutionary history, or promotion of reincarnation/witchcraft?
Expert review: Does it depict the military, armed police, state security, public security, the judiciary, doctors, lawyers, or minority languages and scripts, revolutionary pioneers, specific symbols, or costumes, props, and sets of a specific historical period? Has time been left in the schedule for expert review and revision?
Delivery: Which set of document chains is the other party using (Yao-style planning + samples / producer's four forms / contract delivery sequence)? At each stage, have you obtainedthe dual signatures of the producer and the directorin written approval? Does the contract contain a review period and default clauses? Have you secured restrictions on major changes (creative intent/main characters/main events/style), reversion of rights, remake permission, the three royalty tiers, and credit remedies?
Start of production: Was the final draft completed before the start of production? Do you know whether the project has passed filing and been approved for establishment, and whether the funds are in place?
Fragment adaptation (if pursuing the compression direction): Has it passed the veto gate (not two people sitting and talking)? Has it been merged into one main scene + one transitional area? Is the cut point at "the moment the motive has just been established"? Is the ending written by yourself?

Twelve, Workflow: Domestic Dramas from Planning to Submission for Review

Topic selection(Yao p0329 four principles): Truly meaningful, extremely interesting, andwithin one's capacity; able to graspabundant first-hand material; from a large number of phenomenanew discoveries have been made；"not creating for the sake of creating". In parallel, do Zhang Mingzhi's three factors of market positioning (subject matter × audience × the creator's degree of mastery of the subject matter) and goal setting (whether social benefits or economic benefits are primary), and make a judgment about "audience demand one year or even longer later" (TV dramas "take at least more than a year from production to distribution and broadcast").
If it is an adaptation: IP evaluation (Zhao Junkai's three foundations + Zhang Mingzhi's two judgments) → confirm the adaptation rights and (if necessary) dual authorization → summarize the original work in one sentence and count the number of protagonists and storylines → paragraph-by-paragraph [copy/delete/adapt] table → define the thematic coordinate system → make a selling-point transfer list.
Determine genre and scale: One main genre (can be composite, but only one is written in the project establishment document); number of episodes (20/30/40/50); each episode based on 41.5 minutes; estimate the word count of the entire series.
Write the planning document: Plot summary (or a 200–400 character segmented synopsis, with each segment having one time anchor and each segment ending with an irreversible change) + character design (three innovative points for the protagonist) + main scenes (already considering concentration of locations) + creative statement.
Submit for filing/project establishment(or in parallel): Confirm whether it belongs to the subject matter of major revolution, major history, or major theoretical documents (dual review channel); if it involves ethnicity or religion, additionally go through the ethnic affairs commission/religious affairs bureau; co-productions or foreign actors must be reported to the foreign affairs department. (2016 wording, must verify current documents)
Story outline → Episode synopsis: Write one sentence per episodedramatic focus; arrange the first three episodes; arrange four levels of suspense; mark one climax every 3–5 episodes and at least two major reversals across the whole series; hang 4–5 situations on the protagonist and arrange one situational transformation; lay out the career line plus the private-life line.Only continue writing after obtaining the dual signatures of the producer and the director.
Character biographies and master outline: write psychological and spiritual content in the biographies, not in the episode-by-episode script (Zhang Wei p0046). For the party who needs to confess, provide a "confidant" (this can be newly added, or the enemy can take on the role, Zhang Wei p0072–0073).
Sample script (Episode 1 or the first two episodes): self-check against Yao's list of responsibilities; choose one of the four formats and keep it consistent throughout the whole script; 25–35 scenes per episode.
Batch first draft → second draft → final draft before shooting begins: advance each stage according to the contract gates; accept that "the script will be revised until the final wrap" but write the additional payment into the contract; pass the script demonstration meeting/seminar; for specific professions, groups, costumes, makeup, and props, pass expert review and legal counsel.
After the final draft: the script is broken down by the continuity supervisor into ascene breakdown sheetand a scene breakdown sequencing sheet, and enters the block-shooting schedule; revisions use 19A/19B and "delete 66"; the creative script for product placement is finalized before shooting begins and the screenwriter assists with its implementation.
Submission for review: the completed film passes content review + technical review, is revised according to the opinions "until content review is passed," and only after obtaining the 《Television Drama Distribution License》 may it be distributed. Know that the story structure will be changed once more on the editing table by the producer and the distributor.
Going overseas (optional)(Zhang Mingzhi p0201–0207): "international elements must be integrated starting from the production and manufacturing stage"; proactively adapt to the buyer's requirements for adaptation of program format, single-episode duration, and content rhythm; the standard adaptation method for long dramas going overseas is "adapt a long-running series into one or two TV movie versions of about 100 minutes"。

Thirteen, Training

Copy the format: write the same 3-page scene once in each of Yao's four formats, and experience which one lets the director understand it fastest and which one is easiest to publish.
41.5-minute calibration: find an episode of an already aired Chinese drama, time the opening and ending credits and the main feature duration with a stopwatch, list its scene table (25–35 scenes), mark the 3-minute opening hook, the small hook every 15 minutes, and the big cliffhanger at the end of the episode, then count whether the number of plot points is close to 13.
Two-step method for situations: hang five different types of situations on one protagonist (revenge／running-in／misunderstanding／chasing／competition), write for each "the action the character must repeatedly do," and specify in which episode one of them transforms.
Selling-point migration: choose any bestselling novel, list three selling points and the corresponding audience profiles, judge item by item which ones are ineffective for TV drama viewers, and give replacement plans (the original work's keywords must be retained as a front).
Segment-by-segment method: choose a 90–120 minute film, cut it into 8–12 segments by timecode and label each segment, and based on the table write a 30-episode expansion plan (where each of the four methods is used, how many characters are increased from and to, and how many relationship lines are increased from and to).
Four-level suspense table: make a table for a 30-episode drama: the overall suspense in one sentence; 30 episode-ending suspenses each in one sentence; choose three episodes and write three 15-minute nodes for each; which of the four dramas' paradigms is used for the opening of Episode 1.
Red-line rewrite: Find a novel excerpt containing an extramarital affair, gray morality, or feudal superstition setting, and revise it according to reference.md each of the six avoidance techniques in Section 7, and record what was lost in each version.
Reverse exercise: Take the strongest scene in one of your own episodes and adapt it into a 10-minute stage segment with 4 people and a single main scene (write the ending yourself, using Zhao Binbin's format), then compare: what makes this scene work in the series, and what makes it work on stage.
Scene breakdown table: Fill one of your episode scripts into a nine-field table by hand, using scene name + atmosphere as the sort key, count how many scenes, how many night scenes, and how many scenes with extras are needed, then go back and revise the script so the number of scenes drops by one third without losing drama.
Contract drill: Use reference.md the six screenwriter contract points in Section 7 to compare against a real contract item by item, and list the clauses you would ask to revise and the reasons.