somedaybitch

Michael Loceff, one of the writer-producers of 24, [along with Bob Cochran and Joel Surnow, all 3 of La Femme Nikita, btw] talks to Slate about writing a show in real time, how dramatic content is more important than realism, the necessitites of fudging it, and the dreaded T-word.

i link to this specifically as a follow up to the podcast rant, as Loceff speaks well on the process as a whole, but also tangentially because it's a damn fine read.

Loceff: "It is a challenge. I'd say that for every idea you see on the screen, there were five ideas we threw away that were more interesting and less real, and there were five ideas that we threw away that were more real and less interesting. What you have to get used to as a writer is realizing that most of what you come up with is wrong for the show."

emphasis mine.