The best screenwriting books on developing TV series (and the art of running a TV show)

Navigating the TV industry can be intimidating. Bob Levy does an amazing job of providing an overview of the U.S. TV development process, from a producer’s point of view.

He gives a very clear and detailed explanation of the industry, the processes, and the culture. I love how he explains the terminology, the timelines, the people involved, yet never makes it boring. Levy has worked in the TV industry for more than 30 years, and it shows.

This fantastic book is full of useful tips on the craft, contains many interviews and is thoroughly documented.

It’s especially relevant for streaming. I love to discuss theory, but one of the best ways to learn is from practitioners. That’s why I’m a big fan of interviews. Not only do they give you a chance to learn from the masters, but they’re also inspiring. I always go back to my own writing with more energy when I’ve listened to someone talk passionately about their work.

Neil Landau’s book is a great resource, and it was very hard to decide between this one and The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap, another excellent work of his featuring interviews.

Another insightful overview of the TV development process, this time from a writer’s point of view.

This is primarily from a U.S. perspective, but one chapter gives a view of fifteen other countries, which is rare. Pamela Douglas offers the TV equivalent of Syd Field’s Screenplay. She lays out with great clarity the way TV episode structure is taught today – although I believe that talented and successful creators often use other tools to design their series.

From a practical point of view, this book is more useful if you’re developing a network procedural than if you’re developing a serial on ad-free streaming or premium channels, but it’s one of the best books out there if you’d like to explore what I call story format (rather than structure) in TV.

This is a short but excellent volume, dedicated to the design of a TV series.

It contains a brief history of U.S. Television, which in itself is enough to justify reading the book. As the title suggests, it focuses particularly on writing a pilot, a key part of any series project. William Rabkin is a veteran showrunner with hundreds of hours of produced shows under his belt, yet I really enjoyed the conversational tone in his book.

Make sure you get the most recent version, as the first edition of this classic dates back to 2011 and Rabkin has updated his book since.

This is the companion book for Des Doyle's acclaimed documentary with the same title (also highly recommended).

Described as “the first ever feature-length documentary to explore the world of U.S. television showrunners and the creative forces they employ”, the documentary is an insightful overview of the TV creative process, featuring interviews with some of the best showrunners in the business.

There is simply nothing that beats this if you want to get a sense of how the industry works and measure the stakes, the energy, the pressure, the creativity, the professionalism, and the humor experienced or displayed by these awe-inspiring storytellers.

The book features a foreword by Hart Hanson (Showrunner of Bones, The Finder, Backstrom), an introduction by Doyle, and expands on the interviews featured in the documentary.