HOW TO HOOK VIEWERS WITH AN ADDICTIVE SOAP OPERA STORYLINE

OUR EXPERT: AS THE WORLD TURNS HEADWRITER

Basically, you want an impossible conflict. One classic plotline is to have a slightly obsessive, spunky heroine in love with an unresponsive man. Then you follow her on the path she takes toward getting what she wants. This lovestruck female has the willingness to break any law, resort to any subterfuge or risk any potential humiliation to get her man, but the key is that you keep tripping her up. You give little payoffs along the way, but not resolving things quickly is the defining element of a soap. The couple could even get to the point of walking down the aisle, but suddenly the woman's husband, whom you didn't even know she had,

returns. You keep building to a dramatic conclusion, at which point there's a moment of reckoning, where they can finally be together. Of course, there's nothing more boring than a happy couple, so now you have to give them a challenge to face together. Perhaps someone wants to split them up or cause trouble for them. And there you are again with another six months of material.

Passanante, who has won fourEmmy awards, four Writers Guildawards and three GLAADMediaawards, lives in New York City andhas been writing for daytime TVfor 16 years. She majored in drama(and says Shakespeare remains aninspiration in her scripts).