I’m a Gleek. I admit it. So why am I confessing this here? Because there are “enduring lessons to be drawn for writers from Glee:
1. Make stories represent the diversity and sub-diversity of human life.
2. Do not be afraid to mix modes: comedy and drama; music and satire; social commentary and escapism.
3. Cast your stories as you would a movie. Highlight the characters who have the most at stake.
4. Establish a predictable pattern, then shake things up.
5. Take a predictable genre, then blow it up.
6. Find within any group you write about the needy, the ugly, the despised, the misunderstood, the excluded and the lost. Then find out what they think about you.
7. Trust the audience to suspend disbelief. They know the kids didn’t choreograph that dance in 13 seconds and that three-piece band can’t sound like a full orchestra. Just go with it.”
Mary Ann de Stefano
