I thought I'd reverse-engineer an episode of TV so folks wannabe TV writers can understand how episodes get put together. Specifically, I'm going to look at FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: Season 1, Episode 6, El Accidente. (Spoilers ahead, but the ep's from 2006, so…) THREAD

Let's start with the board. You should read down one column, then down the next column, moving from left to right. I didn't put in the act breaks bc 90% of my jobs haven't used 'em, but you can probably guess where they are (hint: look for extra-dramatic or cliffhanger-y bits)

Characters are color-coded: Coach Taylor is YELLOW. Saracen is LIGHT BLUE. Tami Taylor is PURPLE. Jason Street is GREEN. Lyla Garrity is PINK. Riggins is GRAY. Tyra is ORANGE (though she only has 2 scenes in this ep, so they're secondary colors on other characters' cards)

Everyone cards story differently; I prefer the Lite method, where you're only writing the absolute essential elements of the scene on the card. All the detail work of that scene lives in the discussion in the writer's room; in your head; and ultimately, in your outline and script

I want to be able to GLANCE at the card and remember exactly what happens in the scene – I don't want to read a big long thing and get bogged down in detail at this stage

First exercise for you! WATCH THE EPISODE. Look at each card while you do it, and see if you think I caught the essential story points. FNL is streaming free (w/ads) on IMDB TV, so no excuses

Second exercise! Separate out each character's storyline. (Make sure you're pulling in beats from cards where two characters have story in the same scene, ie Coach and Saracen), ie all the Coach cards in a row; all the Saracen cards in a row; etc.

Now look at that storyline holistically. What is the beginning, middle and end for each character? Where do they start and where do they end emotionally? What's the problem they're trying to solve, and how do they resolve it?

There are three central storylines to this episode. The biggest story (which pulls in Saracen and Coach) deals with the aftermath of football player Bobby Reyes assaulting another student and how the other two characters deal with it

This story is a big deal for Matt Saracen, who on the macro level is torn btw his old friends (the smart nerds, including Landry and Kastor) and his new friends (his teammates). He's QB1, and that brings power – power that Matt doesn't know how to handle

The second biggest story (which pulls in Jason, Riggins and Lyla) deals with Riggins and Lyla's ongoing affair, and the way it interweaves with the conflict between Jason and Riggins (who, feeling guilty about the accident, has drifted away from a betrayed-feeling Jason)

The third story has to do with QB Ray "Voodoo" Tatum's eligibility. Coach participated in (or at least knew about) illegal recruiting efforts to secure Voodoo, and if he's found ineligible, an important victory against a rival team will become a forfeit

Notice a thematic commonality? All three stories have to do with lying/telling the truth. Coach Taylor doesn't want to lie about how Voodoo ended up on the team… but doesn't step in to volunteer the whole story at the athletic board meeting

Lyla starts by ending things with Riggins. When Jason angrily demands he visit the rehab center, Riggins commits a lie of omission by not confessing. After these three best friends bond again, Lyla literally says, "He can never know," just moments before they're found out

Matt spends the ep caught in a lie: not only does he not tell Coach who started the fight the morning after it happens, he doesn't dispute Reyes' lie (that Kastor called him a racial slur). Even when Landry calls him out, urging him to use his power to tell the truth…

Matt can't step up. Until, of course, he does, knocking on Coach's door in the middle of the night to place the blame squarely on Reyes. Coach, being convinced of "the truth" the entire episode after Reyes swore his innocence (despite Tami's doubts), is taken aback

Everyone lies, and everyone is punished. Matt loses Landry's friendship. Lyla and Riggins are found out (they don't know it yet). And though Coach does the right thing once he knows the truth (apologizing to Kastor; kicking Reyes off the team), he's punished for his lies, too –

After Coach tries to ride the middle (not confessing re: the recruitment violations), Voodoo rats him out to reporters and is deemed ineligible, turning the Panthers' victory into a forfeit

So, to reverse engineer even further, I'd imagine the conversation in the writer's room went something like: 1) deal with the Voodoo storyline; 2) let this be the episode where Riggins finally visits Jason/gets his friend back, only for Jason to learn about the affair at the end

And 3) Matt's been QB1 for three football games and has suddenly launched into a different stratosphere of his high school universe. What does that look like for him? How will he be tested? Will he stick up for his old friends or get caught up in being QB1 for the Panthers?

Now go back to your individual character arcs and see if you can reverse engineer even further:

If this is the episode where Riggins is finally going to visit Jason, what prompts him to go there? In this case, it's an angry call from Jason… who wouldn't have been angry without that embarrassing sex fail w/Lyla early on

Now to Saracen: we know he's going to tell the truth in the end. But after Landry confronts him – and in another scene, storms away from him – what's going to turn Matt? Here, it's Landry confronting Reyes directly, endangering himself and sparking a second physical altercation

Look at each scene in a character's arc and figure out what leads to their next scene. For instance, Coach is primed for Matt's confession because Tami doubts Reyes' story; and she wouldn't have doubted Reyes' story unless Kastor's mom had visited her in the guidance office

This is always how an ep of television comes together. What are single-episode storylines the writers want to do? How are they serving season-long plots (Jason's injury, getting to state, etc.)? How are they developing each character across an episode, and across a season?

Try breaking down another episode of FNL on your own. Then do it for an ep of another series. Soon, you'll start to be able to analyze and understand how an episode moved from initial story discussion, to individual character arcs, to a fully broken episode…

Even if you had nothing to do with it! FNL is dead; long live FNL

And NAILED it with a typo in the first tweet!!