Pilot Rule #1: With the exception of a pilot based on a huge piece of intellectual property, getting yours from your head to production is a game of telephone.

The idea must be passed from person to person. You to producer...then that producer to an executive...then an executive to their boss and then to their boss’ boss.

Simplicity is the key. So, your pilot should be utterly understandable and pitchable in 3 sentences or less.

If it's not…simplify.

Then simplify again.

Pilot Rule #2: There are two important drafts of a pilot : the ONE THAT GETS THE THING MADE and the ONE YOU ACTUALLY SHOOT.

The former is all about zazz; about getting people's attention; about being interesting and emotional and iconic. Ignore budget. Ignore logistics. You're only job now is to be CLEAR and UNFORGETTABLE.

The ONE YOU ACTUALLY MAKE will have 6 less characters and 5 less locations and no exploding llama, but that's only for after you've gotten the big yes.

Pilot Rule #3: The first third of your pilot is about establishing the world, which is the franchise, your character(s), what makes this a unique place to visit.

The second third is the story (and how that story impacts what you set up in the first third).

The last third is the potential, which is essentially why people want to come back over and over again.

The order does not have to be this rigid, but these three elements are the key to making it sing and dance.

Pilot Rule #4: You're going to need a format (act outs or no?/swearing or nudity?/hour or half?), which means you're going to need a target network.

So, go out and look at the landscape of television, find the show that is the closest to the thing you imagine, go get the script to that pilot...and use that structure.

The script for an HBO one hour pilot and the one for a ABC half-hour are as different as a giraffe and a naked mole rat.

Pilot Rule #6: The WHY NOW is essential. What's the importance of this singular moment that it becomes your launch point.

Is it a crossroads for your lead character? Or the moment something gets added or taken away that means that going forward...the world of the show will be different.

Walt's cancer in Breaking Bad. Tony's panic attacks in The Sopranos. The case in a procedural that reveals that our leads nemesis..thought dead...is still out there somewhere.

Chose wisely.

Pilot Rule #7: Less is more.

A quick 55 pages is 95.45% better than 58 pages and 126% better than something that starts with a 6...because every extra word is a potential trap door to boredom or confusion.

"There's a gun. It's loaded" is clear and simple.

"There's a an A AMT Hardballer with a crack on the handle and a initials carved into the barrel" is rife with details that need...deciphering.

Before you hit send...cut any words you can.

Pilot Rule #8: The first twenty pages are everything and therefore I spend half my time writing and rewriting... and rewriting them.

Are the characters properly set up? Is the world totally clear? Do I have stakes and a "why now"? Have I cut anything and everything that might send a reader down the wrong road?

If the reader trusts you after twenty, they'll likely forgive you some falderal after that. If you've lost them...you've lost hem and they aren't coming back.

Pilot Rule #9: Your character(s) is (are) everything. So…

Pick your lead. Define them in the sentence. Pick your second lead. Define them in a sentence. Put those sentences next to each other and figure out how they conflict, complicate and catalyze each other.

Do this with all your leads. The more characters challenge each other the more dynamic the pilot becomes.

And characters who love each other desperately don’t have to be easy on each other…mostly it’s the opposite.