How do soap opera writers keep coming up with new storylines ?

Question

especially for soaps that haven been around for 30 - 40 years.

Also, are hospital scenes popular or not

Answer 1

If I were a writer, I'd be exploring other characters on the show.  Weaving the 'lesser known' characters in with the front burner storylines.

Answer 2

It depends on who you are asking.  The writers on General Hospital are rehashing the same story lines.  On general Hospital the hospital scenes are popular because that is what the show was originally written around although now it is mostly written around mobsters and my favorite enforcer.

Answer 3

In soaps that have been going for 30-40 years, the characters constantly change, new characters are introduced and old characters are written out, which therefore allows the writers to explore new characters and have dramatic exists (and maybe comebacks) for leaving characters. A lot of the storylines are repeated with new characters with slightly varying details. Also, the majority of the audience is different after five to tens years so using old plots is quite unnoticeable. Also, while soaps can be entertaining, the plots are for the most part unoriginal and poorly written. The writers also love on again-off again relationships, that are antagonising yet compelling for viewers. The storylines hardly change...you've got your car crashes, your murders, grieving widows, pregnancies and teenage pregnancies, your people with illnesses, kidnappings etc.

The writers copy storylines from other shows or use what's in the headlines to generate a response. As for hospitals scenes, they're usually a crowd pleaser in non-hospital soaps, even though personally I think they are predictable and boring...unless you involve a killer or psychopathicc...

Answer 4

If you watch long enough they just start reusing the same things over again.  Kidnapped baby or who's baby am I carrying types of things.  A long lost child that no one ever knew they had or a spouse that they thought they divorced etc....  Same stories different people.

Answer 5

just to add on to what jen and emily G said, when they run out of story line watch out because that's when the soaps get Sci-fi scary. for example when all my children's Erica kane went to have an abortion and the evil doctor took Erica's fetus out of her womb and implanted it into his wife's womb. erica left the clinic thinking she aborted the fetus when all along it was growing inside another woman's womb. the boy was born and by the age of 20 he came to pine valley and that is when erica found out she had a son and the doctor had stolen her aborted fetus...see what I mean it was the most ridiculous episode ever. it sounded like it came right out of star trek.