From dumbandugly at the CBS AWT Board:

http://tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/The+Rules/Soaps/Features/Articles/080408_the_rules_NB.htm?isfa=1

• Watch the show.

   

• Learn the history of the show. You would be surprised at the ideas that you can get from the back story of your characters.

   

• Read the fan mail. The very characters that are not thrilling to you may be the audience's favorites.

   

• Be objective. When I came in to ATWT, the first thing I said was, what is pleasing the audience? You have to put your own personal likes and dislikes aside and develop the characters that the audience wants to see.

   

• Talk to everyone; writers and actors especially. There may be something in a character's history that will work beautifully for you, and who would know better than the actor who has been playing the role?

   

• Don't change a core character. You can certainly give them edges they didn't have before, or give them a logical reason to change their behavior. But when the audience says, "He would never do that," then you have failed.

   

• Build new characters slowly. Everyone knows that it takes six months to a year for an audience to care about a new character. Tie them in to existing characters. Don't shove them down the viewers' throats.

   

• If you feel staff changes are in order, look within the organization first. P&G [Procter & Gamble] does a lot of promoting from within. Almost all of our producers worked their way up from staff positions, and that means they know the show.

   

• Don't fire anyone for six months. I feel very deeply that you should look at the show's canvas before you do anything.

   

• Good soap opera is good storytelling. It's very simple