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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Elephant Bucks | |
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| How Did I Get Elephant Bucks? | |
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| How Do You Get Elephant Bucks? | |
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| It Worked for Me! | |
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| Something You've Always Dreamed of Doing | |
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| Breaking In | |
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| Staying Successful | |
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| How Do I Know That You'll Be Successful? | |
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| What You Need Right Now! | |
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| My Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Solid Spec Script | |
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| Those Amazing Spec Scripts! | |
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| What's a Spec Script, Anyway? | |
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| The Shortest Route to Your Lucky Break! | |
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| The Joy of Knowing What You're Doing! | |
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| One-Trick Pony | |
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| "What Else Have You Got?" | |
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| Ready to Roll | |
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| Calling Cards That Keep on Calling! | |
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| A Portfolio of Solid Spec Scripts | |
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| Picking the Right Series to Spec | |
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| The Show That You Know and Love! | |
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| "Hear It in Your Head" | |
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| Beyond Seinfeld | |
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| Scripts That Producers Want to Read | |
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| Too Soon to "Hear It in Your Head" | |
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| Planet MegaMall | |
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| The Web | |
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| Picking the Right Story | |
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| Story Is Everything | |
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| The Right Story Is in Front of You | |
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| Write to the Premise | |
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| Write the Main Character | |
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| Write the Formula | |
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| The Paints Are Already in the Tray | |
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| Don't Reinvent | |
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| Don't Break New Ground | |
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| No New Characters | |
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| Use the Regular Sets | |
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| Test the Premise | |
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| Write It Real | |
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| See How Easy That Was? | |
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| Structuring Your Story | |
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| Seven Plot Elements | |
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| Using the Seven Plot Elements to Develop Your Story | |
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| Two-Act Framework | |
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| Six-Scene Template | |
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| How We Did It on Coach | |
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| Going to Work on Your Story | |
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| Turning Plot Elements into Scenes | |
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| Familiar Sets | |
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| "B" Story | |
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| Multiple Story Lines | |
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| Runners | |
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| Trust Your Instincts | |
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| Outlining Your Story | |
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| Why Bother with an Outline? | |
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| The Whiteboard | |
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| How I Write an Outline | |
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| Writing Scenes | |
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| Move the Story Forward | |
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| Much of the Work Is Already Done | |
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| A Different Way of Writing Scenes | |
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| Write It as a Drama First | |
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| Roughing Out a Scene as Drama First | |
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| Now for the Jokes | |
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| Making the Humor Easier to Find | |
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| Page Count | |
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| Getting Off to a Great Start as a Professional Sitcom Writer | |
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| Your Finished Masterpiece Now What? | |
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| Now What? | |
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| "Who Cares What You Think?" | |
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| Someone Who Is Actually Going to Read It | |
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| "I Really Liked It Except for the Part Where..." | |
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| "There Is Truth in Even the Dumbest Note" | |
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| Three or Four People | |
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| "What Else Have You Got?" | |
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| May I Have the Address of That Show Biz Contact, Please? | |
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| Your Friend in Show Business | |
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| The Sitcom Universe | |
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| Where to Go in the Sitcom Universe | |
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| Fish Off the Company Pier | |
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| Farmer's Market | |
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| Your First Pitch Meeting | |
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| Your Lucky Break Has Arrived | |
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| They're Doing You the Favor! | |
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| Preparing for the Meeting | |
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| Six Stories, Six Notions | |
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| How to Pitch a Story Idea | |
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| You Don't Need Perfect Pitch! | |
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| Pitch Meeting Supplies | |
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| Keep It in Perspective | |
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| Your First Assignment | |
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| The Story Meeting | |
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| Getting Home | |
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| Day Two | |
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| Day Three and Beyond | |
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| Notes on Your Outline | |
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| The Bad Story | |
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| Your First Draft | |
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| The Second Draft | |
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| Cut Off | |
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| They Rewrote Me!! | |
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| Go Ahead and Have the Party! | |
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| Getting That Second Assignment | |
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| Working on Staff | |
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| The Sitcom Writing Staff | |
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| The Production Season | |
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| The Production Week | |
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| Single Camera Series | |
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| Your Primary Job as a Staff Writer | |
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| The Other Writers | |
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| Actors | |
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| The Producer's Chair | |
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| Creating Your Own Series | |
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| Your Personal Life | |
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| Agents & Executives | |
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| Agents | |
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| Picking an Agent | |
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| A Business Relationship | |
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| Never the Biggest Fish | |
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| Grow at Your Own Pace | |
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| Not a Parent | |
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| Again, Trust Your Instincts | |
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| Chinatown | |
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| Executives | |
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| Be Nice | |
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| Everything Can Be Fixed | |
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| The Kernel of Truth | |
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| "We Have a Huge Problem in Act Two" | |
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| "We Have Just One Tiny Little Note" | |
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| Why Make Enemies When You Don't Have To? | |
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| Learn from the Best | |
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| Where to Look | |
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| Websites | |
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| Speaking of Museums | |
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| What to Watch | |
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| The Current Hits | |
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| Conclusions | |
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| I Wish All of This for You | |
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| About the Author | |