When we write stories we are giving context for getting to know a fictional person. Character development is really character revelation and it's a similar process to how you might write an episodic series about this character. People show you their boring side first, your story is often a cliche at first. As you put more time into writing, slowly things will present themselves about your story that make it more real and thus bring the characters in them closer to popping off the page. No type of writing more closely mimics the process of character development than writing a traditional network TV series.

Evolves, Changes Slowly

The writing of a TV series will slowly manifest a theme of some kind as you keep at writing it. You write the first episode, shoot it, and then you can't change it later. You have to work within its constraints to make the rest work. What happens is that you find things in early episodes that you wish you could cut. Since you just can't introduce contradictory elements in later episodes, you have to transition instead. It seems like an amateurish way to do it. It seems TV episodes should be written all at once and that would help make them all better coordinated. This method, though not ideal, mimics the way you get to know people and gives the shows a feeling of reality.

Imperfect Process, False Starts

You often formulate one image in your head of who characters are and then something you assumed turns out to be wrong. It takes a while to get a accurate image of a character. Once you do that, it doesn't change much. This is how a lot of TV series end up; with the first few seasons that not quite perfect but the later seasons really working well. Writing a TV series as Hollywood has for years isn't the best way, but it has been shown to work even with all its shortcomings. There is something about it not being perfect that makes it more lifelike.

Tone, Franchise Emerges

As writers continue on the path of writing a TV series, slowly it becomes clear what it's all about. What each episode should do that is similar to the others. This will always be a matter of degree depending on how episodic or serial your story is, but each TV series will have a throughline of some sort that connects each episode. You may start out writing a funny version of the TV series that later finds wants to be more serious. Sooner or later the series finds its identity, just as in due time you find out who people really are.

Familiar Process

Not only is this the path of least resistance for making a TV show, but it feels right. This is how you get to know anything. You are thrown in and make early assumptions that are wrong and you later change your perspective. You don't get mad about the impressions you first made since this is such a familiar process. So even if writing a TV series is best done all in advance as they often do with cable TV shows, the write-as-you-shoot way many networks make television shows has an organic quality to that is compelling.

With the advent of cheap digital technology, writing a TV series is no longer out of the hands of aspiring writers. If you really want your stuff to be seen you may have to do a little more work and shoot it yourself. It is possible. You may find following a Hollywood template with your independent spirit may pay dividends.