Ever since I was a teenager during the grunge era, listening to the anti-commercial whinings of Mr. Cobain, it’s been impossible to escape the negative stigma associated with formulas, or the formulaic approach to creativity.

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the elegance of structure itself. Fractals and geometry, DNA, the rules of physics, etc. Nature seems chaotic, but it is much more structured than most people are willing to admit. There is a method to the madness, and thus formulas themselves fall into the natural scheme of things.

My quest as an aspiring storyteller has been one for the perfect formula. Now, immediately upon reading that last sentence some of you might snicker. “Perfect formula… follow your heart you bloody fool! It’s about ART!”

But you see, structure itself is an art, it is individualistic and unique. I’ll tell you why.

Even in a field as crass commercial as business, anyone who knows what they are talking about will tell you that each brand needs its own positioning. You can’t be Starbucks when there’s already a Starbucks. Don’t even try. When everyone zigs, you zag.

One of the big structure concepts bandied about in TV writing is the template. The template is the collection of hallmarks that have to be in every episode.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer can’t just slay vampires. Part of the hook is that she’s a teenager, and a high school student. She’s got to have those pesky teenage or high school conflicts. Maybe she has to study for a test, but she can’t because she’s out late planting stakes through the hearts of supernatural beings? She wants to join the cheerleading team, but some evil monster is threatening the town and she has to put an end to it.

The conflict between saving the town from monsters every week, and trying to live the life of a normal teenage girl is an entire class of conflicts that make up the template of the show. Any individual conflict that fits the overall template is a springboard for an episode.

TV writers can’t write episodes until they know exactly what their show is about. And if you plan to write a series, neither can you. That’s exactly what a formula is about: Planning, and consistency. You have to know what types of things your show is about, so that you can mine that vein.

Stargate SG-1 is all about stargate travel — exploring planets all over the universe by traveling through wormholes. Now an obvious part of that template is that you will run into danger, and threats to planet Earth. These come in many forms, whether they be alien viruses or aliens themselves. Sometimes they are mysterious byproducts of powerful technology. Anything that happens as a result of traveling through the stargate or to other planets can be fuel for conflict, or a springboard for an episode. This is the SG-1 template. It is the entire class of things, which individually, serve as a springboard for an episode.

Battlestar Galactica can’t use SG-1′s template, because Battlestar Galactica isn’t about stargate travel. That’s SG-1′s hook. Thankfully, Battlestar Galactica has its own template which is quite good I might add; Strong personalities cooped up on a ship for months, constantly trying to escape the cylon threat.

Plus the template is chock full of the usual space dramas: Limited oxygen/water/resource supplies, searching for habitable planets, witnessing strange anomalies in space. The cold, the dark, and the great unknown. As if that weren’t enough, they toss in religious prophecy, religious conflict, political commentary. All the nitty gritty, dirty human stuff. All jammed onto a few lonely ships in space; the final 50,000 members of the human race at the ragged edge of survival. Compressed humanity. It’s great stuff, and the writers seem to know it.

Developing a template will help you establish what your stories will be about. If you plan to write a series, having a template is essential.

The truth about formula is that there’s nothing wrong with using a formula at all. The only catch is it has to be yours.