Back a couple of years ago I wrote about “Five Things Lost Can Teach Us About Storytelling” and I thought I’d add to that list now that the series is complete. Here’s a few more things I think Lost did well:
- In writing a prolonged series, keep in mind how long your plot arc is: There is a world of difference between shows like Lost where each episode plays out as part of a larger plot arc, and a series like CSI or where the episode is a story unto itself. Many times if the writers shift gears and impose longer story-lines on a prior episodic series, it goes badly (cough—X-Files—cough), and when a stand-alone story is inserted into a show with multi-episode or multi-season arcs, that episode often feels unnecessary and pointless.
- Related to above, keep in mind if the story arc is closed, or open-ended: Is there an end to all of this? If so, you should know where it is and write toward it. It doesn’t mean that an open-ended series can’t mess with the status quo, but the changes wrought in the universe simply establish a new status quo, rather than build toward a climax. Lost shifted gears every season, but each time we were moving toward something, which contrasts with the other J.J.Abrams show, Alias, which while it reinvented itself every season, didn’t develop toward any overarching plot until near the end.
- Theme is a great way to unify a long series: One thing Lost did very well was to use various themes and motifs to connect a sprawling story over many different locations, characters and time periods. The themes of light vs. dark, faith vs. reason, paternal betrayal and or abandonment, all played out through every episode, culminating in the climax.
- Mix the beginning into the ending: In a long series, when you reach the end, it can help with a sense of closure if you echo patterns from the beginning of the work, not simply answering questions raised at the start, but also mirroring themes or situations. Lost did this explicitly, the final shot of the series mirrored the initial scene.
