Soap opera writers hard at work providing world of glamour and beauty to viewers

By LARA HYDE
Collegian Arts Writer

Picture a world where everyone in town has been married to or is related to everyone else. The clothes are glamorous and so is the life. The people are physically perfect, yet some are mentally twisted.

Demonic possession, long lost twins, sinister plotting and miraculous returns from the dead are the norm. Life is anything but boring in the sophisticated world of soap operas.

And for relief from the boredom of the same old classes, parties and people, some students turn to soaps to add a little glamour to their lives. For dedicated fans, soap schedules are a crucial part of their day. They devote a part of every day to watching sophisticated characters live their precarious lives.

But behind each of these characters, there is someone who makes a living putting the words into their mouths. These dialogue writers help shape the characters and are an important part of the soap opera hierarchy.

"I think the writers try and make (the dialogue) as normal as possible,"said Jen Rettew (freshman-hotel, restaurant and institutional management).

But other students think the writers just try to cater to the soap-viewing masses.

"They have to be creative because soap operas are based on what the public wants to see," said Kristin Forti (freshman-division of undergraduate studies).

Tina Karapetian has been a dialogue writer for "All My Children" since January 1993. But "All My Children" was not her first soap. She has worked for "The Young and the Restless," "Capitol" and "Santa Barbara."

Karapetian started out as a production secretary and trainee on "The Young and the Restless" set and then became a production secretary for "Capitol." It was there that she wrote her first dialogue.

"It was a real treat for me to try my hand at it," Karapetian said, adding that a lot of people are involved in writing each episode.

"All My Children" has a head writer in New York that comes up with the story lines and formulates what will happen for the next three to six months, she said. Four breakdown writers meet every week and break the head writer's summaries into individual episodes. They create a 14-to 15-page outline of what will happen on each episode. From this outline, the dialogue writers weave their words.

"It's a real challenge. It's almost like a puzzle. You have all the pieces but it's up to the dialogue writer to put them in order," Karapetian said.

Karapetian said she receives a rough draft of the episode breakdown at her home in Phoenix on Saturdays and she receives notes from the network on the breakdown on Tuesdays. Then she has about a week to write the episode.

Karapetian usually reads the breakdown notes twice, making notes in the margin, and then sits down and writes the dialogue.

"I just work on the computer and then I modem it in (to the New York Office) on the computer," Karapetian said.

Her script is taped two weeks after its deadline and airs two weeks later. Contrary to what some people think, Karapetian does not write the dialogue for only one particular character, she writes an entire episode a week.

Karapetian tapes "All My Children" and watches it every night. She also channel-surfs to keep up with current trends on other soaps and taps into on-line news groups to see what the talk is among soap fans.

"I'm real interested in what the fans think of certain story lines," Karapetian said, adding that soap fans are very devoted.

And while competition between soaps exists, dialogue writers for different soaps transcend those boundaries to communicate about projects.

"We all know each other. It's a pretty close-knit group of people," Karapetian said, pointing out that dialogue writers have a wide variety of backgrounds, and some have even been actors on soaps.

Having been a soap fan long before she started working for the field, Karapetian advised aspiring soap writers to know the shows well. She also suggested getting an in-studio job as an intern or a runner to study and watch what goes on with the production of soaps.

Karapetian enjoys the flexible hours and the good pay. But overall, she just enjoys her involvement in the soap opera industry.

"I love soaps," she said.