Step-by-Step Guidelines for Optioning a Life Story or B. The TV Writers Vault - Pitch an Idea or Script. Many times we've seen the feature film, television movie, or even dramatic series based on a persons true life story. In television we're familiar with the biographical made-for-tv-movies that virtually every network produces. These stories can span genres from an against-all-odds miracle story that takes place in a small town with otherwise regular folk as the hero, or an epic mini-series that brings new insight to a popular historical figure we all thought we knew.
Any of these examples of dramatized life stories can be adaptations of best-selling biographies. But for the purposes of understanding this genre as it relates to selling a person's life story to the Hollywood television industry, it is necessary to focus on the marketing of a persons life experiences/ profession/ or specific event that they believe would translate into an intriguing television project.
First, identify the protagonist (Hero, or main character) from whose point of view the story is told.