I read a couple more of Jeffrey Scott’s scripts. He was amazing – smooth, a great storyteller, making it look effortless which, of course, was hard to do.

Jean and I had a lot of meetings. Sometimes we discussed Jeffrey’s work. Sometimes we discussed how Jean saw things, how he saw characters and situations working. He spoke very little about format and structure, paying me the compliment of knowing I had done my homework which, by now I had, devouring books on writing for television.

I had a good handle on structure and format and I was straining to get started. First, Jean had me write a story springboard – a two-paragraph concept for an episode I titled The Forest Littles. The springboard featured The Littles leaving their comfortable home, venturing into a forest where they fell into jeopardy. We polished the springboard until Jean was happy with it. Next he told me to expand the springboard into a treatment, outlining a detailed synopsis of the story scene by scene, which I did.

We spent a day editing my treatment and finally he told me to write the script.

By now we had had a modus operandi -- me a night owl, him an early bird. At midnight I slid my first television script under his door and went to bed, confident my golden fingers were taking me where I wanted to go.

By morning I’d find I had a lot to learn.