Answering the Call for a Family Drama

Writing
1

Every now and then I receive an email from ISA (the International Screenwriters’ Association) that goes a little something like this:

An ISA Verified Pro is searching for one-hour, genre-busting drama pilots. The Pro loves character-driven stories with a hopeful and sincere tone, focusing on human connection and familial love. This Pro gravitates towards multi-generational stories that showcase how deep a family’s love can go.
Stories that revolve around characters learning to forgive or overcome a troubled past together are greatly of interest. While they are open to science fiction elements, the narrative must remain grounded and stay focused on the human element.
Recommended comps include Heart of the Matter, North to Home, When Calls the Heart, Heartland, and Cedar Cove.

So, I figured what better opportunity to test out Narrova than plugging this in and seeing what happens!

Getting Started

I logged into the Dramatica platform, selected Narrova, and then prepended the above with:

what do you say? think you could help with the following?

Narrova routed me to the “Story Guide”, which is our introductory Narrative Agent fine-tuned to help with initial story development.

Step 1: Story Seed (Tailored to the ISA Brief)

You’re absolutely in the right zone for this Pro’s tastes—multi-generational, hopeful, sincere, grounded human drama with room to “genre-bust” is a sweet spot I can help you build for TV pilot form.

Let’s start by spinning one clear story thread that could actually fit this brief before we get fancy with beats, tone docs, or a series bible.

WRITING PROMPT:

Thinking of this Pro’s tastes (family love, forgiveness, hopeful tone, possibly light sci‑fi but grounded):

  • What kind of family do you most want to write about here (small town, ranch, city, immigrant, blended, etc.)?
  • And what “wound from the past” do they all share in some way (a death, a betrayal, a big move, a secret, an accident, an illness, a business collapse, etc.) that they might learn to forgive each other for over the season?

Let those two threads (family type + shared wound) be simple and emotional, not “high-concept,” for now.

Conclusion Prompt:

In 2–3 sentences, describe:

  1. The type of family at the center of your pilot, and
  2. The painful event or troubled past they’ll be trying to forgive or heal from together.
2

Wonderful! As you can see, the Story Guide is designed to help tease out your story ideas rather than take over and generate the whole thing with a push of the button.

Not knowing this genre at all, I responded with:

they type of family, I want it to be a ranch family, big super rich, like they own half of Wyoming. And the wound from the past, lets make it some kind of secret that no one ever talks about

Narrova responded:

Great, that’s a strong spine: ultra‑wealthy Wyoming ranch dynasty + a buried, no‑one‑talks‑about‑it secret.

Let’s shape this into something that fits the Pro’s “hopeful, familial love, forgiveness” brief and gives you a real TV engine.

1. Clarifying the Flavor of “Genre-Busting”

Before we shape the secret, one quick choice for you:

Which lane feels most like you?

  1. Straight Grounded Family Drama
    – Soapy but sincere; think Heartland with higher stakes and money.

  2. Lightly Supernatural / Sci‑Fi Tinge
    – Still grounded, but with a subtle “genre” wrinkle that never upstages the family (e.g., a strange recurring phenomenon on the land, or tech that changes ranching, etc.).

  3. Mystery / Whydunit Angle
    – The family’s secret is a mystery we peel back over the season; the “genre” is more prestige mystery with a warm, human heart.

Pick 1–3 (or a combo), and I’ll tune everything to that.

2. Options for “The Secret No One Talks About”

Here are three secret concepts that can drive forgiveness and multi‑gen conflict but still land hopeful:

A. “The Wrong Land”

Decades ago, the family’s founder used fraud and intimidation to push out neighboring ranchers and Native families. The current matriarch/patriarch knows the empire sits on stolen opportunity.

  • Why it fits brief:
    • Multi‑gen guilt vs. denial; younger generation wants to make amends.
    • Forgiveness is about reconciling blood loyalty with doing what’s right.
    • Hopeful path is reparations/partnerships rather than punishment.

B. “The Lost Child”

Years ago, a child in the family “died” in an accident on the ranch… but in truth, they survived and were quietly given up/hidden to protect another family member’s reputation.

  • Why it fits brief:
    • Season engine: that child comes back as an adult.
    • Forgiveness arc is very intimate and emotional.
    • This leans into heart and identity more than business.

C. “The Poisoned Ground”

To save the ranch during a drought, the previous generation secretly cut a deal involving illegal chemicals or fracking rights that poisoned water for nearby communities and wildlife.

  • Why it fits brief:
    • Beautiful, iconic land that’s also morally tainted.
    • Younger generation wants regenerative/radical change; older one clings to legacy.
    • Family must “heal the land” as they heal themselves.

3. A First‑Pass Logline Skeleton

Once you pick a secret, we can plug into something like:

“When the carefully controlled world of a super‑rich Wyoming ranch dynasty is threatened by [the secret resurfacing], the fractured family must finally face what they did to build their empire, forcing three generations to choose between protecting their legacy or finding a way to forgive each other—and themselves—before it destroys them.”

We’ll then tailor:

  • Whose POV leads the pilot (black sheep kid? returning heir? outsider fiancé? hidden child?).
  • The specific “hopeful” promise of the series (reclaiming land, reconciling siblings, opening the ranch to the community, etc.).

4. What I Need From You Next

  1. Pick your lane:

    • A) Straight grounded family drama
    • B) Light sci‑fi/supernatural tinge
    • C) Mystery‑driven but warm

  2. Pick the secret (or mash two):

    • A) Wrong Land
    • B) Lost Child
    • C) Poisoned Ground
    • Or tell me your own variation, if something sparked.

  3. Lead character instinct:

    • Who’s our emotional anchor in the pilot?
      • Old guard (patriarch/matriarch)?
      • Returning heir / prodigal child?
      • Hidden child coming back?
      • An outsider (new ranch hand, new in‑law, etc.)?

Once you answer those, I’ll give you:

  • A refined, ISA‑ready logline
  • A one‑paragraph series hook
  • A quick sketch of pilot “A story” beats tailored to this Pro’s taste.
3

Of course, I want to be able to feed myself with my writing so I answer back with:

lost child is perfect, and lets keep it strongly grounded drama - I want to sell this thing! maybe the returning heir coming back, but they don’t know who they are?

Narrova with the return:

Yes, I can absolutely help—and you’re in a very pitchable lane.

You’ve got:

  • Ranch dynasty (owns half of Wyoming)
  • Lost child secret
  • Returning heir who doesn’t know they’re the heir
  • Grounded, character‑driven drama

Let’s shape this into something you could actually send to that ISA Pro.

Working Title

TITLE: Half of Heaven
(We can change it later, but this feels emotional, land‑based, and not “soapy” on the nose.)

Logline (ISA‑Ready Draft)

When a drifter with no clear past takes a job on a legendary Wyoming ranch, he slowly discovers he’s the long‑lost heir to the family’s vast fortune—forcing three generations of a powerful ranch dynasty to confront the buried tragedy that tore them apart and decide whether blood is something to hide from or fight to reclaim.

One‑Paragraph Series Hook

The Whitfields own half of Wyoming—or so the locals say. On their thousand‑square‑mile ranch, tradition is law, love is obligation, and no one speaks of the son who “died” in a childhood accident twenty‑five years ago. When a quiet, capable ranch hand wanders onto the property looking for work, he fits in almost too well: he knows the land like a memory, reacts to old stories like déjà vu, and unsettles the aging patriarch in ways no outsider ever has. As this young man and the Whitfields are drawn toward each other, pieces of a long‑buried secret begin to surface: the lost child was never dead, only hidden. Each episode peels back the family’s lies and loyalties, forcing parents, siblings, and grandparents to grapple with guilt, resentment, and the terrifying possibility of forgiveness—transforming a story about an empire of land into one about the fragile, stubborn hope of family.

Tone & “Why This Pro Will Care”

  • Tone: Warm, sincere, emotionally honest. Painful history, but the show bends toward hope, reconciliation, and human connection.
  • Genre feel: Prestige family drama with light mystery—not “soap,” not crime. Think Heartland or Cedar Cove emotionality, with a more serialized, modern mystery spine.
  • Core promise: Every episode includes:
    • A family moment that stings then heals (or tries to),
    • A choice between protecting the lie vs. reaching toward love,
    • The ranch itself as a character—beautiful, isolating, and worth fighting for together.

This hits the Pro’s love of familial love and forgiveness without leaning into anything too niche or genre‑heavy.

Main Cast – Simple Archetypes

You can tweak specifics, but here’s a sales‑friendly core:

  1. The Drifter / Lost Heir (late 20s – early 30s, any ethnicity)

    • Grew up in the system / bounced through foster homes, no family history beyond fragments.
    • Preternaturally good with horses and land; has flashes of early childhood on a ranch he can’t place.
    • Arc: from “I don’t need anyone” to “maybe I deserve a family.”

  2. The Matriarch (late 50s – 60s)

    • Public face of quiet strength and charity; privately brittle, carrying the secret of what really happened to her son.
    • Arc: from control and silence to confession and active attempts at repair.

  3. The Patriarch (60s–70s)

    • Old‑school cattleman turned billionaire land baron. Chose reputation and business over truth decades ago.
    • Arc: from stubborn denial to a late‑in‑life attempt at atonement—if it isn’t too late.

  4. The “Replacement” Sibling (30s–40s)

    • The golden child groomed to inherit after the “death” of the lost boy.
    • Life was built on a lie, and the drifter threatens everything.
    • Arc: jealousy and fear toward reluctant, grudging loyalty and protection of the lost heir.

  5. The Moral Center (sibling, cousin, or longtime foreman)

    • Sees the best in everyone, including the drifter.
    • Pushes the family toward truth and forgiveness.

You can gender‑swap any of these; the core dynamics still hold.

4

And it keeps going:

Pilot: A‑Story Spine (One‑Hour)

Cold Open

  • Beautiful aerials of the ranch; a family event (branding, wedding prep, or big cattle auction).
  • Something small goes wrong that triggers a visible crack in the matriarch/patriarch when a child runs too close to a particular part of the property (lake, ravine, barn) we later learn is tied to the “accident.”

Act I – The Drifter Arrives

  • Our drifter arrives in town, broke but capable, looking for day work.
  • He’s pointed toward the Whitfield Ranch—“They always need good hands.”
  • First encounter with the family: he impresses someone (moral center or replacement sibling) by handling a difficult horse or emergency.
  • The matriarch/patriarch are unsettled by how familiar he seems but can’t place why.

Act II – Bonding & Unease

  • He’s hired on temporarily. We see him bond with the land, animals, maybe a younger family member.
  • Little flashes of memory: a lullaby, a tree, a branded gate, hints that he’s been here before—but he writes it off as imagination.
  • Subplot: siblings squabble about the future of the ranch (expansion vs. conservation), revealing generational fault lines and setting up ongoing arcs.

Act III – The Past Surfaces

  • An old family photo or keepsake triggers a stronger reaction in him (panic, tears, anger he doesn’t understand).
  • He says something that only the lost child would know— but he doesn’t claim to be anyone; he’s just freaked out.
  • The matriarch or patriarch privately panics; hints this connects to “what we did” years ago.

Act IV – The First Crack in the Lie

  • A confrontation: maybe the patriarch tries to fire him; the moral center pushes back because the drifter’s clearly in distress.
  • In private, the matriarch and patriarch fight about whether it’s even possible this is their son, and what revealing that would do to the family.
  • Final image: the drifter stands at the spot of the old “accident,” feeling something he can’t name—while, inside the house, the family votes (implicitly or explicitly) to keep the truth buried… for now.

Pilot Ending Promise

  • Audience leaves with:
    • The gut‑level sense this is the lost child.
    • The emotional question: Will this family choose love over legacy when the truth finally comes out?

Two Quick Questions for You

  1. Do you want the audience to know for sure (early) that the drifter is the lost child, or keep it ambiguous through a few episodes?

    • Early reveal = more time for healing and fallout.
    • Later reveal = more mystery, but slightly less “family healing” per episode.

  2. Do you see this as more female‑skewing (Hallmark-ish, in a good way) or broadly four‑quadrant?

    • That will change how we emphasize romance vs. generational conflict in the pitch.

If you answer those, I can tighten the logline language and give you a short paragraph you can paste directly into an ISA submission, plus a 2–3 sentence “creator’s note” about tone and comps that speaks the Pro’s language.

5

Woah, hold on there! That’s a little too much information for just a logline assignment, but I’ll take the title.

man, I think maybe the later reveal might be more interesting. the audience will likely know earlier on, but as long as we can keep it a secret. and then I’m pretty sure we should go for female-skewing (Hallmark-ish) - looks like that is what they are after

And with that, Narrova finishes off with the makings of an intriguing family drama:

Leaning into a later reveal + female‑skewing Hallmark tone is a great fit for this Pro.

Below is a package you can pretty much lift into an ISA submission (and tweak voice as you like).

Series Title (Working)

HALF OF HEAVEN

Logline (Female‑Skewing, Hallmark‑Adjacent)

When a kind but rootless ranch hand takes a job on a legendary Wyoming spread owned by a powerful family, he unknowingly stirs up memories of the little boy they lost decades ago. As three generations of Whitfield women fight to protect the ranch—and each other—from old guilt and new feelings, they must decide if opening their hearts to this stranger might finally heal the wound they’ve all spent a lifetime hiding.

(You can also try this variant if you want the mystery more explicit):

When a gentle drifter with no past becomes the newest ranch hand on a vast Wyoming estate, his uncanny connection to the land and the family’s buried grief unsettles three generations of Whitfield women, forcing them to choose between guarding the secret of a “dead” son and risking everything on the hope that love—and forgiveness—might bring him home.

One‑Paragraph Series Hook (ISA / Cover‑Letter Friendly)

The Whitfields “own half of Wyoming,” but money can’t buy back the son they lost in a tragic accident twenty‑five years ago—or so the story goes. On their sprawling ranch, three generations of women hold the family together: a tightly‑wound matriarch who refuses to talk about the past, a dutiful daughter torn between the ranch and her own happiness, and a big‑hearted granddaughter who still believes in miracles. When a soft‑spoken drifter with no clear history turns up looking for work, he fits into their world almost too perfectly, awakening old memories, buried guilt, and surprising sparks of affection. Episode by episode, as the Whitfield women and this mysterious ranch hand slowly weave themselves into each other’s lives, clues gather that he may be the child they lost. The tension between what their hearts want and what the truth might cost becomes the show’s beating heart—turning a story about land and legacy into a hopeful, emotional journey toward forgiveness, second chances, and the kind of family you choose to fight for.

Tone & Comps Paragraph (For the Pro)

Half of Heaven is a one‑hour, character‑driven family drama in the emotional world of Heartland, When Calls the Heart, and Cedar Cove: heartfelt, sincere, and quietly romantic, with a warm, hopeful tone. The series blends the sweeping beauty of a Western ranch setting with intimate, relationship‑focused storytelling centered on mothers, daughters, and the man who may or may not be the son they lost. While there’s a gentle mystery at its core—what really happened the night the Whitfield boy “died,” and who this drifter truly is—the focus always stays on human connection, familial love, and the hard work of forgiving yourself and the people you can’t stop loving.

Core Ensemble (Female‑Forward, Sales‑Clean)

You can include a brief “Cast of Characters” section like this:

  • Eleanor Whitfield (60s) – The Matriarch
    Elegant, disciplined, and deeply private. Eleanor has spent twenty‑five years holding the ranch and the family together by sheer force of will. She truly believes that reopening the past will shatter everything she’s protected.

  • Maddie Whitfield (late 30s / early 40s) – The Dutiful Daughter
    Raised to be her father’s son and her mother’s right hand, Maddie gave up her own dreams to stay on the ranch. She’s the de facto manager, exhausted but fiercely loyal, and the first to notice that the new ranch hand feels… familiar.

  • Rose Whitfield (late teens / early 20s) – The Hopeful Granddaughter
    Big‑hearted, impulsive, and always looking for the good in people. Rose is the one person in the family who still believes love can fix things. She bonds quickly with the drifter, sensing the kindness and loneliness they share.

  • “Colt” / The Drifter (late 20s – early 30s) – The Lost Heir
    Quiet, gentle, and more comfortable with horses than people. A lifetime in and out of foster care has taught him not to expect much from anyone. The Whitfield ranch feels like home in a way he can’t explain, and the women who live there make him wonder, for the first time, if he belongs somewhere.

  • James Whitfield (60s–70s) – The Patriarch
    Old‑school rancher turned reluctant billionaire. James made a terrible decision the night his son “died,” and chose silence to protect the family name. He’s the biggest obstacle to the truth—and the one who needs forgiveness most.

(You can trim this down for very tight submissions.)

6

And then it finally finishes with:

Pilot Season Approach (Later Reveal Strategy)

You said: “Audience will likely know earlier on, but as long as we can keep it a secret.” That’s perfect. Structurally:

  • Audience POV:
    By mid‑pilot, the audience is 90% sure Colt is the lost child.
  • Character POV:
    • Rose suspects “fate” or something special long before she suspects the truth.
    • Maddie senses a connection but resists it—she’s protecting her mother.
    • Eleanor and James are in full denial/avoidance.
  • Reveal Timing:
    • End of Season 1 (or back half) is where DNA/a specific memory/undeniable proof finally forces the on‑screen confirmation.
    • Until then, the tension is: “Will they choose love and honesty before the truth blows everything up anyway?”

That’s very Hallmark‑friendly: we feel the emotional truth early, and we watch the characters slowly give themselves permission to accept it.

Immediate Next Step for You

If you’d like, I can now:

  1. Turn this into a tight half‑page–one‑page series synopsis that:
    • Hits pilot arc,
    • Sketches the season arc,
    • Ends on the emotional promise (forgiveness + found family).
  2. Or, build a 5–7 beat outline of the pilot focused on:
    • The three Whitfield women,
    • Key Colt moments,
    • The small but strong Hallmark‑ish romantic and healing beats.

Tell me which is more useful for your ISA submission right now:

  • “1‑page series overview,” or
  • “Pilot beat outline (1 hour)”

…and if you have a preferred episode count in mind (e.g., 8, 10, or 12 eps), I’ll bake that into the season arc.

7

Of course, I’d still have to write the thing, but the story is interesting to me and if the producer is interested I’m ready to get started!

Even asked Narrova to generate a streamer-friendly poster for the pitch:

IMG_2195
IMG_21951320×1973 612 KB

And if they don’t bite, I can always work through ten more different ideas in the next hour or so.

All this and more is available now on the Dramatica platform. See you there!

1 Like
8

I like that the title came from your off-the-cuff “own half of Wyoming” remark. I could see people saying that a lot in the show, disparagingly or endearingly or even as a warning…

9

Oh, I didn’t even notice that! I wondered where it got the name from but yeah…if I make him a U.S. Marshal I could probably sell it to Paramount+ the next day :joy:

1 Like