Le Cirque Éternel was a collaborative television development project created during the second year of my Creative Writing and Screenwriting degree. Working in a team of four, we were tasked with developing an original limited series from concept through to a complete series bible.
Together, we developed the overarching Season One narrative, characters, world, lore and atmosphere of Le Cirque Éternel: a dark fantasy thriller centred around an eternal travelling circus and the performers trapped within it. Each episode contributed to the wider mystery surrounding the circus while also featuring its own self-contained ‘Story of the Day’, allowing us to explore individual characters and their histories alongside the season-long narrative.
Once we had established the foundations of the series, we divided responsibility for individual characters, episodes and sections of the bible. I proposed and developed The Ringmaster and The Clown, creating their histories, personalities, motivations and roles within the wider narrative. I was also responsible for the final episode of the series, whose Story of the Day centred around The Clown. While the major narrative beats were established collaboratively, I developed and wrote the episode outline independently, adapting it throughout the process as the other episodes and storylines evolved.
My additional written contributions included the Audience section and The Precinct, which established the circus's setting, atmosphere and physical world. I also took the lead on the visual design and presentation of the series bible, creating the cover, page layouts, typography and much of its imagery and visual direction. One of my teammates, Naomi, worked alongside me on elements of the aesthetic and created several of the mood boards.
This project was one of my first experiences developing a larger fictional narrative collaboratively. It taught me how to balance individual creative ownership with a shared vision: developing characters and storylines of my own while ensuring they supported other writers' work, maintaining continuity across an overarching narrative, and adapting ideas as the project evolved.
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