Dan Harmon teaches us the importance of pie charts in writing

I really need to re-subscribe to Wired. There was an amazing article on "Community" creator Dan Harmon in the October issue in which he discusses his creative process and his realization that he might actually be his own character.

Some snippets:

Harmon calls his circles embryos — they contain all the elements needed for a satisfying story — and he uses them to map out nearly every turn on Community, from throwaway gags to entire seasons.

Abed (Danny Pudi) 

Most Community fans assume Abed has Asperger’s syndrome. Many of the signs are there: His inability to pick up on others’ feelings, his tendency to relate more to film and TV than to actual people, his obsessive analyzing and categorizing of events. From the beginning, Harmon didn’t want to specify the character’s pathology, but out of curiosity he eventually started looking into Asperger’s...

 Dan Harmon

"So, in a very naive way — and I’ve never told anybody this before — I started researching the disorder,” Harmon says. “I started looking up these symptoms, just to know what they are. And the more I looked them up, the more familiar they started to seem. Then I started taking these Internet tests.” The tests came up positive.

If NBC doesn't have the balls to renew "Community," I think we need to start a campaign for Netflix to pick it up like they're doing with "Arrested Development."