When I was in copywriting I was psyched the first chance I got to write a TV ad, until I realized I had no idea what I was doing. How do you format it? How do you cram a lot of information into just 30 seconds? And how do you make that mildly entertaining?

I found a few resources on writing television spots for you newbies. About Advertising has 10 Essentials to an Effective TV Commercial. From a school handout (really) a few suggestions on what messages to include in your spot--very basic, but then again it has a helpful rundown of approximately how many words are in 10, 20, 30, and 60-second spots. And finally, probably the most practically helpful, how to format the durn thing.