1/ SCENE DESCRIPTION – GEOGRAPHY and CONTENT: DESCRIBE WHAT YOU WANT US TO SEE – NO MORE NO LESS

Two things to remember here: don’t under describe your scene but also don’t over describe. Both mistakes on the page cause confusion and irritation in a reader. No-one likes to have to trawl through pages of description to get to the vital information of the scene. But the flip side of that is a tough place to be as well. There is nothing more tedious than having to work out for yourself where characters are at the top of a scene, or what they are doing – what it is, in fact, that we are looking at. So my rule of thumb is this; imagine and visualise for yourself before you put finger tip to keypad or ballpoint to paper where your characters are and what image you want us to see at the top of the scene. It sounds an obvious thing to say, but writing for the small or big screen means you have to use your visual imagination as much as you do your verbal skills to get your story across. Tell the story in pictures as well as words. So what is it you want us to know? Tell us succinctly but with a touch of description to keep the top of the scene alive. Set the scene – literally – paint it in words but chose yours carefully and remember – we need to get a move on here – this is not a novel – so place your characters and prepare for them to move the story on.

2/ CUT TO THE CHASE – KEEP UP THE STORY MOMENTUM – HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOUR STORY

I know it’s a tough one – but never allow yourself as a writer, to procrastinate. Your characters can, if you demand it, in order to further a plot point or build some tension in the narrative, but you the writer need to ensure you ‘get a wiggle on’ throughout the writing of your script. You are in control of not only the imagery and dialogue, but also the pace and mood of the story. It’s a truism that many writers lack faith in their storylines and worry that if they truely do push the script on they will run out of story before they complete their all important third act. My advice is always to allow the story to build the momentum it will naturally and if the writing begins to stall and the story to wane then more invention is required from you. Do not apply the brakes, thus holding back the plot incrementally scene by scene, do push your foot on the accelorator and give the storyline and your script some welly instead!

3/ CONSTRUCT A SHAPELY SCENE – INTRO/DEVELOP/END

Here’s another cliche but a true one (like most cliches in fact). Each scene must have a beginning, a middle and an end. So many writers forget this basic essential fact when bringing their story together in script form. Introduce your scene, develop it’s particuar theme and end it on a definite, clear note. This might be on a visual image, or an expression, or on a parting word; but do end your scene. Do not leave it and your characters hanging.  It’s sometimes easier to write the meat of the scene and harder to give it a good opening and ending, but it is essential to get this right in order to keep your overall control of your story intact. Ask yourself some basic questions when beginning to write a scene: ‘what is this scene about? What is the job of this particular scene?’ What must I put in and what can I leave out?’ ‘How do I need to leave this scene in order to push the story along?’ Be tough, be exacting and be clear with both yourself as the writer and with your scenes.

4/ VISUALISE, VISUALISE, VISUALISE

I can not stress enough how important it is for the writer to visualise, to imagine, to literally paint with words both your characters and the world they populate. Television, film, are visual mediums and the vitality and impact of your story on the small or large screen is dependant on your skill as both wordsmiths and visual storytellers. A lot of writing pitfalls can be avoided if your visual imagination is strong. Try literally, to ‘see’ the scenes as you write them and in so doing, create an atmosphere or a feeling using a simple but effective description of a room, or lighting, weather, a colour, an item of furniture, a picture. Couple a strong visual imagination with a skill in writing real, grounded, credible dialogue and your script is virtually writing itself!

5/ ONLY CONNECT – MENTAL EDITING

This is a tough one but if you can do this, my guess is that you may have dallied a while in pitfall number 1 and grazed a knee in pitfall 2 but I think you will have skipped lightly over 3 and 4 with little effort. Again, I make the same point but as you are in the business of writing in a visual medium, it is essential that you try and visualise how each separate component of your story, (in scenes) will cut together, and once positioned, how it will look, how the story will hang together and what the overall style and tone of your script will be.  Doing this will ensure you do not fall into another trap (perhaps on a sub-headed list of essential do’s and don’ts!) of allowing yourself too many jumpcuts within the narrative. Where a character literally seems to leap from one set/location to another as if they have jumped time between scenes. When cut together, unless these jumpcuts are explained in the visualisation of the scene, the script will both read and look disjointed. Try and keep in your head as you write, the pace, the tone and the style of your narrative.  The placing of your scenes along your narrative through line is very important. Scenes do not necessarily have to follow a linear pattern of storytelling and chosing to abutt one scene in particular with another can add atmsophere and story intrigue which you may not have actually scripted intentionally. Play with the narrative in your mental edit and in so doing, you will be controlling the pace of your story and where you want your audience to relax and where you want to up the pace.

That’s my TOP FIVE BASIC, ESSENTIAL SCRIPT DO’s AND DONT’s – I hope you find them useful – any feedback is always useful and look out for future DOs and DON’T lists from me@ www.SCRIPT ADVICE.co.uk

CONTENTS

· HELLO
· SCRIPT ADVICE WRITING TIP – MIND THE GAP
· GEORGE THE JOBBING WRITER – AGENT AGONY
· INTERESTING STUFF

HELLO

I love Autumn. It is a season that compliments me. Summer – you will find me grumpy, covered in heat rash and sun factor 50. Spring – more sprightly but rather pasty. Winter – brittle and entirely dependent on moisturizer; so it is in Autumn that I come into my own. I am a natural red-head, (these days augmented by the delights of home colouring – thank you Casting Crème!) and I fancy, as I walk through the woods at the back of our house, picking my way through what I hope are worm casts and not suburban dog poo, that I rather blend in with the golds, coppers and rust colours dancing in the trees above my head. I am not allowed to wax all Nature for too long, as Number One Son, in a burst of curly leaves and stripey wellies, comes hurtling along the path towards me; his voice echoing up the sides of the valley; ‘mummy, my wee is actually coming!’

Onwards and upwards…

SCRIPT ADVICE WRITING TIP – MIND THE GAP

I often come across in my SCRIPT ADVICE script editing and mentoring work, writers who have a tendency to over-write where it is not necessary and to under-explain when it is.

This is a tricky balance to get right in narrative heavy work, but one that is essential to achieve if you want your writing to come off the page with polish and finesse.

One of the most often repeated pit falls when writing dialogue-heavy scenes in, for example EASTENDERS (I mention this soap as opposed to any other because I have script edited this show) is that line of dialogue which is so ‘on the nose’ it’s practically sitting on your face. Never a good look. So – in dialogue, too much obvious explanation is a very bad thing indeed.

In scene setting the same applies. There is nothing worse than reading great long ribbons of scene description, when all you really want to know from the writer at this point is: where we are, who is there and what they are doing in the scene.

The reverse is true when I am reading an exchange of dialogue that is so cryptic it would fox T S Elliot (and we all know how much he depended on footnotes to get his point across!)

Subtext is the life line of any interesting, engaging, emotionally compelling work, but too much subtlety in the text and not enough explanation in the dialogue will result in lots of scratched heads and an over-riding sense of frustration and confusion.

TIP: Think about what you don’t want your characters to say in the scene. What must you leave out in order for the plot to be developed and the characters to grow and learn with the narrative?

The gaps in a plot are just, if not more, important in the true telling of a gripping storyline. Let your characters fill in the gaps for your audience when you chose to give them the information you have been withholding.

Chose your moment. Maximise the impact of that piece of information and write the moment that the penny drops.

GEORGE THE JOBBING WRITER – AGENT AGONY

SC1 – Bar Your Own Bum – Islington – Table by the window – 12 Noon

I like Hope-The-Nice-Script Editor; she’s always so nice about my WESTENDERS scripts, but she should’ve told me Poppocatapetl was boss-eyed. She’s sitting across from me, glass of Oyster Bay in hand, one eye firmly fixed on the door jam and the other on me – I think. She’s telling me she was conceived half way up a Mexican mountain, which is why she’s got that ridiculous name, thank God she answers to Poppy.

I am trying to focus on her face – well, the bit between her eyebrows actually, because I think that way it will look like I am looking at her, and listening, when in actual fact all I can think about is what the hell I am doing here, nodding sagely and trying to look like an accomplished, mature writer when I feel just the opposite.

This club she’s taken me to is full of ‘faces’. I know I am supposed to know who is on the next table, because Poppy did a double take and hissed excitedly behind her menu that ‘Uptown Manor’ was ordering the Moules’. I don’t recognise him – probably because I don’t watch the show – this because I can’t keep my eyes open past 9.30pm since I have taken on a regular writer slot on WESTENDERS and Uptown Manor is on at 10pm. He’s very loud and smells of Patchouli – which I really hate.

Sc 2 – Bar Your Own Bum – Islington – Seats by the fireplace – 1.30pm

We’ve had lunch – it was mainly liquid – and now Poppy is suggesting another bottle of wine which seems like a great idea since now we have these amazing squishy seats to sit in and I can pretend I am one script away from a BAFTA and Poppy is telling me how ‘incisive’ she finds my work and how I seem to ‘hold the zeitgeist in the palm of my hand’. Blimey, even though I am one bottle of wine past sober, I know that what she just said was utter crappola. I don’t hold anything in my hand but a trusty Bic (I do my first script pass in pen) but Poppy, I am realising fast, likes the sound of her own voice and as we sit, me sinking lower in Italian leather upholstery, she perching forward alarmingly in her very tight Teirry Mugler skirt – I am beginning to think that getting an agent was not a good idea after all. She has just told me her percentage of everything I earn – WHAT? Do I have to pay her to write my scripts?

Sc 3 – Bar Your Own Bum – Islington – Still by the fireplace – 3pm

I love the smell of Patchouli – so sophisticated in a man. GARY WISER – star of Uptown Manor and I are now firm friends. We know each other intimately and are finding each other hilarious. Poppy is now squatting rather than sitting, in the fireplace of this marvellous club she’s brought me too, surrounded by a ton of pumpkins – how clever to put Autumnal fruit in a fireplace instead of wood – so artistic. We can all see Poppy’s knickers but no-one is saying anything – mainly because I have lost the power of speech and am trying not to appear drunk as I try and get up out of this ridiculously squashy chair – it’s like coming out of the birth canal.

Sc 4 – Bar Your Own Bum – Islington – Ladies – 5pm

OMG. I know I am drunk because I have just been talking to myself in the mirror. I saw Sue Johnston do it once in a scene in BROOKSIDE – she knew her hub was having an affair and was scared to blow the whistle because she still loved him – so she looked at herself in the mirror and said over and over to her reflection, ‘just do something – just do something’. And I am about to. I am about to leave. With Dignity. Just have to find Poppy.

Sc 5 – Bar Your Own Bum – Islington – Somewhere On The Stairwell – 5.30pm

Well. That could’ve gone better. I sort of tripped I think. I obviously have fallen down most of the stairs because I find my self throwing a croissant-shape, precariously balanced on this tiny landing and really hoping I can get upright before anyone sees me. Hello – someone has.

Sc 6 – Ollie’s Caff – Islington – 6.30pm

Thank God I met June. She sort of scooped me up in her enormous Pashmina and I got to my feet without too much dignity lost. She found my bag, discovered my shoe, and we waved goodbye to Poppy who appeared to be fast asleep in the fireplace on a pile of orange fruit – we thought it best to leave her to her slumbers.

We didn’t find Gary Wiser. June even paid the bill. Which I am sure was huge. Poppy and I both owe her.

She’s telling me that she admires my work but thinks I need a push up the backside. She’s just called me complacent. She hasn’t mentioned so far, that I am holding anything in my palm and I am pleased about that.

We are downing great mugs of Builder’s Tea and I have just polished off a pile of Bacon Sandwiches doused in HP. I never knew Pig could taste so good.

June is telling me that Poppy is a very good deal clincher and then lists with astonishing memory recall about a million clients that Jarvis Black (the agent Poppy works for) has on it’s books. It is impressive and there’s no doubt that Poppy, given more food and less alchohol, would be dynamite in any contractual meeting. But.

I just like June. I like her warmth, her bright colours, her untidy hair and the way she eats with her spine – she loves her food this woman! She knows her stuff – been around a hundred years and when she showed me the client list of her agency June Pepper Inc. I already felt at home.

So that’s it. Deal done. I know June Pepper lacks the glamour and pazzaz that Poppy and her international conglomerate agency does, but I would much, any day of the week, be represented by someone named after a sunny month than an unstable Mexican volcano.

INTERESTING STUFF

BBC WRITERSROOM NEWSLETTER

Here below the latest offering from those busy beavers at the BBC Writers Room:

Welcome to the BBC writersroom newsletter.

Face 2 Face with Stephen Butchard
————–
BBC writersroom and the Manchester Literature Festival will be hosting a special Q&A event with award-winning screenwriter Stephen Butchard (Stolen, Five Daughters, House of Saddam) on October 18th at 7pm, in MediaCity, Salford.

Tickets are free and can be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis by emailing writersroom.events@bbc.co.uk with Stephen Butchard in the subject line.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/face_to_face.shtml

The Fades
————–
Writer Jack Thorne talks about the genesis of his brand new supernatural horror for BBC Three, The Fades, and shares the script from Episode 1 on our blog.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/2011/09/the_fades.shtml

Scripts
——-
Our scripts are in PDF format – if you can’t read them, download Adobe Reader from http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/categories/plug/acrobat/acrobat.shtml?intro

The Fades, Episode 1 by Jack Thorne

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/downloads/scripts/thefades_episode1.pdf

Rastamouse, ‘Da Crucial Plan’ by Michael De Souza and Genevieve Webster

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/downloads/scripts/rastamouse_dacrucialplan.pdf

The Hour, Episode 1 by Abi Morgan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/downloads/scripts/thehour_episode1.pdf

Don’t forget you can browse through all of the scripts in our script archive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/script_archive.shtml

Submitting your script to BBC writersroom
—————————————–
Want to write for the BBC? Find out what to send us on our script submissions page.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/submissions_writersroom.shtml

Blog
—-
Newsjack’s Gareth Gwynn gives his advice on submitting sketches for the show, Corey Montague-Sholay talks about his first writing job working on EastEnders: E20, and we get an update on the Get a Squiggle On competition masterclass from Usman at BBC writersroom North.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/

Opportunities
————-
Collabor8te
Deadline: 03 October 2011
Win a budget of up to £10,000 to have your short film developed and produced.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/collabor8ate_2011.shtml

Newsjack
Deadline: 17 October 2011
BBC Radio 4 Extra’s topical sketch show is now open for submissions of sketches and short jokes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/newsjack_2011_2.shtml

Face 2 Face with Stephen Butchard
Deadline: 18 October 2011
An opportunity to put your questions to Stephen Butchard, one of the leading screenwriters of his generation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/face_to_face.shtml

Channel 4 Drama presents….4Screenwriting
Deadline: 01 November 2011
Channel 4 Drama are looking for 12 talented writers who currently have no broadcast credit.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/4screenwriting_2011.shtml

Immersive Writing Lab Competition
Deadline: 21 November 2011
Create a cross-platform storyworld and win a £6k development fund.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/immersive_writing_lab_2011.shtml

Steyning Festival Theatre Trail 2012
Deadline: 02 December 2011
Steyning Festival Theatre Trail 2012 is seeking 6 new plays from playwrights in the South East.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/steyning_festival_theatre_trail_2012.shtml

The BBC Writersroom Future Talent Award for Writers
Deadline: 15 December 2011
Opportunity for north-based student/recent graduate drama writers to access development opportunities and mentoring from the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/future_talent_award_for_writers.shtml

IDEASTAP– is a great looking website which is useful to tap (obviously!) in to now and again. Here, the marvellous Sam Bain talks about sitcom writing and the essential need for deadlines to keep the brain focused on getting that script finished….

http://www.ideastap.com/ideasmag/the-knowledge/sam-bain-writer

This from SOFLUID – a really good blog written by Michelle Goode – SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM member on Facebook and all round good egg….

http://michellegoode.blogspot.com/2011/10/twists-in-tale.html?m=1

BAFTA ROCLIFFE NEW WRITING FORUM

http://www.facebook.com/pages/BAFTA-Rocliffe-New-Writing-Forum/128863457425?sk=wall

IMAGINE BLOG
(from Jonathon Harvey SAWR member and all round good guy)

http://www.imaginehq.com/2011/09/26/25-insights-on-becoming-a-better-writer/

SCRIPT WRITING IN THE UK – I love the writing and blogs of Danny Stack and here is his blog focussing on trial ep writing for soaps – really really good info here

http://dannystack.blogspot.com/2009/12/shadow-schemestrial-scripts.html

SCREENWRITING U – is a great source of tips and analysis about the knotty business of writing screenplays. This blog is great at two things – almost stating the obvious, but definitely highlights the blend of comedy and action in films like GROSSE BLANK and why they are successful

http://www.screenwritingu.com/screenwriting-articles/170-when-action-and-comedy-merge.html

NEXT MOVIE – This is makes for some interesting and amusing reading…

http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/funniest-actresses-funny-hollywood/

And now a bit of space given over to those hard-working folks at THE LONDON SCREENWRITERS’ FESTIVAL……..

Are you thinking of going to the London Screenwriters’ Festival this year? We think you should.

The festival is a three day event running from October 28th to 30th (Friday through Sunday) for professional screenwriters and filmmakers. There are over seventy sessions and one hundred industry speakers (including some really big players). There will be five hundred people in attendance and the three days promise an intense networking and learning experience that is designed to educate, inspire and connect.

Latest speakers announced today are David Reynolds (writer ‘Finding Nemo’, ‘Mulan’), Ian Brennan (writer and creator of ‘Glee’) and Joe Cornish (‘Attack The Block’, ‘Tin Tin’ for Spielberg).

DISCOUNT
If you use the discount code PRO-SCREENWRITER you can get a discount of £30 off the ticket price, taking it down to £270. Use the discount code when you buy your ticket. And remember, tell your accountant too as the ticket is tax deductible!

We built the event for you, so what will you get if you attend?
· Improve your writing by learning directly from the biggest and most successful people in the industry. Check out the speakers here. http://tinyurl.com/LSFspeakers
· Increase your chances of success by networking with other professional film makers and screenwriters.
· Tailor the festival to your needs – there are so many sessions to choose from, you can make the whole event unique to you and your project or career. http://tinyurl.com/LSFsessions
· Meet our speakers. You can get face time with our industry experts in intimate Script Chat sessions. http://tinyurl.com/LSFchat
· Pitch your projects to producers and agents in our Speed Pitching sessions. http://tinyurl.com/LSFpitch
· Start right now – get immediate access to our online delegate network where hundreds of other delegates are now networking and watching last years session videos.
· Keep the learning alive, we film most sessions so you can watch the ones you miss or revisit the ones that resonate with you online later.
· Get inspired. More than anything, our delegates report a massive surge in passion and confidence post the festival.

Sign up now.

http://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com

I hope I can help you with your writing; be it a television script, short (or full length) film or screen play, treatment or outline, novel or radio play, I read and script edit them all and can definitely help improve yours. Drop me an email@ Yvonne.grace@scriptadvice.co.uk and let’s get working!

BYE FOR NOW AND HAPPY WRITING.
Copyright Yvonne Grace Script Advice Oct 2011

“We can heartily recommend Yvonne’s workshops – she unravels television like no one else! www.scriptfactory.co.uk

Find out if I can help you with your current project@ http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk offering writers mentoring, training and script editing services in order to develop their work and talent.  Please pass on this link to your fellow writers.

Or you can join SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM@ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237330119115&ref=mf

SAWR is all about writing and writers. Here you can share your thoughts about writing, the creative process, the highs and lows of it all. You can also access this group for information about writing workshops that I am currently running, also script editing and mentoring services that I offer. My expertise lies in Television drama but any writer is welcome to share their experiences and their aspirations here.

Or to see my newsletter online, access my Blog@http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk

Contents:

·        Hello

·        Agents: where to find them and what they should do for you

·        Interesting Stuff

Hello

So its finally decided to turn up – Summer that is, and as I type, the sun is bursting through the leaves of the Magnolia outside my office; throwing into glorious relief the smeary little boy palm prints smattering the lower third of our glass French windows. Thankfully, due to the cloudy nature of our British Summer, the slatternly nature of my housework does not poke my conscious for long before the sun dips behind a pale grey blob and the handprints miraculously disappear – that’s better – on with the Newsletter!

Agents: where to find them and what they should do for you

It is a prickly truth that if you do not have an agent but want to be taken seriously as a writer and are keen to work within the media industry doing just that, then you are in a catch 22 situation which is never an easy place to be.

Most production companies, commissioners, script editors, directors and producers expect the writers whose work they make/commission/work on to have an agent. If you do not have one, then the chances are that these key people, essential to your advancement in the world of drama on the small screen, will not be familiar with your work.

About 100 years ago, when I was starting out in the television industry, it was still possible to encourage new writers; literally fresh out of the theatre or having just written a radio play, into the world of television writing.  These writers did not, in the main have agents as they were very new to the writing world and it was Script Editors like myself going to the theatre, listening to radio drama and taking note of writers they liked the work of that often resulted in very inexperienced writers being thrown into the deep end of for example, Eastenders. This may or may not be a good thing; there were quite a few writers who crashed and burnt via this high octane introduction to television drama writing, but for a healthy amount of writers, this opportunity was all the leg-up they needed to get started, get confident and get noticed as part of the new wave of writing talent.

And even before I cut my teeth in television drama as a Script Editor, I had the enviable job of being a sort of writer talent scout for Channel Four which involved going to lots of fringe theatre plays all over London and listening to the radio and generally getting acquainted with who was writing what and then telling Allon Reich about them. (This was all before he started Producing and Exec Producing a clutch of some of the Best British films in the last 10 years which takes us back almost to primordial times). But the fact that there was such an opportunity for me, and for writers in general, to do this sort of thing, proves just how different the landscape looks now.

These days it is getting increasingly tough to get your work noticed and read if you don’t have someone singing your praises, fighting your corner and networking for you in the form of a good agent.

There are some production companies that are open to reading ‘spec’ scripts:

Rather than duplicate the research already done by the marvellous Hayley McKenzie; Script Editor, Mentor and general all-round fabulous scripty sort of girl, I add here without shame, the list she has compiled on her website Script Angel. This is a list of the companies that are open to reading work from un-represented writers. http://scriptangel.co.uk/ProductionCompanies.aspx

Then there is:

THE WRITERS ACADEMY http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/writers_academy.shtml

And the

BBC WRITERS ROOM http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/

But getting an agent should be a priority and so with this in mind I would suggest that you write a really good script, that you are proud of and that you know shows off your talents and use this as your ‘calling card’.

It is also a.good idea to buy the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 2011 and this website is a useful source of info and help

http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/

Amongst the many literary agencies promoting the work of writers in all genres I would start with a small list of some of the best, with whom you may want to get acquainted:

http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/default.aspx

http://www.mbalit.co.uk/

http://www.davidhigham.co.uk/

http://www.blakefriedmann.co.uk/

An agent should:

Make you feel good about your work and confident in your talent

Be good at networking and actually do a fair amount of it

Get you contacts you could not get yourself in the industry, with script editors, producers and production companies

Spread your name around at networking occasions and generally within the industry, as someone with talent that is not only available for work but is also pursuing their own projects. 

Represent you and your talent in a professional, approachable and enthusiastic manner.

Your agent can also help in an editorial fashion; highlighting the strengths of your work and showing you where they feel you may need development. This should be done constructively.

(And obviously, the opposite applies to the above list for the agent you must avoid at all costs….!)

Good luck with your search and above all, remember that talent and self-belief are a powerful combination – you will need both to get in and get on, within the writing industry.

I like what SAWR member and all round good egg writer David Bishop blogs about rejection – here’s how to stay focused and keep the faith….

Got my BBC Writers’ Academy rejection email yesterday, as did many others.  I didn’t progress from the longlist of 156 to the top 30 candidates. Bad news: there were at least 30 scripts entered that were better than mine. Good news: I can now make plans for September-December.

Curiously, I was less affected than when I last applied in 2008. Back then the Academy seemed like the be-all and end-all of my ambitions. I’d done a successful trial script for Doctors, but couldn’t get a story of the day pitch banked to save my life. I didn’t have an agent, didn’t have many prospects. It was crushing.

Fortunately, I had the Doctors shadow scheme ahead to help quell my disappointment. That led to my first commission in 2009, and things have snowballed from there. I now have an agent, three eps of Doctors to my name and have written five eps of Nina and the Neurons, due for broadcast on CBeebies this year.

The Academy is no longer the sole focus of my ambitions. Getting in would be a brilliant turbo-boost, accelerating me from 30 minute to hour-long drama. It’s a big leap, and one not easily made. The Academy would have helped with that transition, giving me direct access to the likes of Casualty and Holby City.

But the Academy is not the only way to make a great leap forwards. Writing a great, original spec script can get you noticed. If you live in Wales, Scotland or Ireland, you could target one of the drama series made locally. The BBC runs shadow schemes for all its continuing drama series, in addition to the Academy.

Don’t forget radio drama, a great place to hone your craft as a writer. The BBC commissions dozens of new scribes every year for that medium. One credit there makes you a more credible prospect. And there are plenty of other schemes and competitions, like Get A Squiggle On and the Red Planet Prize.

If you pin all your hopes on a single opportunity like the Academy, it’s like staking your mortgage on a long shot at the Grand National. A few people end up smiling, but most lost out. So for everyone who got their rejection emails yesterday, I know exactly how you feel. It’s time to shrug, and move to the next thing.

Onwards!

BBC WRITERS ROOM NEWSLETTER

I recommend signing up for this little beauty – there’s always something to interest in their regular newsletters. If you are unfamiliar with script layout and want your work to look professional, you can download scripts from this newsletter following the link they give below.

Rapid Response: #Hackgate
————–
Do you have an urgent response to the phone hacking scandal? We are looking for 5-10 minute scripts for film, TV, radio or online; dramatic or comic, that we can publish on our website as the fastest possible response to the rapidly unfolding events surrounding #hackgate.

Find out how to send us your script:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/rapid_response_hackgate.shtml

TV Drama: The Writers’ Festival
————–
A big thank you to all who attended this year’s Writers’ Festival.  We’ve posted some audio excerpts from The X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz’s session on U.S. style Team Writing, and from Paula Milne’s masterclass on The Night Watch.  Stay tuned for more highlights in the coming weeks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/2011/07/team_writing_us_style_-_frank.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/2011/07/the_night_watch.shtml

Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2011
————–
BBC Radio Drama North are looking for talented writers based in the North of England, with compelling stories to tell.

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is an opportunity for new writers to win a bursary of £5000, have their work produced on BBC Radio 4 and secure a twelve month mentorship with a Radio Drama Producer.

Find out how to enter:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/2011/07/alfred_bradley_bursary_award_2.shtml

Scripts
——-
Our scripts are in PDF format – if you can’t read them, download Adobe Reader from http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/categories/plug/acrobat/acrobat.shtml?intro

The Night Watch by Paula Milne
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/downloads/scripts/the_nightwatch.pdf

Every Child Matters by Chris Reason (Sony Gold award winning Afternoon Play for Radio 4)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/downloads/scripts/every_child_matters.pdf

Hefted by Bill Grundy (BBC Future Talent Award winner 2011)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/downloads/scripts/hefted.pdf
Don’t forget you can browse through all of the scripts in our script archive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/script_archive.shtml

Submitting your script to BBC writersroom
—————————————–
Want to write for the BBC? Find out what to send us on our script submissions page.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/submissions_writersroom.shtml

Blog
—-
Charlotte Riches talks about this year’s Alfred Bradley Bursary Award and BBC Future Talent Award winner, Bill Grundy shares his experiences of TV Drama: The Writers’ Festival 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/

Opportunities
————-
Random – Spoken Word Competition
Deadline: 27 July 2011
See your words made into a short film and broadcast on Channel4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/random_spoken_word.shtml

Rapid Response: #Hackgate
Deadline: 01 August 2011
Send us your 5-10 minute scripts in response to the phone hacking scandal.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/rapid_response_hackgate.shtml

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2011
Deadline: 15 September 2011
Opportunity for northern writers to win a bursary of £5000 and have their work produced on BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/alfred_bradley_bursary_2011.shtml

Sixty Second Stories
Deadline: 03 October 2011
Opportunity to produce a sixty second story for a feature film that will premiere at the 2012 Berlinale.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/sixty_second_stories_2011.shtml

INTERESTING STUFF….

If you fancy dipping your toe into the world of commercial comedy, this is a great book to have on your shelf;

Elephant Bucks: An Inside Guide to Writing for TV Sitcoms

Publisher Marketing: A comprehensive guide to writing a highly commerical and saleable spec sitcom script and launching your career as a TV sitcom writer.

www.amazon.com

 Twelve Point: Julian Friedmann (the Friedmann bit of the very good literary agency Blake Friedmann) set up this website as a follow-on from his informative magazine Script Writer Magazine (to which yours truly has contributed articles about story lining and soap writing for television) and I recommend it as a good source of information and help to writers of all genres.

http://www.twelvepoint.com/

The Writers Guild is definitely a website worth book marking. And here to, there’s an interesting article about writing for long running medical dramas – well worth checking out:

http://www.writersguild.org.uk/

Circalit is a great website which focuses on all aspects of novel and screen play writing and where you can find info about competitions and have the chance to key into a wider creative writing community:

http://www.circalit.com/

This is a catch-all type website for those who want to know what films, theatre, and festivals are coming up and going down across the country:

http://www.list.co.uk/

Here’s a very useful interesting website for scribes of all genres:

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/

BBC WRITERS ROOM – lots of great ‘ins’ for all the talented writers out there…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/index.shtml

SCRIPTWRITING IN THE UK

I love this blog and website, what Danny Stack says here is very clear, clever and right on the button

 http://dannystack.blogspot.com/2005/12/beat-sheets.html

SCRIBE SLICE

Should you want to feel connected to a writer community…this could work for you

http://www.scribeslice.com/

BRITISH COMEDY FORUM

Excellent website for information about upcoming writing opportunities and general stuff

http://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/writing_opportunities/

WRITE THIS MOMENT

This is worth checking out if you want to dip your toe into the more commercial aspects of writing – you have to become a member, but I thought it looked interesting

http://www.writethismoment.com/

WRITE WORDS

Bringing together all the latest writing jobs and opportunities, worth a look

http://www.writewords.org.uk/jobs/

LONDON INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL

http://www.londonindependent.org/screenplay.htm

screenplay writing

Impressive looking website keyed in to screen play writing

http://www.kaosfilms.co.uk/

And a final word from BROADCAST MAGAZINE about making a splash across the Pond from Russell T Davies, creator and show-runner behind TORCHWOOD and his preferred Exec producer Julie Gardener and their move to LA to create the 4^th series of this popular British show, in a co pro with an American production company.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/5029355.article

TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The fourth run of Torchwood is a co-pro with Spartacus cable network Starz and will air on BBC1 on 14 July, six days after its 8 July TX in the US.

The 10-part serial is based on a simple premise: one day, people across the world stop dying. They keep ageing, and get sick, but they never die. The result is an overnight population boom, and Miracle Day investigates both the mystery behind the miracle and its consequences for society.

I hope I can help you with your writing; be it a television script, short (or full length) film or screen play, treatment or outline, novel or radio play, I read and script edit them all and can definitely help improve yours.  Drop me an email@ Yvonne.grace@scriptadvice.co.uk and let’s get working!

 BYE FOR NOW AND HAPPY WRITING.

Copyright Yvonne Grace Script Advice July 2011

·        Spring is here!

·        Story telling for Telly

·        Short Courses from SCRIPT ADVICE and other interesting stuff

WHAT THE SCRIPT FACTORY SAYS ABOUT SCRIPT ADVICE:

“We can heartily recommend Yvonne’s workshops – she unravels television like no one else! www.scriptfactory.co.uk

Find out if I can help you with your current project@ http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk offering writers mentoring, training and script editing services in order to develop their work and talent. Please pass on this link to your fellow writers.

Or you can join SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM@ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237330119115&ref=mf

SAWR is all about writing and writers. Here you can share your thoughts about writing; the creative process, the highs and lows of it all. You can also access this group for information about writing workshops that I am currently running, also script editing and mentoring services that I offer. My expertise lies in Television drama but any writer is welcome to share their experiences and their aspirations here.

Or to see my newsletter online, access my Blog@http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk

SPRING IS HERE!

At long last I can see grass where formerly there was mud and the Magnolia is about to burst forth with such a gorgeousness of budding flowers that, typing this and looking out of the office window at the unfurling creaminess of each folded petal, I feel the urge to go all Robert Frost and wax lyrical about sap rising and the strangely lyrical sound of a wood pecker hammering the heck out of the oaks in the nearby wood.  It’s been a long winter but at long last the air smells like the soil is beginning to do it’s job and get stuff growing again, and in this vein of re-birth and new growth – on with SCRIPT ADVICE NEWSLETTER for SPRING!

STORY-TELLING FOR TELLY

If you have ever sat across the table in a restaurant, pub or bar, and listened to a long, boring, interminable, flat, dry, tale told in painstaking detail by a relative, friend or just someone whose chair leg is intertwined with yours, and found that you can not escape this hell because either a/ you are linked to this person by bloodline and gene pool or b/ you can not get past without taking their shin bone marrow with you, then you will no doubt agree with me, that telling a good story is a skill not everyone possesses.

And amazingly, the truth is, that this is even the case amongst writers.  The skill of telling an engaging, teasing, compelling narrative within the pages of a script and in scene form, with a beginning, middle and end which delivers a connective cohesion from the first scene to the last, is very much what the business of television story telling is all about and a particular craft that all writers wishing to get on in television, to pay their bills by writing and to ultimately get commissioned, should definitely get their heads around. Being creative and having a good idea is no longer enough. Being able to creative characters and write good dialogue is also a must, but having the confidence and skill to handle a layered narrative which rattles along and produces the pre-requisite peaks and troughs of an accurately timed television episode is where the real job lies.

Where can you learn this rigorous, exacting skill? Writing for series and soaps, that’s where. I firmly believe that once you have earned your stripes on programmes like EASTENDERS and HOLBY CITY you will be able to tackle absolutely any writing challenge you may meet in the future.

This is not to say (and I must stress this) that our series and soaps much loved by television audiences, are mere training grounds for writers, but they are, by nature of their format and disciplines, excellent arenas within which you can hone and develop your story-telling skills and where you will learn how to structure, pace and deliver a compelling episodic story which will be enjoyed by millions.

Soap-land is where great writers grow up.

Lisa Campbell from Industry Bible, Broadcast Magazine on the value of Soaps –  with which I heartily concur:

It may be going too far to suggest that without EastEnders there would be no King’s Speech, but director Tom Hooper is just one example of the scores of people who have worked on the BBC’s continuing dramas and honed their skills.

And it’s not just directors, writers, producers and commissioners; we can add Kate Winslet, Aaron Johnson and Orlando Bloom to the list.

So it is no doubt with some relief that the BBC greeted the largely positive findings in this week’s National Audit Office (NAO) report into the costs of producing continuing drama.

It showed that the cost per hour has tumbled by 20% over the past eight years at the same time as audience approval has increased – testament to the dedication of BBC in-house teams and the many freelancers who ensure that the continual squeeze in budgets hasn’t led to a continual decline in standards.

The Trust-commissioned report concluded that costs were tightly controlled, but – and it’s a big but – said it is impossible to tell whether the shows represent value for money. This was exactly our reaction when we saw the figures, which are published for the first time.

Without any context or comparisons, they are pretty meaningless. A 2010-11 budget of £29.8m for EastEnders – 3.5p per viewer – sounds like a bargain, but without any benchmark, without any figures from other broadcasters, how can we tell? I can’t see ITV rushing to provide the numbers for Corrie any time soon.

While the report made some sensible recommendations, the Trust has rightly rebutted one: that the series should have some ‘audience-related performance objectives’. This is exactly why bean-counters’ scrutiny of output sets creatives’ hackles rising.

While it is right to expect channels and genres to have key objectives, trying to apply them to individual programmes risks hampering creativity and reducing it to nothing more than a box-ticking exercise. Bafta award-winning series need creative freedom to flourish, and as we’re constantly hearing, there’s quite enough red tape at the BBC already.

The NAO acknowledges that purely financial and quantitative measures only tell part of the story. It fails to mention, for example, the series’ role in our national culture, in refl ecting contemporary issues or in fostering talent. Series such as Holby, Casualty and Doctors are as relentless as they are rewarding, but those who have served their apprenticeship always acknowledge that without it, they wouldn’t be where they are today.

It was a similar story with The Bill, hence the strength of reaction among the drama community after its demise. Its loss places even more responsibility on the BBC and, as continuing drama boss John Yorke asserts, without such series, there wouldn’t be enough jobs in the UK drama industry to sustain it, nor enough trained people to man it.

So to put a value on that? Priceless.

OTHER INTERESTING STUFF

SCRIPT ADVICE COURSES:

Announcing 2 new courses designed by yours truly and hosted by those lovely people at the NFTS.

National Film and Television School: www.nfts.co.uk

Storyline Plot & Development

31 May 2011 to 03 June 2011

This is a four day course exploring the business of creating, plotting, shaping and developing  storylines and ideas for long-running dramas.

SUMMER SOAPS HOW TO WRITE FOR SERIES TELEVISION

I am so looking forward to running this one, it will be intensive, collaborative and challenging and there will be great guest speakers to give you the chance to put your questions to professional writer/developers currently working in the industry.

The dates are July 4^th – 8^th and then a three week gap for writing. Followed by another two days for script editing.

Check out all the details of both courses on the NFTS website. And if you have any questions, email me at Yvonne.grace@scriptadvice.co.uk.

Hope to see you at one or both!

LONDON SCREEN WRITERS FESTIVAL: http://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com/blog/2011/04/send-in-the-clowns/

This is an informative and all round jolly nice blog from Hayley McKenzie, Script Editor and Script Consultant – what she says here about the need for writers to get their head’s around comedy writing is very true – read and take heed! (Also, if you can, I would check out the London Screen Writers Festival – an excellent place to network and get inspiration!)

I chaired this forum a few years back for the Script Factory and would recommend a visit – they are generally great all round drama types and are always appreciative of the courses I have run for them check it out:

THE SCRIPT FACTORY: http://www.scriptfactory.co.uk/go/Training/Article_963.ht

The Script Factory TV Forum

…is a two-day training and networking event devoted to writing for the small screen (or even the plasma HD-ready widescreen…). While Film and Theatre traditionally require the audience to come to you, television reaches them right where they sit. If you are serious about a career writing drama – and want to actually make some money doing it – then spend two days with us finding out how to get your work into living rooms across the land.

Through a combination of training and guest speakers TV Forum aims to inspire participants to consider how their talents, ideas and aspirations may be suited to the wide range of TV drama opportunities, from soap writing to original single dramas or innovative sitcoms. Over two days, we aim to give screenwriters an essential overview of the current TV landscape coupled with the language, resources and industry knowledge required to further explore how to forge their own TV writing career.

BBC DRAMA WRITERS ACADEMY: Applications for the 2011 BBC Drama Writers Academy will be open on 11th April 2011.  Check out their website for more details http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/writers_academy.shtml

Script Advice meets IN DEVELOPMENT: I will be Guest Speaking at their first Development Meet in London April 12^th at the BFI Benugo Bar, where I will be most likely drinking a glass of something lovely while passing on some of my knowledge and experience of SCRIPT EDITING AND PRODUCING for Series Television. Details below in an email from Sarah:

Dear Development Friends!

Let’s celebrate Spring! April’s In Development drinks gathering is taking place on Tuesday 12th April, at The Benugo Bar, BFI Southbank, from 7.30 p.m.
Our featured guests this month are Yvonne Grace and Philip Shelley, coming along to chat with us about combining work as a script editor and producer in TV and moving between these roles. Both have an impressive list of TV credits on numerous hit shows which you can check out on their profiles.
If you’d like to come along and chat to them informally over a drink, gain some insight from their experience and share some of your own, then please RSVP to this email.
We’ll be in the bar until closing and look forward to seeing you soon!
Sarah and Hannah
In Development
www.indevelopmentuk.blogspot.com

BBC – About the BBC: The real value of Continuing Drama

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc

In the BBC official blog, John Yorke writes about the benefits of getting your head around series storytelling

Here’s useful source of info for all budding writers of any genre:

http://essentialwriters.com/

Here is a link to Laurence Timms SAWR member blog NOONE CARES ABOUT YOUR BLOG LAURENCE – I think this link is really useful – thanks L!

http://laurencetimms.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/where-to-find-tv-jobs/

WRITERS GUILD OF GREAT BRITAIN

And a last mention to the WGGB because they do such a lot of work behind the scenes for professional writers

http://www.writersguild.org.uk/

I hope I can help you with your writing; be it a television script, short (or full length) film or screen play, treatment or outline, novel or radio play, I read and script edit them all and can definitely help improve yours.  Drop me an email@ Yvonne.grace@scriptadvice.co.uk and let’s get working!

BYE FOR NOW AND HAPPY WRITING.

Copyright Yvonne Grace Script Advice March 2011

Contents:

• Happy New Year!
• The Ups and Downs of Social Networking
• A Day In The Life Of George, Jobbing Writer – Me and My Shadow
• A Bit Of Extra

Find out if I can help you with your current project@ http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk offering writers mentoring, training and script editing services in order to develop their work and talent. Please pass on this link to your fellow writers.

Or you can join SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM@ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237330119115&ref=mf

SAWR is all about writing and writers. Here you can share your thoughts about writing; the creative process, the highs and lows of it all. You can also access this group for information about writing workshops that I am currently running, also script editing and mentoring services that I offer. My expertise lies in Television drama but any writer is welcome to share their experiences and their aspirations here.

Or to see my newsletter online, access my Blog@http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can’t believe it but it’s happening again. We (the Family; aka Big Mike, Little Michael and me) are moving. I seem always to be on the move. My son will no doubt grow up thinking that his parents were from Roving Romany stock. Or perhaps Michael growing up, will be inextricably drawn to the life of a travelling circus and take to the high wire instead of getting a highly paid, regular, creative as well as stimulating job doing good works and making him rich and successful at the same time…. When I, in 15 years time am perched on the edge of my zimmer, neck craning upwards to the apex of the Big Top, watching my son in spangely tights do a loop the loop on a trapeze, I will know that it was our fault for moving so much during his formative years….Anyway, we are on the move. To a bigger house with more space which we will no doubt proceed to fill with more stuff; not, I hasten to add, stuff that might be pretty, or useful, or interesting or essential; no, it will be of the toy variety: the big lawn mower, the tool box, the robot with the revolving head, the scooter, the construction site, the BLOW UP Buzz Lightyear…sometimes, as I pack away the dressing up box for another day or when I have stood, yet again, on the back of a metal dumper truck in my bare feet carrying the laundry basket, every cell in my body screams for a big, wide, clear, empty cell of a room and just an armchair in the centre, a pile of books on the floor and just an arm’s reach away, a HUGE glass of Sauvignon. Bliss. Something to aim for in 15 years time…Right. The local charity shops are just about to get hit by a Bonanza of Boy Toys….

THE OF UPS AND DOWNS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING

I have never been much of ‘a joiner’. I don’t do groups, clubs, organisations. I am like my dad; opinionated, fairly confident of my own thoughts and feelings on most issues and happy for others to voice theirs, as vociferously as they like – I don’t, however, want, by dint of being in the same group or organisation, to have to listen to the liturgy of others from their own particular soap box – it’s just not what I want to do with my spare time. Yes, I am a bit grumpy and no, I am not anti-social. I would say I was gregarious – but with a penchant for island living.

So when the whole issue of Social Networking reared it’s rather unwelcome head a few years back when I was setting up Script Advice, I was dubious about joining in on the cyber chat and signing up for Facebook and the like. To this day, I have to say with a certain amount of head hanging, I have still not dipped my toe in the water of Twitter and remain a tweet virgin. I am utterly confused by the sound biteyness of Twitter and by the inanity of it to boot. But then, no-one has ever followed me anywhere, let alone by way of a cyber highway, so what would I know about it?

So, after a rocky and not very cheery start, I am officially glad that I joined Facebook. Script Advice now has a writers room (amazingly called SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM) where like minded odds and sods, bods and mods, can post what is currently concerning them about their writing, or they can share some information about a link they found really useful or let fellow SAWR people know of something they have done, or are about to do that either needs support, or just needs an airing. I like that. It’s friendly. It’s connective and it makes me feel, as someone who set up Script Advice to help writers write better scripts, that in some small way, via SAWR http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237330119115&ref=mf

and the http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk website, that good work is being done.  It’s important to me for the writers I help to feel they have a professional out there, watching their back. For a fee, granted, but I suppose 21 years experience of crafting, grafting, and rafting drama for television does carry some fiscal weight?

So, it is settled then, being a member of Facebook and getting the word spread around the net about Script Advice and the work I do and the courses I run, is a good thing. Also, another good thing; via FB I have discovered there are several very hard working, experienced script developers/editors/mentors all beavering away on behalf of their clients and also connecting to my group page and so we are joining hands, across cyber space, in the name of better writing and writer support. Ahhhhh. No. I have to stop the rising orchestral strings before the fluffy clouds and the turtle doves obscure the real view. Facebook is a political and tricky minefield for a girl with a mission to navigate.  You have to create a balance between being over friendly and over familiar with handling the business side of what you are doing and strike the correct tone with everything you write and everything you share. It’s like being a journalist in microcosm and that’s not a bad writer-skill to master these days! I also found it un-nerving in the first few weeks of my drawing up the cyber chair, clearing my throat and announcing ‘hello, my name is Yvonne and I like writing and writers’; I kept dreaming about people I did not personally know, but whose profiles I had begun to follow because they were either interesting, or just down right funny. These dreams were better than the recurring one I have about flooding toilets (not nice) but still I found them a bit unsettling. But the intrusion dreams have stopped now that I have admitted to the castaway side of my personality, that I am in fact a Facebooker and proud of it.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF GEORGE, JOBBING WRITER: ME AND MY SHADOW

INT: ELECTRICIANS’STORE CUPBOARD STUDIO 8 – 10am

I think I’ve got away with it. Amongst the normal confusion of ‘the producer’s run’, I don’t think I’ve been missed. But the smell of 20 year old dust is getting up my nose and what I thought was a seat, I’ve just discovered is a ton of old porn mags that I’m sitting on. This is not a good start to the week for a professional, reliable, deadline-beater writer like me. Just checking the coast is clear and then I best go and face the music. Be a grownup, stoic, broad-shouldered. Right, here goes…

INT: STUDIO 8 BEHIND THE COSY CAFÉ SET – 10.10am

Well, I’ve got narrow, immature, unstable shoulders obviously. Now, entirely hidden by the false back wall of the café set, I spy the mangy sofa the props department use for the café’s resident moggy Jumbo, to nap on, and make a bee-line. I realise Letty Leadbetter, aka ‘the music’ is really getting to me. She is pretty, petite, clever and confident – what a nightmare combo. I do not like the music and I not want to face it any time soon.

INT: STUDION 8 ON THE MANGY SOFA – CAFÉ SET 10.12am

A bit of explanation is in order: The Producer’s Run sounds like a dodgy game show from the 70’s but is in fact a fairly crucial, if tedious, part of the WESTENDERS production schedule. Each week, on the first day of filming, the cast, crew and writer plus script editor of that week’s particular block of episodes, meet in Studio 8 and literally run through the shooting scripts of that block. We walk, between sets, as the camera crew and Director stagger through for the Producer’s benefit, their shooting intentions for each set. Each script in the shooting schedule, has been taken apart and the scenes lumped together according to their location. So all the café scenes, for example, are shot together – making no story sense what so ever, but it saves a lot of shooting time, and as Scary Producer never tires of saying ‘time is money’. Because the shooting schedule is not in story order, it is a confusing time for actors and crew but also makes my head, as the writer of a couple of the episodes, twist around on my neck. And what is making this particular Producer’s Run even more tricky, is the incessant twittering (with mouth, not mobile) of Letty Leadbetter, new recruit on the fledgling ‘writer shadowing scheme’ and currently the script chick I am meant to be taking under my writer’s wing.

INT: STUDIO 8 JANETTE’S SITTING ROOM – 10.20am

I heard them coming my way, and my jeggings were covered in cat hair, so had to beat a hasty retreat. Janette’s sitting room is a shrine to bad taste. Janette is a blousy, sad, ‘tart with a heart’ and the prop department have gone to town on the set dressing in here. Staring at Janette’s vast collection of china bowls, I begin to feel a heel for doing a runner when I should’ve been able to stand by Letty and answer her endless questions. In between the two episodes I wrote, there are two more and without the storyline document keeping the storyline and the scripts in check, now, faced with a incoherent series of cafes and pubs and sitting rooms, I found I couldn’t reliably answer Letty’s clear, confident, query about where we are up to in the Jock and Janette storyline. I should’ve turned the beam of Letty’s questioning on to Hope, WESTENDERS nicest Script Editor, but she was tackling the knotty problem of the fact that an episode (not mine) dictates that Jock and Janette have a front loader washing machine, and not, as is plainly the truth looking at it now, a top loader. Scary Producer was listening in, smiling, (she loves Letty Leadbetter and I am sure she is grooming her for a swift usurp of my regular writing slot)and my mind went completely blank and I said something about needing a wee and shot off set. Nicely done. For a 12 year old.

INT: STUDIO 8 JANETTE’S SITTING ROOM – BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE – 10.30am

‘Yes’. (I can hear myself saying this with complete confidence). ‘I am a bit ahead of the game Helen’ (Scary Producer’s real name) ‘well, you know me, always so well prepared!’ Phew. Apparently, although I seem to have lost my shooting schedule so wouldn’t know anyway, the next set to visit on the Producer’s Run was Janette’s Sitting Room so here I am, trying not to look like I was crouching in a hiding sort of way, and more like I was sitting in a neat sort of way, waiting for everyone to catch up. Letty gave me a delighted smile when she saw me, making me feel even worse for avoiding her. I smile back, she’s inexperienced, she only wants to learn, and from me, so that’s a compliment surely? What’s she saying now? Oh the bloody cheek. Letty has just suggested a line change – in my script – the nerve of the girl – and Scary Producer likes it! What? What the buggery bollocks is a ramekin? Everyone is nodding and even Hope, my mate, the calm in my storm, is saying ramekin is funny and bowl, (as I have written it) is not – well, I am not laughing. Oh SHUT UP Letty you annoying tit – who calls their child Letty anyway? Mr and Mrs Lettuce? I try and smile, I swallow the bile rising and ask Letty for a pen (she has several) and we all change the line. Letty 1. Me 0.

Check out more George Adventures from past Newsletters by accessing my blog@Blog@http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk

A Bit Of Extra

SUMMER SOAPS – HOW TO WRITE FOR SERIES TELEVISION

Announcing a new course designed by yours truly and hosted by those lovely people at the NFTS.

National Film and Television School: www.nfts.co.uk

I am so looking forward to running this one, it will be intensive, collaborative and challenging and there will be great guest speakers to give you the chance to put your questions to professional writer/developers currently working in the industry. 

The dates are July 4^th – 8^th and then a three week gap for writing. Followed by another two days for script editing.  Check it all out in detail on the NFTS website. And if you have any questions, email me at Yvonne.grace@scriptadvice.co.uk.

Hope to see you there!

http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/short-story-competition-2011

Here’s an interesting competition to enter if you have a script almost ready to brave the world – competitions are a great way of honing your craft and getting used to producing work to deadline – give this a bash!

http://www.scriptchat.blogspot.com/

This is a friendly place to be if you are in to social networking and when you feel the need to share your solo writing status. This website is for those who want to chat and meet like-minded writers to have a vent, have your say, have a gripe, or share some knowledge – it’s all good stuff and worth checking out.

www.euroscript.co.uk

This site is another useful one to have winking at you from your tool bar. There’s some interesting opportunities this month in the shape of script writing competitions and its always good to have a deadline in your diary…

http://www.beaplaywright.com/

I am not usually a fan of online courses, but this one seems to be a cut above the rest. Have a look at their website and if you are conjuring up a story that seems to fit on stage or if you want to try your hand at the craft of writing plays, then this could be a good place to start.

http://industrialscripts.co.uk/

London-based script consultancy founded by some of the UK’s leading script analysts, delivering feedback services and training to filmmakers.

I am plainly advertising the opposition I realise, but these guys have a very impressive pedigree and are worth checking out for info on screen writing in general as well as their regular newsletter.

http://jasonarnopp.blogspot.com

Many writers blog these days, but I particularly think fellow Facebooker and Script Advice workshop attender Jason Arnopp has an angle and an open, positive attitude to the whole business of writing and making it happen as a career option. His latest blog is about getting an agent and the pros and cons of how to do it, and what it means when you have landed one. Worth a read if this is the next step you are thinking about.

http://metaphorinmymonster.blogspot.com

And herewith, another SAWR member Sarah Olley takes us through the minefield that we like to call script development. A very useful and entertaining read.

Filmmaking Course with Industry Experts at Raindance for £39 instead of £119

www.groupon.co.uk

This link helpfully posted on FB by SAWR member Liz Holliday – it looks like an amazing deal.

I hope I can help you with your writing; be it a television script, short (or full length) film or screen play, treatment or outline, novel or radio play, I read and script edit them all and can definitely help improve yours.  Drop me an email@ Yvonne.grace@scriptadvice.co.uk and let’s get working!

BYE FOR NOW AND HAPPY WRITING.

Copyright Yvonne Grace Script Advice January 2011

Contents:

• Morning!
• I’ve Got An Idea For A Script….
• A Day In The Life Of George, Jobbing Writer – ‘Networking’
• A Bit Of Extra

Find out if I can help you with your current project@ http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk offering writers mentoring, training and script editing services in order to develop their work and talent. Please pass on this link to your fellow writers.

Or you can join SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM@ http://www.facebook.com/group

SAWR is all about writing and writers. Here you can share your thoughts about writing; the creative process, the highs and lows of it all. You can also access this group for information about writing workshops that I am currently running, also script editing and mentoring services that I offer. My expertise lies in Television drama but any writer is welcome to share their experiences and their aspirations here.

Or to see my newsletter online, access my Blog@http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk

MORNING!

I used to be a morning person. Happy to embrace the day, full of optimistic energy. Then again, I used to be a late-night let’s party till dawn person and during a particularly fecund period in my life, I also achieved the happy condition of being both at the same time. But then you get a bit older, parts of your body start to creak and other bits grow creases where there weren’t any previously and suddenly, your body tells you that drinking the same amount of alcoholic units as your BMI and staying up talking rubbish till 2am is no longer an option. Not unless you actually enjoy embracing the toilet bowl like an old friend and the dubious experience of greeting your 3 year old at 6am still drunk from the night before. No I don’t do that any more (honest) and am now a fully paid up member of the ‘I hate mornings’ club and hold a supplement subscription to the ‘going to bed before 10pm’ group.  I now hate mornings because mine start so eye-wateringly early. Having a 3 year old puts paid to the once entirely un-appreciated joy of a morning lie in. He gets up with stuff to talk about (cars, trucks, dragons and knights) and lots of jobs to do (playing with cars and trucks and dressing up as a knight. I have to be the dragon, (which at such an un-godly hour and without any special makeup or lighting, I manage to do very well indeed) and all of this before those techy types at Cbeebies have turned their transmission switch to the ‘ON’ position.  Between the hours of 6 and 8am I take the view that mummies over the age of 35 should be seen and not heard. Children under the age of 5 however, are seen and heard all too much. I try and hide in the kitchen, attempting to look busy when in fact all I manage to do is un-stick my eyelashes and unload the dish- washer. Michael finds me lurking there, hogging the kettle, trying to keep my eye bags from hitting the lino and jabs me in the bum with his sonic screwdriver:

Michael:  Mummy?

Me:  Yes Michael?

Michael:  Are these my eyebrows?’

Me: Yes, and they are blonde and sandy. What colour are mummy’s eyebrows?

Michael: (close scrutiny) Grey.

I hate mornings.

I’VE GOT AN IDEA FOR A SCRIPT…..

I hear this a lot in my line of work. It often makes my heart sink a bit when the enthusee says something like ‘I was on the bus the other day and over heard a conversation between two women – very funny – it would make a great script’. Yes, there is no doubt that wigging in to other people’s conversations is a great way of ‘tuning in’ your ear; to getting used to listening to the rhythms of natural speech, and to learning how to control the ebb and flow of realistic, colloquial conversation. The Demon of Bad Dialogue lurks in the wings of many a professionally turned out script and not every writer finds it easy to write credible dialogue. The tone and style of writers such as Russell T Davies, Paul Abbot, Kay Mellor and Jonathon Harvey, to name just 3 writers capable of packing a strong, pithy dialogue punch is formed in my view, by their obvious love of language and the way people actually speak.

It is often the context in which the writer sets the dialogue spoken by a particular character, that really makes the scene sing. Often, it is the subtext of the scene that underpins the strength and appeal of the dialogue spoken and if a writer does not pay attention to the interplay between text and subtext within the scene, even lyrical and interesting dialogue can fall flat.

So an idea can start with language, but must actually contain a story to tell. This may sound obvious, but honestly, it is all too often that I find myself labouring through a script that actually does not contain enough plot, or enough things happening. So many scripts are created enthusiastically by writers who believe they have something to say, but who, in actual fact, have merely the kernel of an idea that started with something they overheard or an article they read or a event that occurred.

At the risk again of stating the obvious, stories have to have a beginning, a middle and an end and somewhere during and between these stages, there has to be a qualitative, clear, engaging journey taken and a progression shown throughout the narrative, via the characters and what they actual say and do. An idea becomes a script when text, subtext, character, dialogue and plot all come together. Now the writer can explore and describe visually and emotionally, the message, the moral, the theory behind their story. Now the writer is free to teach us something we might not have known, or show us lives that are not our own, but with which we can empathise. Now, with a strong narrative through line, like beads hanging on a string, the scenes within the script push the story on inch-by-inch and the characters in those scenes grow and develop and we, the audience are taken along for the ride.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF GEORGE, JOBBING WRITER

NETWORKING

7am – INT – MY FLAT – BEDROOM

Wake up to a feeling of foreboding and dread. Can’t think why. Do a bit of head rocking to see if I have a hangover. No. Check the pillow next to me, yep, empty. So, no over indulgence and no naughty one night stands. Why the creeping flush of anxiety under my PJs? Can’t be the menopause. I couldn’t be that unlucky surely. Better get up.  Cleaning my teeth sometimes aids mental clarity – must be something to do with those red and blue stripes.

7.30am – INT -  MY FLAT – BATHROOM

Fiercely brushing, then suddenly, like being hit in the head with a Space Hopper, I remember. Today is the first of a 4 day writer/agent/producer of telly drama jamboree called WriteUp! The organisers are friends of Scary Producer at Westenders and she has sort of almost-definitely-without-trying-to-hide-it forced the writer team to attend.  WriteUp! It’s going to be hell and I hate it already, even the thought of that bloody irritating exclamation mark is making my cuticles curl. I spit toothpaste into the sink and in the mirror; my reflection gurns back at me. I look like Westender’s heavyweight griever Poppy Lemon; crumpled in grief at her toy-boy’s funeral, face collapsing inwards like a punctured vacuum flask.

10.00am – INT – THE ONEDIEN LINE SUITE – THE PLACE – LONDON

Am trying to look interested in the WriteUp! display board while up on the little stage, Viv Cholmondley (WriteUp! Festival Director) stoically chairs an earnest and humourless debate about the importance of comedy in dramatic writing. I stare blankly at a group photo of Viv and her WriteUp! Associates grinning inanely, perched on the steps of their new premises off the Goldhawk Road, and wonder why it is that these writery type events seem to happen in venues that actively drain the creative juice out of any one remotely creative or juicy.  Speaking of which, Jaz Verge, the enfant terrible of new writers, whom at 17 is the youngest writer to have a play staged at the Royal Court, is currently deeply embedded in his own ego and is struggling to breathe whilst managing to continue to wax on about how, in his latest play ‘Torture in Tooting’ he likes to insert ‘moments of intense joy’ into scenes ‘unashamedly graphic’ in their ‘diabolical depressiveness’. God, I would like to punch him in his pretentious tattoo.

11.00am – INT – THE ONEDIEN LINE SUITE – THE PLACE – LONDON

Coffee Break. Viv, it turns out, is not a bad sort. She was very patient in her explanation of how to say her surname (not, apparently phonetically, you actually pronounce it Chumley – which beggars the response WHY THE FECK DON’T YOU WRITE IT LIKE THAT THEN?) and asked me if I had enjoyed the earlier ‘locking of horns’ and wasn’t Jaz marvellous? I think I managed to nod before Miles Cuban, gripping Viv like she was a muffin and he was carb-starved, dragged her away for a conflab with his celebrated new client Jaz. I have seen Miles suck the marrowbone out of a chicken’s windpipe, so I know how ruthless and thorough that man is. Jaz, I have no doubt, will go far and he doesn’t need me to swell the numbers currently circulating in his orbit. I cross the acrid blue shag pile in search of like-minded types.

11.15am – INT – THE ONEDIEN LINE SUITE – THE PLACE – LONDON

Now this is more like it. Holly (Westenders Nicest Script Editor), Colin Clipboard (Westenders archivist) Dylan and Su (both writers) and me are gathered in the ante-chamber having a metaphorical group hug before we have to go back into the Blue Room and get Networking. Dylan and I are discussing the merits of the series our suite is named after. We both agree that it is fab and shabby in perfect proportion. I also rather worryingly find Peter Gilmore, the leading man, a bit on the buff side. Su thinks sideboards are a massive turn off and we get confused for a bit because Holly thinks we are talking about furniture and says she’s always loved her mum’s welsh dresser. We put her straight over Peter Gilmore’s mutton chop face-do and then Scary Producer swoops down on us. She’s not happy. Neither is Di Featherstonehaugh (WriteUp! Co-Director) who is apparently, trying to get bums back on seats in the Blue Room to begin the next forum, ‘Traversing The Emotional Landscape of Contemporary Drama’.  We do as we are told and disband.

6pm – THE BATTERED BADGER PUB – SOHO

Thank God that’s over. I am now pebble dashed by pretention, masquerading as good intention. Di Featherstonehaugh (not pronounced phonetically either, but as Fanshaw – these WriteUp! girls are taking the piss surely?) dragged us by the hand and we traversed the hills and dales, clinks and grykes of dramatic writing in modern Britain. Then, alarmingly, we were split up into ‘discussion groups’ and forced to collate our thoughts on ‘Characterisation and Its Role in Long Running Series’. I could have killed Dylan, because he shot his hand up and said my name when Viv asked us to nominate a group spokesperson. I don’t think The Onedien Line Suite appreciated my garbled, convoluted, rambling summary of our collective findings and now, half way down a bottle of Sauvignon, feet swelling up like warm bread in the heat of the pub, all I can recall of the most agonising 15 minutes of my life is a visual image of me, stammering and gulping, over-lit by strip lighting, my top clashing horribly with the lilac Venitian blinds, trying to avoid saying the phrase Emotional Landscape.

9.30pm – THE BATTERED BADGER PUB – SOHO

The Battered Badger smells of sweat, cork and corduroy. The talk is bouncy, fun, irreverent and loud. Shelly Croon, Dylan’s agent is half way down a second bottle of Fitou with Miles Cuban (we wonder if she will survive such a close encounter and I drunkenly vow to keep an eye on her windpipe for her, which she (naturally) does not understand.) Su is engrossed in a heated debate a table away, with some writing regulars from our rival soap Rossaman Street about how to keep writing for a series 40 odd years old, still fresh.  Over by the now defunct cigarette machine, a nugget of established playwrights share anecdotes with a flank of fledgling telly writers and arranged up the stairway, Radio writers discuss the rigours of writing for a non-visual medium.  Everywhere there is talk, argument, a sharing of experience, a swapping of knowledge and a lot of laughter. Di (of the improbable surname) starts the singing and at the end of it all, I think everyone agrees that this year’s WriteUp! Jamboree has got off to a flying start.

A BIT OF EXTRA

If you are a student, or have been during 2010 this is the competition for you:

National Student Film Association Announces Free Screenwriting Competition

Today the National Student Film Association (NSFA) invites all student film-makers to submit their short film scripts to the National Student Screenwriting Competition. The competition is run in partnership with the BFI and boasts a host of professional judges including BAFTA winner Asitha Ameresekere, the organisers of the London Screenwriters’ Festival, and board members of Euroscript and Women in Film and Television. The competition is aimed at UK students of all kinds who are looking for a career in film but have not yet had the chance to present their work to industry professionals. Not only does the competition offer fantastic prizes such as a mentoring meeting at BAFTA as well as BFI and IMAX vouchers, but students will also have the opportunity to get their scripts read by two members of the high calibre jury.

The competition is hosted online at Circalit, an online platform for aspiring writers, where all the entries will be visible to the public, and talent scouts will be paying close attention to the winning writers. Raoul Tawadey, CEO of Circalit, commented, “The NSFA are doing student film makers a great service by connecting young artists with industry professionals. Starting a career in film can be a difficult process and the gap between writing your first screenplay and seeing your work produced can be very daunting. I hope this competition and the work that the NSFA are doing will give students the opportunity to kick start a career in the film industry.”

Screenplay submissions can be up to five pages long and of any genre. The deadline is the 7th November 2010.

For more information please visit, www.studentfilm.org.uk

Contact: Franzi Florack  franzi.florack@studentfilm.org.uk

SCRIPT ADVICE AT THE NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL

4 DAY WORKSHOP – PLOT AND DEVELOPMENT:

November 8 – 11^th for those interested in HOW TO STORYLINE FOR LONG RUNNING DRAMA and HOW TO WRITE A TREATMENT FOR TELEVISION. Check out the link below

http://www.nftsfilm-v.ac.uk/index.php?module=Shortcourse&action=Schedule

Or go direct to their website http://www.nftsfilm-tv.ac.uk and browse through their NFTS Shortcourses pages.

BBC WRITERS ROOM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/

This website is always a very useful font of info for writers. Their Opportunities web page is full of competitions and initiatives for writers new to the game and also those with a little more experience. I particularly like the look of this one, but there are many more opportunities listed so check out their website:

Little Brother’s Big Opportunity

BAFTA award winning television and film production company Little Brother Productions is offering a talented new writer £1,000.00 to develop an original television drama idea of theirs through to treatment stage.
Little Brother’s Big Opportunity is an endeavour to discover further new writing talent, and to develop with them compelling, original drama for television.

To be eligible, writers must have had one piece of their work professionally produced or, at the very least, have had a professional reading of their work.

Writers who have contributed episodes to UK television series or serials (e.g. a long running soap) are eligible to apply, but writers who have already had an original single, series or serial broadcast on UK television are not eligible to enter. No prior writing experience for television is required.
To apply, writers must submit their writing CV and the piece of their work of which they are most proud, that best demonstrates their talent, (this could be a stage play, a radio play or a screenplay) to:

Little Brother’s Big Opportunity
Little Brother Productions
155x Northcote Road
London, SW11 6QB
Deadline: December 31st 2010.

I hope I can help you with your writing; be it a television script, short (or full length) film or screen play, treatment or outline, novel or radio play, I read and script edit them all and can definitely help improve yours.  Drop me an email@ Yvonne.grace@scriptadvice.co.uk and let’s get working!

BYE FOR NOW AND HAPPY WRITING.

Copyright Yvonne Grace Script Advice November 2010

• Hello
• Breathless
• A Day In The Life Of George Jobbing Writer
• Interesting Stuff

Find out if I can help you with your current project @ http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk/ offering writers mentoring, training and script editing services in order to develop their work and talent please pass on this link to your fellow writers.

Or you can join SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM @

http://www.facebook.com/group

SAWR is all about writing and writers. Here you can share your thoughts about writing; the creative process, the highs and lows of it all. You can also access this group for information about writing workshops that I am currently running, also script editing and mentoring services that I offer. My expertise lies in Television drama but any writer is welcome to share their experiences and their aspirations here.

Or access my Blog @ http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk/

HELLO

Pushing my son’s toy lawn mower up the garden at a run this morning, in pajamas and wellies I realised three things; 1/ It was only 7am and I was already in the garden playing dragons and dinasours, 2/ I shouldn’t be doing this without wearing a bra, 3/It was warm. Summer is finally here.  Not my favourite season; I was born in a snow storm on Christmas Eve so it won’t come as a surprise to know I dislike being hot, would rather wrap up than disrobe and am never seen outside in the Summer between 9am and 4pm without my sun factor 50. But the garden loves it and with the bees buzzing and the poppies nodding, I feel the urge to get creative and push on with my own script writing, as well of course, reading and script editing your work!

BREATHLESS

Which started me thinking about something I am forced to do on a daily basis. This is something is not necessarily an easy thing to achieve, but it is absolutely necessary and something that I do almost unconsciously in order to keep those plates spinning – I prioritise, organise and multi-task. This does not make me Super Woman. It just makes me, and every one out there who knows what I’m talking about, Able To Cope. It’s as if without any obvious surgery, I now have more arms than a Hindu Godess. It is almost Pavlovian; I log on to my Inbox and while my messages download, I put a washing machine load on cycle D. I am stuck on a dialogue sequence in my script, I ponder the problem whilst I give the bath a good going over. I set the microwave to defrost and finish reading the last scene in a script from a writer client whilst my son’s tea-time chop slowly rotates.

I juggle not only the physical activities in our life: script reading, housework, script writing, cooking, Script Advice admin, household bills but words too; my husband and I are usually having a 2 tiered conversation, the top tier between ourselves underscored by the lower tier nearer to the ground, coming from our son Michael.

It seems to me that from when the rabbit ears on our son’s alarm clock click upwards and the rabbit opens his plastic eyes at 6.30am, and Michael is finally allowed to get up and stop hitting the adjoining wall between our rooms repeatedly with his toy hammer, my feet don’t touch the ground until 9pm when the rabbit and Michael are asleep again and my husband Mike and I are literally pasted across the sofa, trying to talk without drooling from fatigue.

In between those hours I run Script Advice and write myself, attempt to run a household and look after the two Michaels in my life, my husband and my son. It would be great if there were more hours in the day, or less things to do, or more money so I could pay someone to do some of this stuff for me, but if I could afford it, would I ever be able to delegate? No I would not. Because all this comes from someone who gets an inordinate amount of pleasure from knowing that her washing line boasts a full load flapping in the breeze, that she has written a couple of engaging, slick pages of her script, that she managed to disguise a healthy portion of spinach in a meal for her son who will never know it’s there and that according to the feedback I get from my script reading and script editing work, I seem to be giving writers the help they need – so Script Advice goes from strength to strength.  I am a multi-tasker, who is not complaining. Just. Catching. My. Breath…..

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF GEORGE JOBBING WRITER

DEPRESSION

10.00am – SE London – My Bedroom – Under the Duvet

I think I am depressed. I might just be lacking in a vital vitamin, or need to do a cardio workout or have 8 solid hours of sleep. Or, it might be hormonal; if I had the energy I’d look up what the definition of depression actually is. It probably says something about not having the energy to do stuff, it might even mention the need to make lists of things you might be suffering from, it might say something like ‘’a sure sign of depression is indicated when the sufferer does not know what afflicts them and puts it down to hormones’ – God knows – I just wish I hadn’t agreed to go out with Westenders star Phlox Lane ‘for a few drinks’ last night.

10.15am – SE London – My Bedroom – Sticking My Head Out of The Window

Now that feels a little better – perhaps depression is alleviated by fresh air, pity about the pigeons though.  I was so chuffed she had asked me (well, Phlox didn’t actually, she’d Blackberried Hope, Westenders Nice Script Editor and Hope asked me because we were slogging away on my episode 3,957 at the time and she probably thought it churlish not to include me).  I was very excited and positive that it would be a fabulous, glammy sort of evening where us girls tripped across town, linking arms and giggling as the street lights lit our charmed way along Regent Street and into the trendy bars of Soho…but it wasn’t quite like that. I am too optimistic.   It’s a hard and sad fact but I think optimism makes you depressed.

10.30am – SE London – My Bathroom – Under Water My Head in The Sink

Good. This feels even better than the window, SE London pigeons are very protective of their window ledge and I was getting dive-bombed. Total immersion of head in cold water is good for

surprisingly sharp stabbing pains that have begun in earnest in what I think scientists call the frontal lobe. Depression is a seriously painful condition.  Right, time to breath or I think I’ll faint.

10.31am – SE London – My Bathroom – Curled On the Floor

So, Hope and I think we’ve pretty much sorted the problem we were having on episode 3,957. Basically, between episode 3,956 and 3,959 there is a tricky hiatus in the A story which explores the awful marriage of Connie Blaine and her brutish husband Sid. In episode 3, 956 Sid locks Connie in the cupboard under the stairs and episode 3,957 was supposed to be a tight, highly dramatic two-hander, focusing entirely on the characters of Connie and Sid which will explore, as Scary Producer commanded, ‘every nuance of their emotional landscape’.  I was terrified but optimistic (see, there I go again) that I would do a fabulous job and get massive brownie points and tons more commissions from Westenders as a result.

10.45am – SE London – Breakfast Niche/Office – Head on the Kitchen Counter

However, non of us, not even Scary Producer, had reckoned on the fragile ego and raging insecurities of Gordon Bland, the actor playing Sid.  When the rehearsal scripts were distributed to the cast, Gordon apparently blazed a trail to the Producers Office and in a spooky parody of his storyline, shut himself in her beech wood armoire and refused to come out. Apparently it took half a bottle of Bacardi to get him to even open the door, and The Production Office had to taxi his partner to the Scary Producer’s office from Gatwick Airport Terminal 2 where he was about to Trolley Dolly a flight to The Balearics before Gordon finally calmed down.

11.00am – SE London – Eating Toast at the Breakfast Niche

Gordon Bland basically didn’t have it in him.  A lot of soap actors will tell you, if you are more than 5 minutes in their company, that they love their character, but isn’t it about time they had a really meaty storyline to get their teeth into? And why couldn’t we writers come up with something especially for them that would showcase their talents?  Gordon was no different in this respect. Unfortunately for him, the Script team had delivered and he quickly realised what he thought he wanted was not what he really wanted after all. Nightmare all round.  So now me and my long-suffering script editor Hope have a storyline with Connie locked in the cupboard under the stairs by her nasty husband Sid who is now, not available to play out the rest of the storyline.  Fortunately, as often happens in Soapland, when a door closes, a window opens somewhere else and this time, the window was in the shape of Joan Brown, the actress who plays Janice, uber confident mother of Connie. Joan had been let go from the production schedule because of an in-growing toenail operation but apparently, her toes were twinkling again and she was keen ‘to get back in the saddle’.  So, we plunge into the unknown and give Sid a massive heart attack, just at the point in the script where he turns the key in the lock and shuts his wife in darkness.  Janice, played by Joan Brown, then gets her turn in the spotlight and plays a storming two-hander episode with her on screen daughter Connie. Gordon Bland never really lives down the shame.

11.30am – SE London – My Bedroom – Under the Duvet

I think it was because I was so relieved to be free of rewrite horror, that I got a bit over excited about drinks with Phlox.  Hope and I dived into the wardrobe department and the assistant turned a blind eye while Hope kicked off the trainers and took a pair of Louboutins off the shelf and I half inched a nude coloured bespangled number from Phlox’s rail to wear for the night.  Phlox takes us to The Ocean Bar. Very SATC. Phlox is wearing an absolutely tiny Victoria Beckham dress and with me in beige sparkle and Hope in sky scraper shoes, I think we are in for a really good night.  3 bottles of wine and several Tequilla slammers later, Phlox is looking less like a pretty young actress on the brink of her career and more like a 40 year old Amy Winehouse after a session with 60 year old Pete Dougherty. I regret cramming my size 12 bod into this 10 dress because it made me make a stupid decision earlier on in the evening, when Hope suggested food and I said no. Now the mirrored floor is confusing me and I don’t know whether I am looking at myself upside down, or if I am in actual fact on my back looking up at myself on the mirrored ceiling. It’s all too much and I know for a fact that I literally go green, before I manage to run outside and manage to stop being sick just long enough to get my head over the edge of a convenient skip. Not very Sex, more Sick And The City.

12 Noon – SE London – My Bed – About to Go Asleep

I am optimistic by nature, so it stands to reason I will often be depressed – unless of course predicting depression like this, makes me a pessimistic person, in which case, I am feeling happier already. Perhaps I just have a hangover?

Think I’ll have forty winks and live to write another day…..

INTERESTING STUFF

BBC Writers Room

It’s a tough one if you haven’t got representation and you are struggling to get your writer’s voice heard out there in media land. The BBC’s dedicated team of readers are poised to read your work and give you feedback.  Their website is pretty informative too and well worth book marking on your toolbar…http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom

Follow the link below, on the BBC Writers Room website to Writing For Continuing Drama, and you will find plenty of juicy insights into this world from the King Of Soap John Yorke and other notable drama series writers like Jimmy McGovern. I particularly like John’s comment below regarding writing for long running series; truer few lines have rarely been said in my opinion….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/writing_for_continuing_drama

‘It’s like being in an Emergency Department. You come across every possible problem and you learn how to fix it. And those tricks will stay with you for the rest of your career.’

Writing Competition

There is not long to the deadline on this one, but worth a go at if you are ’well on’ with a script that you are proud of – the guys at Red Planet are a discerning lot and this is a great competition to get involved in.

http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk

This year’s competition is for an original 60 minute television script, either a single play or a pilot for a new series. You are initially required to submit the first ten pages along with a short synopsis.  The full script should be available on request, you may be required to submit this within a month of the final closing date.  As before, the winner will receive £5000, a script commission and the option of representation if required. Red Planet and Kudos will also mentor finalists for the Prize. The competition is open to anyone within the UK. The RED PLANET PRIZE will close to new entrants at midnight on 31st July.

Workshop From Script Advice – At The National Film and Television Studio

I have been chatting with those lovely people at the NFTS and in November I will be running a 4 day workshop covering 2 disciplines related to writing that you may be interested in. HOW TO WRITE A TELEVISION DRAMA TREATMENT and HOW TO STORYLINE FOR LONG RUNNING DRAMA. Just to whet your whistles, check out their website and see what’s occurring www.nfts.co.ukhttp

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I hope I can help you with your writing; be it television script, short (or full length) film, treatment, outline or full work, radio play or novel manuscript – I read and script edit them all and can definitely help you improve yours.  Drop me an email @ Yvonne.grace@scriptadvice.co.uk and let’s get working!

BYE FOR NOW AND HAPPY WRITING.

Copyright Yvonne Grace Script Advice June 2010

• Hello
• Mother or Media Mogul?
• A Day In The Life Of…
• Interesting Stuff
• Forthcoming Workshops with Script Advice
  

Find out if I can help you with your current project @ www.scriptadvice.co.uk and please pass on the link to your fellow writers. Or you can join SAWR (script advice writers room) at http://www.facebook.com/group or my Blog @http://scriptadvice.wordpress.com/

GOING STRONG IN GORDON ROAD

Hello again. We, (Big Mike, Little Michael and Me) are still here.

I had to fill in a form recently which said ‘Give previous address if you have lived at your current address for less than 3 years’. I realised that I have rarely stayed anywhere longer than 3 years, which I found mildly shocking.  More of an eye-opener however, was the length of the list I ultimately produced by laboriously recalling all the houses I have lived in and places I have moved to and from, since leaving home in 1982. In total I have lived in 21 houses and have been slowly orbiting the country around the M1/M62 corridor between The North and The South for the greater part of 28 years. Like my friend Vania once wisely commented I am ‘an ocean liner not willing to dock’.

So I am pleased to say I am still in Gordon Road but the 3 year milestone approaches and who knows, I may have to haul anchor again….

I am glad to say that at last Spring has finally decided to get out of bed, moisturise and face her impatient public. The countryside around our little village is becoming greener by the minute and there are snowdrops tentatively waving from the hedgerows. Even the snow-bogged, mud splattered, rain-drenched, sodden, mildewed mess that is currently our garden has started to look less like a flattened cow pat and more like a cow pat in the process of rapidly drying out. Hurrah! The lid has come off the Early Learning Centre Water and Sand Table (a must have for all 2 year olds) and the toddler lawn mower is finally able to phtt phtt without a splutt splutt.

MOTHER OR MEDIA MOGUL?

Broadcast magazine are doing a survey at the moment.  If you are female, work in the media and have ever asked yourself the question ‘can I have a family and a career in telly?’ click this link and have your say www.broadcastnow.co.uk Or if you are currently trying to break in to the industry and also have an idea you might want to be a mum at some stage too, then read on….

Ann Diamond on Five live recently said that she wished when she was a teenager someone had told her to consider when thinking about a career, the fact that she may want to have children also and to decide whether that was going to be sooner or later. Nicely said Ann, but I can not help thinking that if our career advisor had done just that to me and my girlfriends between the ages of 16 and 19 we would most definitely not have been listening (being far too distracted by the problems of finding a pair of truly fabulous fitting jeans, getting away with hitch –hiking to Eric’s in Liverpool without our dads finding out and how to get good grades but still do as little work as possible).

I used to love script editing and producing television programmes and I still sometimes miss the structure, the camaraderie, the deadlines and the buzz of working on the front line. But it was difficult trying to find that elusive thing social commentators call ‘a life/work balance’. I was working too much, not spending time with my friends and missing out on family occasions. But making drama is an all encompassing thing to do, it is both fun and incredibly stressful. While you are in thick of it, the production crew, the script team, the cast et al became a sort of family and for me at least, piling down to the local bar after a heavy script session or a day’s filming was all the down time I needed from the pressures of work.  For a while anyway…and then I woke up one morning, realised I was over 40 and my sub-conscious voice that had been whispering ‘don’t you want a family of your own one day?’ had started to shout.

So now I love writing from home and working with writers via my website and running my workshops and giving my 2 year old growing up time with his mum. This has been my choice and I have had to make a ton of compromises along the way. Having tried to write with my son attempting to hog the keyboard saying ‘I want to tap and colour mummy’ (thank you Fisher Price online colouring!) I now pack all my writing and thinking time into the days I can afford to have my son in nursery. I still want to work but I want to be a mum too and between those two things there lies an ocean of compromise.

The question so often trotted out on television programmes and magazines with a female demographic is ‘Can Women Have It All?’ The inference here is that we ought, according to some unwritten rule, to be able to do just that; have our babies and a marvellous career too.

My son was born in my 46^th year. This, according to the NHS made me as old as the Peat Bog Woman but he turned out healthy and happy in spite of my Neolithic status. So I for one am happy to concede that I can not have it all and am very lucky that I had the career had and still managed to get the opportunity to be a mum before my bits turned back to peat bog.

DAY IN THE LIFE OF GEORGE JOBBING WRITER

DEVELOPMENT HELL

10.00am – My flat – SE London – breakfast niche/office

My flat is compact. It has to multi-task in order to accommodate my needs as Single Girl About Town and up and coming writer of Very Famous Soap. My mate Martin says my flat has ‘the look of a lost kitten’ by which he means it is small, unloved, could be cute but badly needs a stiff brushing. I don’t have time to do any brushing. Or anything remotely domesticated. Am in Development Hell and it’s getting hotter by the minute.

It all started exactly 20 minutes ago when I was not in Development Hell, but happily working on the storyline of episode 2,345 and catching toast as it popped out of the toaster at the same time (there are distinct advantages to having your office in the breakfast niche). The A story (or the main story to the uninitiated) involves Penny Asher (blonde be-wigged owner of the King Vic and Madame of a string of lap dancing clubs) and the return of her prodigal son-gone-to-the-bad Ryan. Penny’s initial joy at having Ryan in her life again turns to horror when she learns that her son and Mr Orange the ruthless and scheming businessman who has been trying to undermine her lap dancing empire are one and the same. This story is a mare to write because it all depends on the audience believing that Penny could entrepreneur anything, not least a lap dancing empire (the woman is about 103) and there’s lots of figures and percentages to get into the dialogue about the club takeover which makes any scene as dull as cardboard.  Anyway, I was happy compared to what I am now because then the phone rang.

It was Hope (the nicest Script Editor) from Westenders and she had something Top Secret to tell me.  She said that Scary Producer and Sauvignon Deane’s agent Sooki  were ‘in crisis talks’ about the actress coming out of the soap because she wanted ‘fresh challenges’.  I thought the real reason Sauvignon wanted to leave was common knowledge – she had lost her septum to cocaine abuse and had to have it reconstructed. Hope told me not to be cynical and could I just focus on the job in hand? Apparently we (Hope and me) had agreed to come up with a drama vehicle for Sauvignon that would: a/please the Network by keeping her on the channel and fulfil the terms of her current contract b/please Sooki the agent who represents 80% of the cast of Westenders and could cause us major problems if we didn’t treat her right c/ please Sauvignon.

My heart sank. We were caught in a no-win situation. Whatever pleased Scary Producer was guaranteed to piss off Sooki and as I pointed out to Hope, no-one has ever managed to please Sauvignon. Hope optimistically pointed out that Sauvignon was probably smiling all the time, but you couldn’t tell because of the Botox.

Hope said she was coming round to work up some ideas with me. I have exactly an hour to conjure out of thin air a pre-watershed, family orientated idea that 3 of the biggest and most unstable egos in the business will like at the same time. But first I’d better check the bathroom for bio alerts just in case…..

11 o clock – My Flat – Living Room

We have retired to the Living Room. The Office cum Breakfast Niche scenario did not work with 2 of us and our laptops and our angst. We decided to Abandon Niche when Hope’s elbow flicked the switch on the kettle and she nearly got an impromtu face peel from boiling hot steam.

Once spread across the Axminster I pitched my baby – ‘Star Gazer’; my Who Dunnit Zodiac Idea. Thought it was a winner. New, quirky, family-based (to appeal to the widest demographic) and sexy without having any sex in it. Sauvignon Deane will play Scorpio the feisty young sleuth who learned the tricks of her trade at her daddy’s knee, the hard-bitten old cynic Leo. Along with the gorgeous but misguided help of Aquarius and the super efficiency of the office administrator Virgo, Scorpio solves each week, a series of seemingly unsolvable crimes using her skills at reading the astrology charts and the skies at night through her designer telescope. Hope did listen but then dismissed it. I found that tough. She said it had ‘holes’ and anyway she knew that Sooki was totally anti-‘crystal ball stuff’ because her psychic had predicted she would have the upper hand in the acrimonious split with her husband only to have his decree nisi delivered to her hand at the office the same day she had decided to divorce him.

We stared at each other for a bit then I started Google-ing like mad and Hope began cutting my magazines to bits. She made a collage. There was a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins in an idyllic garden scene, a landfill site, girls in bikinis on a beach, boys on motorbikes and a sweet picture of a puppy wearing a Cath Kitson apron. She said she was trying to capture the zeitgeist – I gave up Google-ing and helped her try to capture it.

6pm – My Flat – Bedroom

Hope has just gone back to base. Westenders called her in, some script crisis that I am really glad is not mine. The collage of ideas took 4 hours, 20 back copies of Heat magazine and a lot of PVA glue to finish. If we were entering some alternative art competition we might be in with a chance but how this is going to get a drama vehicle off the ground in time for when the glue on Sauvignon’s septum has set is beyond me. As well as my Zodiac idea, Hope came up with ‘Self-made Splash’ a comedy drama series about a synchronised swimming team and their bid to win the Nationals. We both got quite excited about it until I remembered how we had to change a recent storyline where Sauvignon rescues Poppy the pub pug, from the canal, to a non water rescue (we opted for a wheelie bin) because Sauvignon has a phobia about water. So for the moment at least, all we have is a very textured and rather eclectic mix of magazine cuttings and I think I have scissor blister.

Hope is confident we will get ‘a flow of conversation going’ with ‘the key 3’ using this collage as a ‘spring board’ – I reckon it’s more likely a case of back to the drawing board…..hey ho, development hell continues tomorrow when I am going to Hope’s house for a ‘brainstorm’. At least there’s room to swing a cat there. Swing a Cat? Title for a sitcom starring Sauvignon Deane as hard-working single mum of 3 struggling to run a Cattery in the Cotswolds?

Think I need to lie down.

INTERESTING STUFF

I recently came across these interesting souls on the net (which wasn’t hard, as they are just about everywhere!) http://www.bluecatscreenplay.com They are based in LA and do a smart, sassy job of supporting and promoting new and interesting writers and their work. I have pasted below an excerpt from their recent newsletter; an interview Blue Cat did with the programme director of a new initiative promoting writing in the community. I think Script Frenzy is a great idea and a concrete way of getting just about anyone to write something to a deadline.

Interview with Script Frenzy Program Director Jennifer Arzt

Script Frenzy Begins April 1

“Script Frenzy is an international writing event in which participants take on the challenge of writing 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April. As part of a donation-funded nonprofit, Script Frenzy charges no fee to participate; there are also no valuable prizes awarded or ‘best’ scripts singled out. Every writer who completes the goal of 100 pages is victorious and awe-inspiring and will receive a handsome Script Frenzy Winner’s Certificate and web icon proclaiming this fact.”

–(ScriptFrenzy.org)

Every year, thousands of writers take part in Script Frenzy. The goal: write 100 pages of scripted material during the month of April. Late last week, Script Frenzy’s Program Director, Jennifer Arzt, was kind enough to share some time with BlueCat. Inspiring thousands of writers to produce material under a strict deadline, Script Frenzy continues to grow year after year.

BlueCat: Where did the idea for Script Frenzy come from?

Jennifer Arzt: From running NaNoWriMo, we’d seen that all it takes to transform a book-lover into a book writer is a deadline and a supportive community. We’d also seen that the process of writing a book can completely change people’s perceptions of themselves.  Once you discover that you can write a passable novel draft in 30 days, you start to wonder what other things you’re capable of. It opens doors that lead to some really interesting places.  

We knew that scriptwriting could also work as a similarly great springboard to creative exploration, and the length of a standard script made it an ideal fit for a month’s labors. Unfortunately, we found that people who loved movies or plays shied away from penning scripts because they mistakenly believed it took months to learn the formatting rules (or hundreds of dollars to buy expensive software).

We thought that running a sort of anti-contest writing contest along the lines of NaNoWriMo but focused on movies and plays could help everyday people just dive into the creative process. When we asked NaNoWriMo participants what other kinds of things they would like to write, happily movies and plays were at the top of the list. And thus was Script Frenzy born!

BC: What was the first Script Frenzy like?

JA: It was great! At that point, NaNoWriMo had about 50,000 participants and we had achieved a reasonable degree of stability. It was nice to get in over our heads again by doing something for the very first time. We learned a ton! The first Frenzy had a 20,000-word goal, took place in June, and only allowed screenplays and stage plays.

It turns out that scriptwriters become somewhat violent when you ask them to count words rather than pages, so the following year we changed the goal to 100 pages and everyone was a lot happier. June also turned out to be a tough month because it was the cusp of summer, students were on vacation, and the writerly mojo was low. We also got a lot of emails from folks who wanted to write long TV shows and graphic novels scripts who felt left out of the Frenzy. So we broadened the event’s reach in 2008 to include all kinds of scripts. We haven’t looked back since.
BC: What kind of feedback do you receive from Script Frenzy participants, in terms of what their participation accomplished for their writing?

JA: A couple things seem to come up time and again. I’d say the two biggest comments are about the motivating deadline and the habit of writing daily. The deadline is set by us, an external force. We start on April 1, no matter what. There is no wiggle room given and no excuses taken. Either you’re in or you’re out. I think that the finite quality of an externally set deadline and the rush (or pure fear) of missing it works as an incredible motivator for so many people.

The ticking clock of a timed writing event also gets folks writing everyday. (The easiest way to write 100 pages in 30 days is to consistently write 3.3 pages a day.) We hear so many stories from our participants about how easy it is to say no to invitations because they are taking part in Script Frenzy and need to write. I think it gives legitimacy to writing.

The habit of writing every day gets formed in April and continues through the rest of the year.

SCRIPT ADVICE WORKSHOPS LATER IN THE YEAR….

www.nfts.co.uk

If you want to be a professional, successful writer, is it better to develop your talent by sheer dogged application and will power; writing better scripts because you write so many, or would you get better results, if you went back to college and did a course? The answer of course, is purely subjective. What ever you think fits you best. And let’s be honest here, there are a lot of mediocre courses out there for writers and not all media colleges live up to  their glossy prospectus.

The National Film and Television School however does. And they also run short courses open to any member of the public who wants to learn something about the crafts involved in film and television production.

I am happy to say they have let me in!

In November I will be running a 4 day course entitled PLOT AND DEVELOPMENT which is split into 2 workshops each covering 2 days.

The first 2 day workshop is called HOW TO WRITE A TELEVISION DRAMA TREATMENT and the second workshop is HOW TO STORYLINE FOR LONG RUNNING DRAMAS. I know that some of you may have already been to one or perhaps both of these, as I also run workshops for The Script Factory and these two workshops were in their programme in the recent past. If you would like to see the sort of work I do, then please come to one or both of these workshops and click on the NFTS website for more details.

Well, that’s about it for this newsletter but do check out my website and my facebook group (links at the top of the page) and Thanks For Reading.

BYE FOR NOW AND HAPPY WRITING!

Yvonne

Copyright Yvonne Grace Script Advice MARCH 2010

A Day In The Life Of George – Jobbing Writer

4.45pm – my flat SE London – Watching Deal or No Deal

Noel Edmunds knows how to milk his moment – he calls it ‘a crucial point in the game’ – we are ‘at 8 box’ and the middle-aged woman on screen is hyperventilating. She’s biting her bottom lip really, really hard. She strokes her lucky gonk, as the music swells beneath an unflattering close-up of ‘Jakki’ (why do game show contestants spell their names funny?) gurning away on National Television. Will number 22 box reveal £250,000 or 1p? Well, will it? I am on the edge of my seat now, don’t care if it’s tacky and television at its lowest common denominator – will Jakki be Deal Or No Deal’s second quarter of a millionaire?  The phone starts to ring – am caught in a vice-like grip of indecision – if I answer it I’ll miss out on watching Jakki either plummet into a penniless hell or instantaneously and without any effort, get very rich. If I don’t answer it I am giving in to the insidious toxin that is daytime television and something that all freelancers worth their salt know, should be avoided at all costs.  Also, I may miss out on a fab telly job or it could just be my mum – again. Noel’s saying some guff about Jakki being a brave contestant and how she’s given the Banker a run for his money – get on with it Noel! I grab the phone as Noel breaks the seal on box 22.

5.15pm – same place

It wasn’t my mum – it was Hope from Westenders – she’s the nicest Script Editor out of the lot but today sounded panicked and a bit pissed off. She tells me a complicated tale of why her script schedule has gone pear-shaped – I manage to catch something about Patty Faulkner (who plays Jessie in the soap) double booking a stint on a cruise-liner, a sorry tale about the main frame crashing and her producer’s smear test as the reasons for this upheaval. The upshot is that I have to come to Westenders Production Office first thing tomorrow for an emergency Script Edit on my second draft.

No Problem! I pipe enthusiastically while trying to swallow the huge lump that is currently crawling up my throat. The truth being (which I naturally don’t tell Hope) is that I haven’t written a word yet – having (I thought) 2 whole weeks to get it done.

Putting the phone down I catch a glimpse of Alan Tichmarsh on a garish sofa gushing away to a celebrity chef – bugger – Deal or No Deal has finished and now I’m wallowing in deadline hell and can’t even take solace in a complete stranger’s fate to boot.

2.00am – my flat – bedroom SE London

I am in bed but not asleep. I am drowning in a sea of paper, whole pages ripped and torn, ink stains from a handful of biros leaking into the pillow case (don’t know why, I like to write with a pen before I laptop my stuff) but at least it’s done; my second draft – in approximately 7 hours (allowing breaks for weeing and weeping) – not bad for a first timer and I am rather proud of the cliff-hanger I have come up with, whereby Stella (Laundromat assistant to the cruise-liner bound Jessie) and her secret lover Davey (on-screen husband of Jessie) get down to it during the spin cycle of his white wash. Done. Thank God. In my bedroom mirror a red-eyed alien stares back at me – whoever said television was a glamorous job was not a writer and did not work in television.

9.30am – Westenders Production Office – Hope’s Desk

I have a murky-looking coffee in a Styrofoam cup, I have blood-shot eyes, my mouth is totally without moisture and the coffee is sticking my tongue to the roof of my mouth. My script is no longer in one piece but approximately 5,000. Hope is ‘re-arranging’ my scenes – she says it’s not the dialogue that’s the problem – it’s the structure. She says it’s not the characterisation that’s at fault – it’s what the characters are saying (doesn’t that mean the dialogue’s no good?) Apparently not asserts Hope, it’s merely a matter of context – scene context – which is why she’s just ripped apart the best part of my third act, ruining in my view, the build up to the sex on the washing machine dénouement. But Hope is no longer listening to me. A Script Editor on a 4 x a week soap under pressure is a terrible sight to see and Hope is under more than most. I got here at 8.30am as requested and she has spent the last hour speed reading my episode so she can tear it apart to try and make sense of the pre-planned storyline centring almost entirely on Jessie and her brave fight to combat breast cancer, before Patty Faulkner who plays her, took herself off to sing ‘Memories’ around the Canaries. I really want to cry but Hope has just started so I do the decent thing and give her the floor.

1.30pm – Westenders – The Canteen

Well. Am I glad that’s over. The episode is now to length, it has characters in it that are available to play the scenes, it has 2 ad breaks and instead of a sexy dramatic cliff hanger, it has a comedy one, featuring Beckam, the laundromat’s Great Dane and his fatal attraction to the Pekinese from the pic ‘n mix next door.  But at least Hope is happy. Or I hope she is – the last I saw of her before I crawled to this over-lit, over-heated canteen for a bowl of something cheap but nourishing (I settled for just cheap) was her scurrying figure clutching my annotated second draft, with Jane H the scary PA trying to grab it out of her hands bleating about not having enough time to do a shooting schedule…I reckon if I get a wiggle on I’ll get back in time to catch Noel’s recap of yesterday’s episode of Deal Or No Deal and find out if Jakki got lucky or not….

Thanks for reading and WATCH OUT FOR THE NEXT INSTALMENT OF GEORGE THE JOBBING WRITER, SOON TO APPEAR ON THIS BLOG!

Final Draft; the script writing sofware folk, have announced their screen writing competition.   Opening this month and closing in June – plenty of time to get your opus in.  I think their website is worth a look too.

http://www.finaldraft.com/products-and-services/big-break/

Good luck!