SCRIPT ADVICE Newsletter – 5

Contents:

• 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

==========================================================

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 from script advice

Welcome to my Script Advice Blog.

This blog is all about writing and stuff I hope that interests writers and will be useful for you to tap into when you want to take a few minutes out of struggling with your latest script!

I set up  www.scriptadvice.co.uk because as well as producing and script editing drama, I also write myself and I can sympathise with the problems writers face.

Most writers do not have an approachable, professional, experienced source to call upon if they are struggling with a script, overwhelmed by an impending deadline or in need of a fresh in put of energy and ideas. www.scriptadvice.co.uk is here to give you the writer professional help in a personal, constructive and enjoyable way.

On my website, you will find script editing services, treatment writing, my  script report service and various ways in which I can help you with advice and give you my professional opinion on your work in progress.  Services

I also offer workshops in various disciplines associated with writing for television and writing in general. Workshops

I have a long(ish!) and varied background in television drama production, both from a Script Editor point of view and that of a Drama Producer.  I have also worked on some of the key long-running dramas that still command big audiences today; notably EASTENDERS, CORONATION STREET and HOLBY CITY.   In my experience, working within the ‘factory’ atmosphere of these big shows can be incredibly exciting and there is usually a productive, positive environment in which you are expected to perform at a high level of proficiency and efficiency.  If you have to learn anything about your particular craft, be it Script Editing, Storylining, or writing for a long-running show, you must fill in any gaps fast!  So when I am asked how I got into television and what is the best way for a writer to break into it, I usually turn their attention to the long-running dramas and the opportunities these programmes offer a willing, eager writer. However, there are pitfalls to joining such a fast-moving, deadline-crunching, storyline eating machine that are most of the quality series currently on our screens; and below I have outlined just a few of the more salient points to keep in mind when thinking about working on a long-runner/series/soap.

I also want to take this opportunity to introduce you to George – the ever-positive jobbing writer who has bags of energy but lacks experience – in creating her, I hope to illustrate how to avoid the worst and enjoy the best moments in working on a soap.

WRITING FOR A LONG RUNNER

Many of the leading showrunners today who started writing Soaps and series television see Soap writing as an invaluable experience. So how do you get on to a Soap? What is a story conference really like? Here I hope, I take the mystery out of writing for Soap.

Very few programmes ever reach the Olympian ratings-heights of our much-loved, much-discussed Soaps. Having spent a large proportion of my career as a script editor and producer making them, I can honestly say that apart from a memorable shopping frenzy in Marlylebone High Street back when I had an empty new flat to fill and a concrete credit rating, I have rarely enjoyed myself more.

However, Soapland can be an unforgiving place and an inadequately prepared, wet-behind-the-ears writer can come a proper cropper if he or she is not careful.  Which brings me to George. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to her.  She is an optimistic, enthusiastic would-be writer of Soaps. The experience of her first story conference appears below. It may whet your appetite for your own experience or put you off entirely. I include it here in the hope that it’s the former.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF GEORGE – JOBBING WRITER

10.00pm – my flat SE London – night before first Story Conference on Westenders.

Well, sleep is out of the question.  Had loads of good intentions.  Only allowed myself to watch telly till 9.30pm so as to factor in a wind-down half-hour before I got into bed. Even pressed the mute button when the adverts were on to avoid over stimulation.  Hot milk (which really is horrible) and ear plugs in case the tramps living in the bin shed decide to rearrange their furniture again in the middle of the night.

No, I really can’t sleep so just to be really, really prepared, I’ll go over again the list of my story suggestions.  I am so glad I invested in black, sleek notebooks for the occasion – makes just the right impression and that I decided to ditch my gonk pen in favour of a no-nonsense Pental.  The joy is in the detail someone once said and I couldn’t agree more.

It’s important to bring a balance of story ideas to the table and I want to be as punchy and topical as possible. Westenders is an issue-based Soap and I really think impotency is a grade A issue and just right for the show’s heart-throb to get his teeth into.  And I think the producers and script team will like my ironic twist – a torrid love affair between the oldest characters on the show – neatly portraying rampant geriatric sex in stark contrast to the lack of rampant in the trousers of the show’s biggest sex symbol.

Check I have the Story Conference Document they sent me with all the characters, family groupings and storylines up to the present. Very important. Decide to put it in the bathroom so I will see it when I’m cleaning my teeth first thing. Right. Lights out. Night Night.

8.30am – Bedroom. SE London

Cannot believe it. Alarm went off an hour and a half ago – I know I turned it off because I wake up upside down on my futon with the alarm buried in my armpit. Fly out of the flat and managed not only to catch the train to Elstree but also bag a seat. The inside of my mouth feels like a woolly jumper. Should’ve cleaned my teeth at least – it is then I realise I have left the Story Document in the bathroom.

9.30am – Elstree – Production Offices of Westenders

Am bowel-churningly late. I fall in the door of a room with a massive table around which sit what appear to be hundreds of serious looking people (but is more like 12).  A young man with a lot of lip jewellery is in full flow. There’s a fair bit of note-taking going on and an air of a Pitch In Progress. I know I have ruined his timing by his white-hot look of undisguised venom.

I am no longer in control of my facial muscles. I think my expression says sorry but am sure it looks more like cystitis. The woman in designer specs at the end of the table represents my whole future in telly right now. She is the Producer and liked my spec script The Vagina Dialogues.  I smile at her in what I hope is a mature, woman-to-woman way. She doesn’t respond to my stammered apology. It’s hardly English anyway. I seem to have a lot of saliva in my mouth and I keep swallowing like a bullfrog.

I take the remaining seat and die another death when the leather makes a farting noise as I almost fall into it.  My bag, I discover, contains my purse, half a browning apple and my pink gonk pen. I borrow a Bic from the woman next to me and snatch at a pile of A4 like a drowning person.

2.30pm – Story Conference – Mid Pitch

I am aware of an insistent voice, high-pitched, breathy, going on and on.  My internal sensible voice is saying ‘some-one ought to tell that woman to shut up’.  Horrified, I realise the irritating, scratchy monotone belongs to me.  I finish pitching my impotency storyline damply, in a whimpering rush. The Producer, flagged on either side by the Series Script Editor and the Story Editor forms a rocky Easter Island profile.

The Producer tells me something that seemingly everyone else around the table knew.  Rod Kant, the show’s buff star, has recently had corrective surgery and any storyline focussing on penile dysfunction would be seen as insensitive and grossly inappropriate.  As an added body blow, the Story Editor (who, by the way is horribly young and self-assured) informs me that the show’s demographic would not consider 70-year olds having sex a good thing. I attempt to salvage my dignity by telling the assemblage a far too personal story about my grandma and her robust sexual drive thus achieving instead, full frontal, unequivocal Death By Story Conference.

10.00pm – My Flat, night after first Story Conference on Westenders

All in all, things could have gone better. I am not totally down-hearted. I came up with at least five great story ideas on the train coming back and the Nice Script Editor that got me my meet with The Producer told me to keep in touch. Tomorrow is another day and I shall fire off my best story idea to the office asap – a clever twisting tale that ties in two normally opposing themes – murder and true love in a soapy package just right for Buff Star and no mention of his genital problems.  Happy Days!

George is not entirely fictional; everything that happened in her day has happened! So how could she have been better prepared?

TIPS ON HOW TO WRITE WELL FOR A LONG RUNNER

* Watch a lot of television

It may sound obvious to say this but I would recommend you watch a lot of television before honing in on a Soap-writing career.  Most people engaged in the all-consuming task of making Soaps are usually pretty much addicted to the whole process of storytelling and cannot get enough of television drama across all genres.

It’s a highly competitive business, generating storylines, and a producer worth their salt is aware of the storylines being covered by their rivals and are obsessed with the task of generating better storylines to appeal to more people. They will love you to bits if you can aid them in this process.

*  Have strong opinions about the characters

It’s hard to be a shrinking violet in Soapland. As a writer, you will be expected to have strong opinions about the characters who populate this world and, as a result, you will have to prove you can create stories for them. Be prepared to fight your corner (preferably without shedding blood or resorting to name-calling) and nurture your favourite characters like you would your real-life friendships – it’s always more fun spending time with people you like – and in the workplace. This makes for better results and a more enjoyable experience all round.

* Look ahead as much as possible

Generating story and scripts that fill a year of television drama output is no easy feat. The producer and the script team need all the help they can get from writers who not only understand the size of the task in hand, but can clearly help solve some of the problems inherent therein.

The show will need both short- and long-term storylines to keep the audience happy and the character groupings productive. I have found that writers do not come to the story table with long-term storylines as easily as they do the shorter variety. If possible, don’t fall into this trap. If you can get used to seeing the bigger picture and generate material that arcs across a body of episodes and not just one or two, you will be making a vital contribution to the story bank and providing the script team with a firm foundation on which to build a strong through-line of stories across a healthy number of episodes – thus lightening their burden. If you can take the attention, they will all fall in love with you.

* Have strong ideas

As everyone knows in Soapland, stories are like oxygen to the production process. It is vital, therefore, that you make sure the stories with which you arm yourself at your first Story Conference are not just one-note wonders. They could be anecdotes that sounded good in the pub but in fact fall apart horribly when pitched to a room of fellow writers and a story-savvy script team. Many ideas turn out to be turkey twizlers when spoken out loud.

Your story will need a clear shape and, in the telling, you should explore the characters involved and reveal something interesting about them to your audience. If you can’t succinctly summarise your story to yourself in the privacy of your bathroom at home, spare your own blushes – the story needs clarification and talking it up in front of your fellow writers will only highlight its flaws.

*  Familiarise yourself with the script team

Forearmed is forewarned. Do your homework. Find out, before you enter Soapland, the names of the key players and especially those on the script team who will be able – should you make it a pleasant experience for them to work with you – to make your life positively marvellous on the show. Conversely, the opposite can also apply.

*  Find out as much as you can about the production process

Not all Soaps are run on the same lines. Show interest and ask questions (when appropriate) about the process of production without being in the way or a burden.  If you understand something of the pressures your script editor, for example, may be under to deliver your script to deadline, it’ll go a long way to creating a harmonious partnership and that editor will want to work with you again.

*  Be positive and helpful to work with

Script editors are your friends as are the storyliners. These fabulously creative people are here to help your labours run more easily and smoothly. Use them, don’t fight them, they speak on behalf of the producer and so keeping them on side and not fighting every script point because you feel protective about your work will get you a regular slot on the writing team. Being open-minded to script changes, collaborative in your approach to your writing task and even though it may smart, saying yes and doing the rewrites without having a mini breakdown about the time frame they have given you will ensure you are invited back again.

*  Embrace the fast turnaround and keep at it

Like pretty much everything in life, Soap writing becomes easier with practice.

Be organised. You are about to enter a story factory with very fast script turnaround and an ever-hungry camera team wanting to shoot on time with an ever-demanding producer wanting great scripts on time and on budget and an ever-urgent cast wanting their scripts on time and an ever-ready director wanting your script changes to be on time and to make the script better to boot.

Everything is about timing on a Soap.  There is never enough time but you have to work within the deadlines you are given. Don’t panic. The structure and rigours of Soap writing are put in place to help you generate an amazing number of drama hours in very little time.

*  Be collaborative

Show respect and listen to the opinions and ideas of your fellow writers. You will have to top and tail their scripts and having your colleagues on side and encouraging them, especially at Script Conference, will make your life easier when you pitch a storyline you think is a winner and it receives the thumbs down.

*  A word about rejection …

Take the rejection of your storyline as you would the acceptance of it. Both reactions are from the same Soap family and one will more than likely follow the other in rapid succession.

… and last but not least,

Keep your interest fresh and true in the show by taking time out to watch it. When you feel jaded, write a radio play and come back to the show refreshed.

Remember, good Soaps need good writers. If that means you, get out there, get in touch, give it a go and HAPPY WRITING!

Well that’s all for now. Visit my website www.scriptadvice.co.uk if you want any help with your current project and should you want to share your views about this blog, or anything else connected to writing or drama in general, why not join my writers’ group on facebook?
http://www.facebook.com/group

Look forward to meeting you there and hopefully working with you in the future.