MY FAVOURITE LINKS FOR WRITERS

Running my website for writers SCRIPT ADVICE and THE SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/237330119115/ I often come across very valuable advice on the Net for writers.

I also tweet a lot of important help and advice in the form of blogs, links to websites and information on initiatives for writers from the world of television, radio, theatre and film. Here I am on Twitter: https://twitter.com/YVONNEGRACE1 please follow!

HERE FOR EASE AND TIDINESS, ARE LINKS TO THE SITES THAT I MOST OFTEN USE IN MY DAY TO DAY ROOTLINGS….

A good source of film and tv scripts that have been transmitted.
TV WRITING – DOWNLOADABLE SCRIPTS

https://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/

These guys run a well oiled organisation delivering a great annual festival for writers of film and televison. Good speakers, lots of networking opportunities too.
LONDON SCREENWRITING FESTIVAL

http://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com/

Regularly throughout the year, the LSWF people hoast this great initiative; where Industry folks deliver talks on various aspects of writing and making drama happen on screen.
THE BREAKFAST CLUB

http://www.londonbreakfastclub.com/

Register here and get your work seen by other professionals. Look out for tips and writing assignment opportunities too.
INKTIP

http://www.inktip.com/sa_services_products.php?cat=sa&scat=services

The BBC get behind new and emerging writers via this scheme. It’s a good website to bookmark too – you can download scripts from their library too.
BBC WRITERS’ ROOM – SHADOW SCHEME

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/about/the-writers-academy

A brilliant, exciting company which runs an annual writing competition.
RED PLANET PICTURES

http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/

Taking this from fellow script editor/mentor Hayley McKenzie’s site: great one to bookmark
COMPANIES ACCEPTING UNSOLICITED SCRIPTS

http://scriptangel.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/production-companies-uk-accepting-unsolicited-scripts/

I love the quirkiness of this writing blog – very useful and practical (if eccentric) advice on writing for the small screen
THE WISE SLOTH

http://wisesloth.wordpress.com/

I regularly find this site useful and informative on issues pertaining to writing
THE SCRIPT MAG

http://www.scriptmag.com/

Danny is a mine of information on film and tv writing craft.
SCRIPTWRITING IN THE UK

http://dannystack.blogspot.co.uk/

This is a solid, professionally run script related site with a great annual screenwriting competition.
BLUECAT SCREENPLAY

http://www.bluecatscreenplay.com/

Another quirky offering – but a good website for writing craft postings.
HORRIFYING HORROR BLOG

http://thehorrificallyhorrifyinghorrorblog.com/author/adrianchamberlin/

Run by a fellow script mentor/writer, Phil Gladwin and his Goldmine regularly offers writing competitions, newsletters and ebooks on writing
SCREENWRITING GOLDMINE

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/fearless-pitching-mamet/2013/03/15/

I like the cut of this fellow Twitter-user’s jib
JAMES AND THE BLUE CAT BLOG

http://jamesandthebluecat.blogspot.co.uk

A lady with opinions on screenwriting and story telling that I endorse
JULIE GRAY – JUST EFFIN ENTERTAIN ME

http://www.justeffing.com/blog/

This woman really knows her stuff about the art of screenwriting
LINDA ARARONSON

http://www.lindaaronson.com/

A great new writing organisation and website to bookmark – runs regular writing competitions
BAFTA ROCLIFFE NEW WRITING FORUM

http://www.rocliffe.com/

So that’s it – for now, I will update again when my ‘links library’ gets too full.

Here’s my website again, if you need a professional script editor look no further.
http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk
Happy Writing!

10 MISTAKES WRITERS MAKE WHEN WRITING FOR TELEVISION

 1/ Believing you, the writer, are bigger than the sum of the show’s parts.

If you are part of a writing team on a series or serial, you are an essential, but expendable element of the scripting process. The script is essential but the writer of that script is not. Without the script, there is no drama but a budget and time strapped Producer can and will make the changes necessary to get the script camera ready within the time and budget restrictions.

 2/ Viewing your script edit sessions as a potential battle ground.

Your script edits with your script editor should be mutually respectful areas of time in the scripting schedule where you have the right to defend notes given but do not have the ultimate sign off on any decision.

 3/ Hiding behind your agent.

Everyone needs a solid professional to fight their corner should a problem with contract, fee, delivery dates, or a personal issue arise during your commission period on a tv show. But be visible and approachable during these times as the production team want to feel they have a champion of their show in you, not an adversary.

 4/ Straying too far off the script document pertaining to your script.

On most long running shows, the script document has been painstakingly produced via a series of Story Conferences and meetings with the Producer and the script team. It is the skeleton, the blueprint and the reference document that the production follows to keep the episodes coherent and cohesive.  Keeping to the brief this sets out when writing your script, ensures an easy, and enjoyable writing experience on the show.

 5/ Being a slave to the script document!

This sounds unfair I know, but the other mistake is often made to the detriment of the writer’s time on the show and to the show in general.  A slavish adherence to the drama beats outlined by the storyliners in your script document will make a rather dull and predictable episode. The Producer hired you for your voice – so do, please, use it!

 6/ Bringing the party to the table.

Believe it or not, there’s many a Series Story Conference been ruined by too much fun and games in the lunch breaks! Keep a sober and level head – even, as the adage goes, when those about you are losing theirs.

 7/ Not listening to fellow writers.

Story Conferences are sometimes rather political elements of the story production process. An oft made mistake is when writers (maybe through their own enthusiasm and keeness to impress) do not listen or take on  board the input of fellow writers when discussing storylines.

 8/ Consistently missing deadlines.

It’s hard, being expected time and again to deliver to a time deadline. But on a long running drama series it is essential that the script arrives when the schedule demands and if you consistently miss this date, it puts huge pressure on every member of the production team.

 9/ Once you’ve delivered, then you are done.

On a series that is often not the case! On a show like Eastenders for example, you will be expected to be available for notes and for consultation with a member of the script team about your script, right up to the point of shooting and in some cases be expected to attend the actual day’s shoot.

 10/ Giving storylines away.

An absolute no no but sometimes, this still happens. Sometimes the Production might welcome a leak, for publicity purposes, but in the main, the writer should most definitely leave any story give aways to those that make the show.

PULLING OUT THE STORY

I cut my drama teeth on Eastenders. This fact made two things true about me:

1/ That I thrive on pressure

2/ That I like making stories happen.

To continue in a symetrical vein, this show also made me very good at two things in particular regarding the knotty problems we face when coming up with and constructing storylines and I have regularly called upon these strengths in my career since:

1/ It made me fast at decision making

2/ It made me good at seeing the bigger picture

Whilst I am not suggesting you become a swifter storyliner/creator/writer, I am suggesting that you focus on seeing the over-view of your storylines; how they can travel across not just one hour of drama, but run through a multi-part format.

Sitting around the Story Conference Table at our 3 monthly sessions on Eastenders and discussing storylines (both those pitched by the writers and those created by the script team) exposes you brilliantly to how stories are created and this contact with ideas, concepts, themes, stories makes you soon able to pick out and recognise very quickly, when a storyline has the potential to go more than a couple of episodes and when a truely fabulous storyline presents itself – even if it is only the edge of one that you can see.

Experience teaches you that digging a bit deeper into that idea, will reveal a wealth of other storylines that are off-shoots and tributaries of the initial storyline. So a small idea can often become a huge unweildly beast that needs plotting over many episodes.

I know it was a million years ago, but worth pointing out here as an illustrative example; Tony Jordan,(when writing regularly for Eastenders) came up with the storyline of Phil Mitchell’s affair with his Sister In Law Sharon whilst Grant, his brother, was in prison for GBH. We knew this wasn’t going to be a medium-sized storyline, their affair revealed so many facettes of the personalitites of the three characters involved and the impact of their betrayal of Grant was felt by so many other characters in the Square, that we found we could stretch that storyline to an inordinant length without losing it’s initial impetuous. Grant had a history of violence, so that planted the seed of jeopardy into everything Phil and Sharon did from that point on; the audience naturally waiting with bated breath for when he found out and there would be a filial war on the Square.

We plotted this storyline across a whole year of the show’s output. It ran and ran and ran. No-one, not even Tony had thought it had that much milage but that is the business of storylining, sometimes, it’s worth stretching an idea to the absolute limit to get everything out of it.

The episode that focussed on Grant finding out, where Sharon and Phil had to face the music, got 22 million viewers. Like I said. It was a million years ago.

A lot of writers I help now, via Script Advice and those I have met on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/237330119115/and Twitter https://twitter.com/YVONNEGRACE1 are unsure and unconfident about storylining and making their stories go the distance of  more than one episode. It seems to me that many writers do not have a problem structuring their story across a traditional 3 act single drama. Nor do they even baulk when straying from this set format by writing more than 3 acts into their story structure. No, it is not the single format that seems to give writers the heebie jeebies, it is the 2, 4, 6 parters and (horror of horrors) the continuing drama formats that cause the nervous breakdowns.

 Take a break. Calmly does it. Here’s how to think about longer running formats.

Each character you invent has a journey and a narrative path they must follow in order to earn their place in the first of your scripts. If your idea seems to fit into a format longer than a single, then it goes without saying that you are going  to have to control their journey for longer.

And control it you must. Because there is nothing worse than a sloppily constructed storyline. A badly plotted, mis-managed storyline undermines the whole integrity of the script. Characterisation, dialogue, pace, emotional impact, the message, the tone is directly affected. Get the storyline right, get it structured right and you have the template you need and then you can add all the other bells and whistles.

This sounds like a lot of work but it is important to do this stuff before you sit down and bash out your first draft of the first episode of your 2/4/6 parter.

1/ IDENTIFY THE THROUGH-LINE OF YOUR STORYLINE:

What is the main thread that runs through it? What is it, essentially, about?

2/ PLOT THE THROUGH-LINE IN BROAD STROKES ACROSS THE NUMBER OF EPISODES:

Do this by using index cards, or sheets of paper, which you can rip up and move about, or use a white board (I love a white board, but you can get away with less overt expenditure!)

3/ IDENTIFY THE CHARACTERS THAT YOUR STORYLINE MOST OVERTLY AFFECTS:

4/ PLOT EACH CHARACTER’S THROUGH-LINE (their journey through the episodes) SEPARATELY IN BROAD STROKES:

5/ PLOT EACH CHARACTER’S JOURNEY NOW IN MORE DETAIL:

Make connections between each character’s storyline, finding smaller and more emotionally resonant story beats.

6/ FILL IN THE STORY GAPS BY MAKING MORE CONNECTIONS AND PARALLELS FOR EACH CHARACTER:

Once you have pulled out your storylines in this way, you will be able to literally see where you can fill in any gaps that occur and where you may have missed a drama beat.

 The key to good storylining is to be both methodical and creative.

 PLOT THE OVER-VIEW THEN ADDRESS THE DETAIL.

I would not leave anything to chance when you are writing an episodic drama. Get a system in place that works for you and stick to it when you embark on structuring your episodes.

Planting the seeds of a great storyline upfront in the first 10 pages of your 1st episode and drawing the storyline out, carefully, with attention to both the broad and the more subtle story beats, will guarantee you have your audience still hooked by the end of your last episode.

When you storyline a multi-episodic drama well, you are taking the hand of your viewer and leading them through the duration of your drama – you don’t leave them stranded at any point, you are in control of their experience the whole time.

Be the boss. Get good at structuring your storylines.  Your work and your audience will thank you for it.

 And if you have a problem: contact me http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk

10 MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE WHEN WRITING FOR TELEVISION

1/ Believing you, the writer, are bigger than the sum of the show’s parts.

If you are part of a writing team on a series or serial, you are an essential, but expendable element of the scripting process. The script is essential but the writer of that script is not. Without the script, there is no drama but a budget and time strapped Producer can and will make the changes necessary to get the script camera ready within the time and budget restrictions.

 2/ Viewing your script edit sessions as a potential battle ground.

Your script edits with your script editor should be mutually respectful areas of time in the scripting schedule where you have the right to defend notes given but do not have the ultimate sign off on any decision.

 3/ Hiding behind your agent.

Everyone needs a solid professional to fight their corner should a problem with contract, fee, delivery dates, or a personal issue arise during your commission period on a tv show. But be visible and approachable during these times as the production team want to feel they have a champion of their show in you, not an adversary.

 4/ Straying too far off the script document pertaining to your script.

On most long running shows, the script document has been painstakingly produced via a series of Story Conferences and meetings with the Producer and the script team. It is the skeleton, the blueprint and the reference document that the production follows to keep the episodes coherent and cohesive.  Keeping to the brief this sets out when writing your script, ensures an easy, and enjoyable writing experience on the show.

 5/ Being a slave to the script document!

This sounds unfair I know, but the other mistake is often made to the detriment of the writer’s time on the show and to the show in general.  A slavish adherence to the drama beats outlined by the storyliners in your script document will make a rather dull and predictable episode. The Producer hired you for your voice – so do, please, use it!

 6/ Bringing the party to the table.

Believe it or not, there’s many a Series Story Conference been ruined by too much fun and games in the lunch breaks! Keep a sober and level head – even, as the adage goes, when those about you are losing theirs.

 7/ Not listening to fellow writers.

Story Conferences are sometimes rather political elements of the story production process. An oft made mistake is when writers (maybe through their own enthusiasm and keeness to impress) do not listen or take on  board the input of fellow writers when discussing storylines.

 8/ Consistently missing deadlines.

It’s hard, being expected time and again to deliver to a time deadline. But on a long running drama series it is essential that the script arrives when the schedule demands and if you consistently miss this date, it puts huge pressure on every member of the production team.

 9/ Once you’ve delivered, then you are done.

On a series that is often not the case! On a show like Eastenders for example, you will be expected to be available for notes and for consultation with a member of the script team about your script, right up to the point of shooting and in some cases be expected to attend the actual day’s shoot.

 10/ Giving storylines away.

An absolute no no but sometimes, this still happens. Sometimes the Production might welcome a leak, for publicity purposes, but in the main, the writer should most definitely leave any story give aways to those that make the show.

SCRIPT EDITING – THE LOW DOWN

I was a Script Editor on Eastenders. That’s how I started in the television industry.

Prior to my baptism of fire on the then twice weekly popular soap from the BBC, I had been running a script development company called The Deptford Wives out of the Birds Nest Pub in Deptford and was getting quite a bit of attention from writers, producers and agents all interested in new writing.

It was fun, Martin, the pub landlord, had cut a deal with my friend and I, that if we increased his bar sales on the nights we did our rehearsed script readings, we could keep the takings from the ticket sales and he wouldn’t charge us for the use of the theatre space upstairs. I was skint as always seemed to be in those days. I had been an actress but soon realised it was the script that fascinated me rather than the delivery of that work via acting. I had over the years, become obsessed with scripts; the writing of them, the reading of them, the working with them, and also my favourite people were writers.’ I loved to discuss their work, to break down their plotlines, to talk about character, story beats, drama, resolution, conflict; you’ve heard all the lingo and to me, in those early days of my script editing career, I swallowed anything to do with writing, technique and expression for the stage and screen.

So I was passionate about writing but so far had failed to land myself a job that paid the rent and the rest.  And then one night, having totted up the night’s takings and realised with relief that I could now meet my rent that month, someone said ‘have you ever thought of script editing?’ Script whating? Was probably something like my response (it’s all a bit vague – it was a million years ago – 1990 to be exact). 

I looked into it. Script Editing was something they did in television, but it was actually what I had been doing for ages, but I and those theatre types I associated with, called it Dramaturgy. Which is odd enough, sounding, as it does, like a cough syrup but I liked dramaturgy, I was good at it and if that’s what script editing was then I was sure I could do it for television and the bonus being it appeared, from the research I did (there was no internet then; it’s an astonishing fact to write, but totally true that no-one I knew in the early ’90′s had a computer) it seemed the job paid and regularly too!

I was really lucky. Helen Greaves and Leonard Lewis (producers of Eastenders) were looking for someone who was interested in writing and scripts in general and not someone who was a keen fan of the show. Which was just as well, because I got all the names of the characters (apart from I think, Dot Cotton) wrong at my interview but talked well and most probably with a barrow-load of enthusiasm about drama, writing, characterisation, story-telling, and what it was that I loved about the business of telling stories to a wider audience.

I say all this because a good script editor (and I sincerely hope you only work with good ones) will have similar interests and passions as I blabbed on about that day at Elstree Production Offices and an expert script editor will be not only able to improve your script with confidence, but will make the process enjoyable and even stimulating. A fantastic script editor, the best, the sort of course that I hope I managed to morph into over the years that I did the job, will improve your work, give you a very enjoyable experience and after the final draft has been delivered and your baby is twinkling away under the studio lights on the day of principal recording, you will probably not be able to recall how it was that you changed your original plot twist to this much better one in Sc 20 or the process that resulted in that marvellous cliff hanger that so seamlessly bleeds into those iconic drum beats as the famous signature tune kicks in. 

But a process was most definitely followed and your script editor was taking you through it, draft by crafted draft, it was done with humour, some delicacy and a lot of solid, common-sense.  

A good, expert, fantastic script editor will be able to give you script notes (some large, some small, some irritating, some illuminating) without you, the writer, ever feeling exposed, or unsure, without ever feeling that your work is being ridiculed, overly-criticised or downright changed too much.

The writer on any long running show is an essential part of the dramatic process because obviously, without them, there wouldn’t be a script.  However, although the writer is very important, on a long-running, story-gobbling, writer-exhausting, fast-running train that is the drama series format, it is the relationship between the script editor and the writer, that is, in many ways, more important. 

The key to a good relationship with your script editor is collaboration and an ability on you, the writer’s part, to let go a bit (and this may make some of you un-used to the idea of team work within a large series feel a bit sick).

The script editor assigned to your script has a job to do which involves several layers; it is a complicated and demanding job, but the main element of their job is to deliver your script to camera, to length, with all the correct story beats, character development and plotlines in tact, with the correct amount of ad breaks and a fabulous cliff hanger TO DEADLINE.  If you don’t invest in the relationship between your script editor and yourself, if you find it hard to take notes and make the process an un-easy, un-enjoyable one, the process falls apart quickly and it’s that much harder for everyone to get the script you are writing, to camera and on time. 

The script editor sits in the sometimes rather turbulent waters between the writer, and the producer of the show you are writing for. It is their job to pass on all the producer’s concerns and notes on your draft to you, without drawing any blood or hopefully generating any tears.

The script editor will also have their own opinion on your script. They will have had their input heard by the producer before you came to your edit session and the director will also, at (most usually at a later stage) have their input too.

Bearing in mind that your script, your baby, is just one element of a much bigger picture, the script editor must be: diplomatic, eloquent, direct, confident, hard-wired into how to make drama happen on the page, funny helps and good at collaboration.

This is because it is not always possible to transfer all a producer’s notes to the writer without the writer feeling beleaguered or without commiting the cardinal sin of puncturing a writer’s confidence. I say this because as soon as you are commissioned, and you are part of a writing team on a long-runner, everyone it will seem, will have an opinion on your work.

Notes will come from all sides and it takes a very good, competent and confident script editor to dilute the voracity of some notes, to deliver others in an oblique way, or to ignore the note altogether. Sometimes this is a tactic to save a perhaps new writer from too many script notes, and other times it’s because the script editor did not agree with the producer’s note and has decided that in the mix of all the changes necessary, the producer will not notice if this note fails to be carried forward. (This tactic doesn’t always work. A very successful producer of series drama who shall remain nameless, was like a heat seeking missile regarding his notes and if I had tactically decided to ‘ignore’ any, the fallout was heard all the way to the Thames Barrier).

Script Editing is a job that demands innovation and a creative brain. A good editor will be able to infuse more drama into your script, give you suggestions of better or more numerous plot twists, direct you into more interesting territory via a character or group of characters and generally enthuse you into doing a better draft at each session.  It’s also a collating, organising, structuring job. According to the rigours of that particular show, there will be so many sets allowed, so much location, and in every block of scripts there will be a certain amount of characters that must be catered for in story terms. There’ll be a story document that the script editor may or may not have had an input in compiling, and you will both use this to keep you to the correct plotline and deliver the correct drama beats so that your script will pick up and hand over the storyline at the right point. It’s a job that demands the juggling of information both creative and administrative. 

So they work hard these script editors. And they often do so behind the scenes as it where. The writer (and quite rightly so) gets the credit for the marvellous script and hopefully continues to get commissioned as part of the writing team and the script editor gets to do it all over again with the next block of scripts.

Look out for the script editor as the credits roll. They’ve certainly earned their place.

SCRIPT ADVICE NEWSLETTER 11

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

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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 here: http://scriptadvice.wordpress.com/

 CONTENTS

 

• HELLO
• TREATMENTS – WHAT’S THE POINT OF THEM?
• INTERESTING STUFF

 HELLO

Well we all know it’s freezing, and moisturizer sales have increased, and comfort food is on the menu and salad is now an anathema – so I won’t go on about the weather – suffice to say, it’s A NEW YEAR and Winter is settling in nicely here at Script Advice Towers. There’s ice over the bird bath and I feel like a Mrs Mean if I forget to break it so the blue tits and the very fat bullfinch that live in our Forsythia can have a drink.  I have recently also discovered a very good use for ordinary salt – I thought you had to have the posh stuff for this to work but you don’t – sprinkle your bargain basement Saxa over your icy drives and pathways and banish ice completely! Ours is the only drive that is still free from snow, even though we have had several repeat dustings over the last couple of weeks – crunchy underfoot yes, but not slippy!

 And for those evenings when you really just want a cup of hot milk and an early night – I would recommend curling up with LOUIS DE BERNIER’S latest – NOTWITHSTANDING – which is a collection of lovely, tightly observed, moving and funny short stories loosely based on his recollections of his rural childhood.

 TREATMENTS – WHAT’S THE POINT OF THEM AND HOW TO WRITE ONE WELL

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they are part and parcel of the writing experience for all committed, serious, trying-to-make-a-go-of-it writers. The reason they are so important is primarily because unless you want to write scripts for yourself and maybe read them out after Christmas dinner around the turkey carcass, you will need to sell your idea to someone who can make it happen on screen for you and this is a sure fire way of getting your idea, your voice, your message, your talent and your craft across.  Convinced? Hope so because this business of treatment writing will not go away and if you are, like a lot of writers, not the best at tackling them, here are my tips to writing better treatments. 

 Incidentally, these tips focus on my work and experience which is in television treatment writing and selling, but apply the same principles to your film project and you won’t go far wrong.

 1.      BE SUCCINCT

I run workshops about how to write better treatments; there’s one coming up in June at the NFTS ( Storyline Plot and Development – see details under Interesting Stuff below) and for the first part of the workshop I spend a bit of time talking about what this word means. Succinct, brief, concise, pithy, to the point, sound bite, morsel, nugget, anyway you cut it this treatment writing business is about getting to the point and sticking to it. Avoid at all costs, extraneous, superfluous description and rambling in general. In this document, you will be presenting your idea as pared down as you can get it and as in the art of perfumery, you will be condensing the essence of your idea and by doing so, you will be revealing the best bits and tempting the reader to want more. Less, in treatment writing like in so much else, is More.

 2.      BE VISUAL

Astonishing I know, but very often I find myself reminding writers that we are working in a visual medium and so by the very nature of what we do, we must be visual at all times. In this treatment, you are not only drawing in your reader (who may then become your buyer, your audience and ultimately your critic) by the use of words and your ability to present a tempting tale, you are also encouraging them to visualise with you your story, your characters and the world you create in microcosm. So, every image you present in the treatment must be the right one, the only one and the very best one to do the job you give it.

 3.      ENJOY THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Here’s another odd revelation in regard to the craft of writing; some writers need to be reminded that we are in the business of communication. So, enjoying, exploring and experimenting with our Mother tongue and the way you in particular express yourself, is key to getting your script right and therefore, should be central to writing the seminal treatment. Treatments are about description, imagining, underlining and highlighting the best story elements of your intended story, the best characterisation and the ‘feel’ of what you intend to develop in your script. So taking control and mastering the art of enticement by deft use of our descriptive, romantic and arresting language will result in an open, alluring treatment that grips from the start.

 4.      BE ENTERTAINING

Commissioners and Producers can be a jaded bunch – I speak not only from general, but also personal experience of this!  So be as entertaining as you can in the writing of your treatment. We are in the business of communication, education, distraction and entertainment so make your treatment sing in all of these areas.

 THE GENERAL LAYOUT OF A TREATMENT:

 Title: I love titles. Make yours really sell your idea by being the best you can make it. Favourite Titles? ‘Strictly Ballroom’. ‘A Matter Of Life Or Death’. ‘Call The Midwife’. ‘Roger and Val Have Just Got In’. Sometimes, it’s better that the title describes what’s in the tin so to speak, but also being succinct and summarising either the plot content; ‘In The Line Of Fire’ or giving a sense of the tone and style of the piece; ‘The Unbearable Lightness Of Being’ works better. And a title from my own stable? ‘Full English’ – a comedy drama about running a B and B in Cornwall.

 Format Description:

Is your idea A Comedy Drama? A 4 or 6 or more parter? Is this is a serial or a series? Is it a one off or Single? Action, High Concept, Character driven? Say so here to give the reader a clear idea of what to expect straight away.

 There’s a lot on the Net about the difference between series and serials and you may get conflicting opinions on this one, but the definition for me and how I have used it in my career of 20 years (so far!) in television, the definition stands as I set out below:

 SERIES: A drama that is open ended. A core cast of returning characters. The backdrop remains the same and is returned to each week. There may be  several stories per episode which are resolved, but the series storyline; that which is carried by the core returning cast, remains open ended. Eg: Holby City. Coronation Street. (all of the Soaps in fact) Hustle. Merlin. Spooks.

SERIAL: A drama of more than one or two parts, which has a serial element; a core cast of returning characters and an over-arcing storyline, but in this case, the storyline is ultimately resolved. Eg: Jane Eyre.  State of Play.  A Passionate Woman.  The Lost Prince.

 Logline:

In a word, summarise your idea as entertainingly and as succinctly as you can – here to focus your mind a bit and because I found it also good reading, is a website from a writer who focuses on the job of selling to Hollywood but what he says here about Loglines is true in our domestic UK market as anywhere. http://www.writersstore.com/writing-loglines-that-sell

 One Paragraph of tasty description setting out the world:

Here the job is to be as descriptive and evocative as possible – imagine you are writing in prose, what the reader will ultimately see on screen – so take us through perhaps 2 or 3 key scenes written as if you were writing your script as a novel. 

Character Biographies:

Make these as tasty as you can. I like to add a quotation from each character under their name; something they are most likely to say or something that alludes to their particular storyline. Eg: In a treatment I wrote ostensibly about The Eternal Quest For Mr Right entitled ‘A Man For All Seasons’ (another not bad title!) I created a character called PLUM; her quotation was ‘Plum is looking for a man she can spar with; so far, she has only dated those that shop there’. 

 In each character biog, give a suggestion of the over arc of their storyline across the number of episodes or across the span of the script you are intending to write. Make these people live on the page.

 Episode Outline:

I think this is self explanatory – but be exacting and succinct in your language whilst being as interesting as you can in your outlay of the storyline.  Give the main thrust of the A (or the main) storyline with the smaller, B and C stories if you have them, running parallel.

 Main Story Arcs:

Each character has a journey and here you outline what that is in story terms. Again, pithy, evocative language is what we are looking for.

 The Central Message:

This will be alluded to in your pithy Logline at the top of the treatment, but here you can extrapolate a bit more and dig a bit deeper.

 Throughout the writing of your treatment you must also pay attention to the style and tone of your writing and as much as possible, evoke for your reader the flavour of what they will ultimately be seeing on screen when your Must Have Drama is produced.

Here is Charles Harris Charles Harris; experienced award-winning writer-director, founder of ScreenLab and a director of Euroscript – more about them here: http://www.euroscript.co.uk/ and his take on writing treatments – he focuses on the business of treatment writing for film scripts, but the essence of treatment writing is the same for television or film scripts – I will let him take over where I left off…..

 Three Tips for Writing Treatments

Writing a good, compelling, readable treatment is tough. It’s difficult enough to write a cinema or TV script – but then to boil the whole thing down from 90+ pages to one or two…! However this is a crucial part of a screenwriter’s job.

A treatment is just another word for outline or synopsis and I’ve written hundreds in my career. They all demanded 100% of my attention and pushed me to the limit of my writing skills. However, as a result I not only became a much better writer, I started making more sales.

So here, from the sweat of my brow and the depths of my experience, are three of my top tips for getting that treatment to work for you rather than against you.

1. Go for broke

Most treatments are flat, uninspiring things. Writers are so worried about getting the story down in short form that they forget to use their literary skills.

Go for the very essence of the story – in a very, very few beats – don’t try to tell us everything that happens. Instead, give us the emotion. Develop a distinctive voice that reflects the characters and setting. Unfold the theme and the meaning (in a treatment you are allowed to tell as well as show! In fact you must).

2. Be disciplined

Don’t ramble: write to length. If the treatment is for someone else, then deliver the length that they want. You will need treatments of different lengths for different potential buyers. If two pages (as for this year’s Euroscript Screen Story Competition) then make it two pages – in standard font, properly laid out and spaced. No cheating by leaving out paragraph spaces, or using 1mm margins!

If the treatment is for you, as part of developing the script, then you still owe it to yourself to keep it short and crisp. You will learn far more about your story by being disciplined than by allowing yourself to go on and on.

I believe the best way is to start with a short paragraph and then grow it organically step by step (I go through this entire process with you in Exciting Treatments).

3. Keep improving

Keep polishing, revising and improving your treatments as you write each draft of the script and then keep doing the same as you start sending the treatments out. As you keep refining, so you learn more about the script itself – characters, emotions, theme – and so both treatments and script become sharper.

I always obtain paid professional feedback before sending out a treatment, even though I give feedback to others. Everyone needs another pair of eyes.

 INTERESTING STUFF

 UPCOMING WORKSHOP ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN TV AND THE FILM INDUSTRY; Apologies for the long link – this from SCREEN YORKSHIRE – If you think you need some help getting a leg up or just some focussed attention on your career path, this could be the one for you – Northern Based Nicky Ball – Career Development Manager tells you more here: http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=5573754948845310004&gid=2600652&type=member&item=94390465&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fcancareersleedsmarch2012-esli.eventbrite.co.uk%2F&urlhash=W-kv&goback=.gde_2600652_member_94390465

 INKTIP – their strap line is ‘getting the right script into the right hands’ – impressive website full of really great links and ways to get your script out there and read by industry professionals. You have to register your work and become a member – I think it looks seriously impressive for screenwriters who want to get connected and get their work out there.

http://www.inktip.com/index.php?cat=sa&scat=home

 STEVEN RUSSELL – here, writer /producer /blogger and SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM MEMBER Steven talks about how to manage that nutty and knotty problem of exposition in your script writing – a useful storytelling tool no doubt, but a hard one to control correctly: http://lovesmenotfilms.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/a-useful-use-for-exposition-in-your-script/

 CHARLES HARRIS – is another experienced writer trainer and I am gladly promoting his fabulous website: http://chasharrisfootloose.wordpress.com/

 PHIL GLADWIN – here I am promoting the opposition – but hey, the guy really knows his onions so I would recommend a good look at this very informative website and his book on screen writing could be a good addition to the bookshelf this year too…needless to say, he also is a member of SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM..

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/98-screenwriters

 SHORT COURSE FROM SCRIPT ADVICE AT THE NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL – STORYLINE PLOT AND DEVELOPMENT

Check out the details here for my course and others – this is a good place to hone your craft in screen writing and disciplines surrounding the business of writing great scripts. This is a 4 day course that I have designed specifically for the NFTS and I would love to see you there in the Summer….

http://www.nfts.co.uk/index.php?module=Shortcourse&action=Moduleshortcourse&Department_id=38&course_id=361&courseapplication=1171

 Many of you will either know of, or be a member of SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM on FACEBOOK, but if you haven’t yet joined, please do, it is a vibrant lively community of writers, trainers, learners, moaners, growers and doers and I would love to see you there! Here is the link again – so get clicking! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237330119115&ref=mf

 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 February 2012

FIVE BASIC, ESSENTIAL SCRIPT WRITING DO’S AND DON’TS

Marketting Bods beavering away in the back rooms of Consumer Cathedrals like Waitrose and Sainsburys use the words Basic and Essential to draw the wider slice of the human consumer-pyramid towards products that are vital to the average kitchen cupboard.  It’s no different in the world of writing – here then a list of my FIVE BASIC, ESSENTIAL things to get right and to avoid getting wrong in your script writing, for budget-savvy writers (this advice is free!) who also want to avoid slipping below the Good Writing radar.

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@ http://www.SCRIPT ADVICE.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SCRIPT ADVICE NEWSLETTER – SUMMER – 2011 – issue 09

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

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

SCRIPT ADVICE NEWSLETTER – 7

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

SCRIPT ADVICE Newsletter – 6

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