HOW TO WRITE A DRAMA SERIES TELEVISION OUTLINE

I am fresh back from an amazing time at The London Screenwriter’s Festival, where I did four things of note:

1/ Run my session ‘Sizzle and Substance’with Bafta winning writer and show-runner Barbara Machin and Series Producer of Holby City Simon Harper, about how to navigate the hinter lands between commercialism and creativity in writing and creating series television drama.

2/ Contribute to the session run by the life force that is Pilar Alessandra about how to manage the work/family/life balance.

3/ Flash my cleavage to about 200 people as I clumsily navigated my bra; clipping on my mic before my first session.

4/ Wish Hollywood Legend Joel Schumacher luck, until I realised who he was and attempted to remedy this by adding, rather breathlessly, ‘but you; of course, don’t need it’.

So it was, all round, a rather lovely time.

But what I discussed, with the Prince of Holby City and the Queen Bee of Waking the Dead; the knotty issue in popular television long-form drama, of how to strike a balance between the art form of story telling and the need to keep feeding the ratings machine, still remains fresh in my mind.

For those of you that weren’t there, I wish to share with you some thoughts.

At the Sizzle v Substance Session, we discussed, amongst many other questions:

* What makes a successful drama series/serial?
The answer in a nutshell is the show that has at the point of its creation, the right balance between fresh, creativity and hard-nosed commercialism.
Scott and Bailey.
Shameless.
Broadchurch.

* What works best – pure art or artifice?
Plunging into the nut bowl again; the answer is a combination of both. All successful long form dramas, (essentially those that are episodic and repeating) need a big fat dollop of juicy story at their centre and living in this world, there must be credible, developed, three dimensional characters. They also need a structure, a framework, the scaffolding in place to hold up the creative components of the drama.

Long-form television drama is that illusive hybrid of hard-nosed commercialism and genuine artifice.

With the need to combine the artist and the artisan in mind, when writing successful television drama, here is a story for you:

Back in 1999 I was asked to Produce Holby City series 2. It was expected of me to turn this show around. Holby was then (and still is) a great show, but it was not getting the projected ratings expected of a prime time drama scheduled in the family slot. So I did what any sane producer would do in the circumstances. I appealed to the writers to give me great story.

Within the medical remit of the show (then solely Cardio Thorasic so any condition pertaining to the upper body and heart) writers had to come up with story lines that made a wide demographic sit up and take notice. Cynically, I said we would ‘wrap the medical around’ the essential drive of the stories I was looking for. That is, those that had an emotional heart (forgive the pun) and truth about them. This, in the most part, worked.

But the best episodes of my series, those that gained a 9 million rating and peaked at 10 million at Christmas, where the ones where I had managed to engineer stories that were essentially medical in nature, but those that resonated wider; caused emotional ripples through a variety of characters’ lives.

The example I can give here is the story about a young girl who, suffering from Cystic Fibrosis, had to have both her parents donate a portion of their lung to save their daughter’s life. The father, it turned out, could not contribute. He was not a blood match. And so this story ballooned from a standard ‘I will save you in this medical emergency because I love you’ to a story about long kept family secrets, betrayal and ultimately a fragile re-union between the girl and her real father.

This is an example of a story that has a commercial appeal, and also an emotional root. The Sizzle is there, (the dynamics between a family at war whilst a daughter is dying) but also the Substance (the story ticks all the boxes of a long running drama with a medical precinct).

It’s a knotty problem this. The dual-need to create something fresh, new, different, creative, from a genuinely artistic, credible foundation and that need to also to make this new thing, this new dramatic idea, into a saleable, water-tight, competitive format.

Writers of television drama, have to be multi-facetted by nature.

They are both the creator, or artist, and then the draftsman; they must draw up a blue print for this drama series; make sense of the original artistic splurgings. Then they don the Plumber’s hat. Because they also need to be a hands on practical sort. The sort who can work out all the interconnections between story lines and know how best to maximise the junctions of all those story pipes laid down.

If need be, a television writer needs to know how to make their drama series – flush – or actually work.

You are Jackson Pollock – you splash paint around – but you are also required to bring a bit of Escher to the table; clear thinking, good with line, expert at someone who knows how the bigger picture fits together and to know how to disguise; like all the best craftspeople do, the joints, the joins, the ugly interiors of the drawers and secret compartments of the piece you are crafting out of thin air.

So we need structure as well as innovation in our work as writers and producers of television drama.

Those of you that have bought/shared/looked over someone else’s shoulder whilst they read my book on writing for television; not surprisingly called Writing for Television – Series, Serials and Soaps http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Television-Yvonne-Grace/dp/1843443376/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400840643&sr=1-7&keywords=writing+for+television – will know that in those pages I go into detail about treatments, story line documents and story lines. I go on a lot about using documents and how to do so to make your stories sing as you write your television scripts – I mention the Series Outline, but I do not go much further than that.

I am remedying this here.

How you write a good SERIES OUTLINE for television:

This document is not a dry thing. It is an exciting, vibrant, layered piece of writing that shows, without the use of mirrors or smoke, what your series drama is all about.

It is a microcosm of all your musings; a distillation of the series as a whole. Like the treatment that goes before this, (in terms of your long running story’s development) it condenses the themes, messages, tone, characters, world, main narrative arcs and episode content down to a manageable number of pages.

It is an extension of your idea, but it is not a sentence by sentence, beat by beat description of your series drama.

Do not confuse your SERIES OUTLINE with an EPISODE OUTLINE or, what is called A BEAT SHEET in feature film circles. We use Beat Sheet too now, more often, in television, (trying to keep it real you know) and I like the term because it does what it says on the tin. A Beat Sheet is just that. Story; laid out, beat by beat.

Producers don’t need to see this in your Series Outline.

They want to see and understand and know the following things from your document:

1/ What is the world in which the story is set? Is it an engaging world and how is it so?

2/ Who lives in this world and what are the characters about? What makes them tick? Are these people identifiable? Who will we love? Who will we hate? Who will we hate loving?

3/ What is the content in broad strokes of the first (pilot) episode? What is the content (again, excitingly, enticing told, not beat by beat) of the middle episode and what again, is the end episode’s content? How does this start? How does this series end?

4/ SET PIECES. Producers of tv drama LOVE a set piece. What is the image, the exchange, the moment, the climax of a story line in each of the episodes you are outlining here?
In every episode, in every long form drama format worth its salt, there will be one moment, one image, one sequence that sticks in your mind, while the credits roll and beyond.

Similarly, having read your Series Outline, there will be (if you get it right) at least one singular, memorable moment, or series of moments that stay with the Producer/Commissioner. You need to make sure you have these in your Series Outline.

We are dealing with images, albeit ones told in words; black and white on the page.
Visualise your stories and your Series Outline will come alive and sell your series for you.

There are practical elements to get across in this document too:

1/ Setting 2/ Number of characters 3/ Period or no? 4/ Genre 5/ Episode numbers/format length

Tone. Use the hybrid terminology here. It always works. Sci Fi / Peaky Blinders (that would be an awful show but you get the idea) Downton Abbey/Rom Com (similarly; bound to be terrible, but we know what it is about in two five syllables.)

If, in the development process, you have got to the Series Outline stage, chances are, someone with potential money to make it and a potential route to transmit it, is interested in your idea.

Don’t give them a reason to say no.

Make them fall in love with the sheer story content, the characters, the set pieces, the tone and the overall message of your drama series/serial.

They will, from this moment on, try to make their budget fit your ideas.

Get busy.

Get writing.

My group Script Advice Writer’s Room is great resource for writers of the big and small screen. Writers all actually; there are poets and novelists amongst us – writers who write or radio, theatre as well as television and pen screenplays. Join me and them, here https://www.facebook.com/groups/237330119115/

Twitter: YVONNEGRACE1

Script Advice is here to help.

THE WORK/LIFE BALANCE BLOG

Via my Script Consultancy Business http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk I work with a lot of writers, mainly via email or Skype, from my desk here at Script Advice Towers aka My House. I also have a child to raise and to make sure he doesn’t become feral and a house to run. Not as many plates as some professional parents, but still a plate juggling exercise non the less.

Just as well that I am a goal orientated person. One who needs deadlines and sights to be firmly set on the target in hand, otherwise, completely zero gets done and absolutely nothing is achieved.

Writers and those that work from home beware, The Island of Self-Loathing is not far away and there, on the shore, lie the bulky forms of Laziness, Procrastination and Indolence, shading themselves under the ominous shadow of Day Time Television. Not a nice place. To be avoided at all costs.

I thrive on Lists. Lists are good. Lovely Lists.

If I don’t make a list, then the following scenario can, in extremis, unfurl.

7am – Woke by sense of a warm presence in my room. Unstick eye to find son 2 cm from my face, holding a Lego policeman. ‘He says get up or else’. I do.

7.30am – Breakfast on the go. Must make a list for the day. Stand in bare feet on sharp edge of Lego brick stuck in the rug. Swear. Try to hide the swear, by sneaky segue into a sing along to Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom on the telly.

8am – Finally the threats have worked and son is upstairs, getting into his uniform. Must make a list – got so much to get done today. Son can not find his school Polo shirt. I know where they are. In the dirty laundry basket. Assess the level of dirt/disease of Polo shirts. Chose one that sports Marmite stain but unfeasibly enough, under the arm pit. Hope it won’t present as Mange or worse.

8.15am – Wash, dress, attempt to apply mascara in 5 mins flat. Manage it. Although I am aware I have the appearance of Malcolm McDowell in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ due to the over application of one eye and the under of the other.

8.20am – School bag on his back, shoes on his feet, jettison Son out of the house, remember car keys just in time before slamming the door. ‘Why is my bag so light?’ Son’s question reminds me I haven’t made his packed lunch. Fly back into the house and make sandwiches, find a yoghurt, some fruit and a biscuit and then spend another agonised five minutes trying to find his Darth Vader Sandwich box. It’s in his school bag. Empty except for the wrappers of yesterday’s packed lunch; made without guilt and more time.

8.45am – I drive up to the school 10 minutes later than yesterday, that day when the sun shone and I was a perfectly sane, balanced working mum of one. So now, today, the day from Hell when I look like a Droog and son’s shirt smells of 3 day old Marmite, I can’t find a parking space. Find one – it’s small. More a gap between cars rather than an actual space. Learning to drive in London finally paid off. I park within a micro particle of the bumper in front and the radiator behind. No way can I open the door. Wedged between a garden fence and a hedge. The hedge being more porous, encourage son to clamber over the gear stick and out the driver’s side.

8.55am – Just before school gates shut, son waves goodbye and runs past Head Mistress with Privet in his hair.

9am – Essential food shopping. Get distracted by non essential shopping. Get talking to friendly mum I know from school run. We both buy a jug we don’t need.

10am – Home to make my list. Do not make my list but spend 2 hours on Social Media Networks. Some of it productive. A lot not. But I have seen some engaging pictures of disastrous weddings and a Meerkat that looks like Nigel Farage.

Lunch. Each mouthful tastes like sand. I truly hate myself.

1pm – I make a list. That feels very good. I put the kettle on to celebrate.

2pm – 3pm – I work. Hard and productively.

3.10pm – Flying out of the door, I am determined not to be late for son’s school pick up.

Son is pleased to see me. I am not late. I have done some work. I am ok. I can do more when we get home and we neither of us care I have Privet in my hair.

So, to avoid sailing one’s rickety craft towards Self Loathing Island, here is my rough guide to a smooth passage and productivity on a daily basis.

1/ Proportion off your day.
Write this stuff down. Holding a piece of paper with your tasks and your responsibilities outlined in your own writing, honestly has a calming effect. Then, when you have achieved one of these things, you get to tick it off and feel a sense of personal achievement.

2/ Be Flexible.
Some of the day is child related, some work. Sometimes work has to over lap child duties. That’s why DVD’s were invented. I used to feel guilty about letting my son watch a programme, or play Super Mario on the laptop while I beavered away on my computer, but not any more. I have to be flexible in my work/mum rota, otherwise I will snap and that only serves my Osteopath.

3/ Tea is good.
Take a break regularly through the day.

4/ Do watch the clock.
Apply a rough time frame to each task and try to stick to it. Leave enough time to get from A to B if you have to leave your desk.

5/ Leave your work in a good place so you can come back to it without dread and the threat of distraction.

6/ Ease up on yourself.
You can do a lot if you stick to a time frame and an achievable number of tasks in the day.

7/ Only manageable bite-sized chunks of Social Media Time is allowed.

I encourage my writer clients and members of my writer’s group on Facebook Script Advice Writer’s Room; https://www.facebook.com/groups/scriptadvice/?fref=nf to use Social Media to get in touch and stay in touch with like-minded types and those actually working in the industry. But do this in very strict time allocated bursts either throughout the day (to mix things up a little) or in sections of time in the morning or the afternoon. Never over do the internet trawling thing. It literally eats your time. You will be cast away on that flippin’ island before you know it.

Sizzle or Substance? Creativity v Commercialism in Series Television Drama – is my session for the London Screenwriters’ Festival in October. I would love to see you there. Come and hear me, Waking the Dead creator and Bafta winning writer Barbara Machin and Executive Producer of Holby City Simon Harper talk all things story related for series television.
http://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com/whats-on/sessions/sizzle-or-substance-commercialism-vs-creativity-in-tv-drama-series

My book, Writing for Television, Series, Serials and Soaps is getting five star reviews and lots of nice comments on Amazon and Twitter. Follow me there https://twitter.com/YVONNEGRACE1 and buy your copy here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Television-Yvonne-Grace/dp/1843443376/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400840643&sr=1-7&keywords=writing+for+television

CONVERSATIONS WITH A STORY TELLER

Canadian J Lynn Stapleton is a writer, photographer and Geriatric Care Nurse who follows me on Twitter. She also loves to blog and interview when she can. Here is her recent interview with her friend, the American tv writer Jill Lorie Hurst.

‘Guiding Light’ was the world’s longest running soap opera until it was axed in 2009.  Jill, like so many television writers, learnt her trade and honed her craft on the show. I have EastEnders to thank for my baptism of fire.  So here, in solidarity, I post Lynn’s interview.

I particularly like what Jill says about the collaborative process of television series writing.  Thanks Lynn for a great interview and insight into the working life of a talented writer and also for allowing me to share it here.

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In the several months previous to the American soap opera, Guiding Light, being cancelled and subsequently going off the air, I made friends with numerous other fans of the show, resulting in meeting in a large fan gathering in New York City to celebrate the final official fan club luncheon with the cast. It would also be the start of a wonderful friendship with one of the head writers of the series very soon after.

Holding various positions within the Guiding Light family from Assistant to the Writers, Scriptwriter, Assistant Head Writer, Story Producer and Co-Head-Writer, Jill Lorie Hurst has won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Writing (2007), and a Writer’s Guild of America Award for Best Writing (2004), along with several nominations in both awards ceremonies over the years.

Over the past few years, we’ve talked on-line and in person about just about anything that strikes our interest, from soaps, to photography, to life in general. For a long time, I’d felt a bit odd asking a friend for an official interview, primarily about scriptwriting, but decided just to go with it and I’m glad I did.

Lynn: What got you interested in working in television as a writer when you were starting out?

Jill: I never thought about television writing until I started working at the front desk at the studio where Guiding Light was taped. You get to know about people when you wait tables or work at a front desk. The quality of people and storytelling at GL made me want to stay forever! I’d grown up writing, loved theater and I watched the [Proctor & Gamble] P&G soaps, but had no career plan. I left college in 1982 and moved from Detroit to New York City. I waitressed for 10 years and my life was pretty full. Full of theater going, travel and friends. And it was the 80’s – NYC was crackly and crime filled. A number of good friends were dying of AIDS. There was a lot going on, but I loved the restaurant, my co-workers, the customers. Luckily, one of my customers, Grace Bavaro, loved me enough to send me across town for a tour of the GL studio. A year later I started working part time at the front desk. I was in my early 30’s then. I didn’t officially join the show til I was almost 35, and I was close to 40 when I became a staff writer! A late bloomer by TV standards. I never thought of myself as a WRITER. I just wanted to be there and be part of the storytelling process and help put out the “product” on a day to day basis. If the environment at GL hadn’t been so amazing, I might’ve gone back to the restaurant business. I like working with good people, doing work I care about. Thanks to the generosity of some terrific people I got the chance to do that at Guiding Light for many years.

Lynn: When you look for inspiration for stories or dialogue, what are things that grab your interest/attention?

Jill: I’m not a big picture story teller – I tend to think in scenes and characters. I am inspired by people I see on the street, conversations I listen to on the bus, looking in windows as people live their lives. My husband, friends and family inspire me. Sometimes a really basic challenge or thought grabs you – like when Ellen Wheeler challenged all of us to come up with stories that would use P&G products. My choice of product turned into an idea that I still want to produce. A place – like the 24 hour laundromat in my NYC neighborhood – can get things going. I think writers need to look around and listen – that’s one of the reasons I don’t wear ear buds and listen to music on the street – or watch TV on my phone – I might miss a good character or setting!

Lynn: Creating storylines for groups of characters in a soap drama involves a lot of planning, organization and development before it even gets to the writing stage. What was your favourite aspect of storylining an idea for a group or for an individual? And conversely, the worst part?

Jill: I love being in a room with a group of writers when someone first mentions a new idea for a storyline or a couple – that moment when everyone stops for a split second to take it in – and then starts talking and tossing their thoughts into the pot. Story stew! I like story boards – using different color markers and squares of paper to lay out days/weeks/months of story. There’s something kind of intoxicating about moving the people and the scenes around, then finally coming up with the day, the week, etc that you’re happy with. I like having the end of the story up there first, so that we know what we’re writing toward. My other favorite job is script editing. It’s a great job. The best part was having the opportunity to assign a day to the right script writer, cheering them on through the week as they write and then, getting a beautiful script handed back to me. I can rewrite a not so good day if I have to – but I get no thrill out of the rewrite. I think I’m kind of good at knowing who’s good at what – who’s funny, who’s heartbreaking, who’s good at killing off characters (really) – and assigning accordingly! My least favorite part of the process is breakdown writing. Glad I had to do it. Don’t like it. Not very good at it.

Lynn: Have you ever had characters that get stuck in your head, demanding their stories to be told? Or had a particular scene becoming very vivid in your head and then have to write it down?

Jill: When you work on a show, the characters live with you and they tend to be a chatty group. If you listen to them, a lot of the story will unfold. Telling a story you love is so uplifting and fun. You can’t wait to get into the meeting, or sit at the computer (or grab your legal pad in my case) or get on the phone with the other writers. It just…bubbles. And when you’re telling a story you don’t believe in – it’s very upsetting. I used to carry on conversations with characters, other writers, the network in my head as I walked to work and I’m sure my facial expressions and mumbling scared a lot of people. Once someone actually stopped me to ask me if I was okay and I blurted. “No! We’re killing Ben today and we’re doing it for all the wrong reasons”. Yikes.

Lynn: What are some favourite pieces of writing advice given to you when you were starting out, that really stuck with you throughout your career?

Jill: Here are a few –
“When you’re writing the emotional/relationship stuff, keep it tight, contained. If the show is long and those scenes take up too much time they will be the first scenes cut and often that means losing the best stuff in the day. Protect those moments”. – From actress/director Lisa Brown

“There is no such thing as a stupid question. Ask the question.” – From producer Mary O’Leary

“Can we tell that story (write that scene) in 9 lines?” – From actress/executive producer Ellen Wheeler

“Don’t tiptoe into your scenes. Walk in, you have the right to be there.” – From writer/producer Claire Labine (when I asked for breakdown writing notes)

Lynn: Following Guiding Light’s cancellation, you had joined up writing for former GL actress, Crystal Chappell’s two-time Daytime Emmy Winner, ‘Venice the Series’ web soap for seasons three and four – and currently fifth season – of the series. What’s it been like switching from writing for a network soap opera to writing for a web platform soap opera?

Jill: Network vs. the web – It’s still serial storytelling, which is the great thing. I love the Venice characters. I’m more of a writer on this show and not part of the rest of the production team, which forces me to use different muscles. I’ve learned to collaborate on the phone, which has always been hard for me! I’m still wrestling with technology and realize how spoiled I was at GL, when I could scribble a scene on a legal pad and stand there looking crazy til Amanda took it away from me and said “That’s okay, Jilly. I’ve got it.” I’m glad our characters can swear and kiss and make love if the story calls for it! I love the freedom, but I miss some of the checks and balances that come with working for the network – they force you to try harder and find different ways to tell the stories you care about. Life is all about picking your battles. When I was on GL and we were answering to both P&G and CBS, we won some important battles, which was great – and we lost some fights that broke our hearts, both as writers and people. I learned a lot from all of those experiences.

Lynn: Are there any other series, either television or web, that you’d love to work on/ work with? Or have you any of your own projects that you’d love to start/continue with?

Jill: We just sent Venice 5 to Crystal and will start the edit as soon as we get her notes this week. I love working with Penelope [Koechl, co-writer] and we have a few ideas we’re discussing. I have to finish my book and there’s another project that needs to be attended to! I don’t think about writing Guiding Light any more – but the Guiding Light actors are so talented and inspiring that whenever I am working on anything, their beautiful faces and voices float through my head. I’d like to write them in very different roles. They are a great rep company. Mostly, I’m looking to tell stories that mean something and work with people I enjoy. That’s the plan. Hey, you made me come up with a plan! Thanks, my friend.

Well, I wish I had a lofty answer, but truth be told, we are sitcom junkies at our house. Modern Family saved our lives this year, along with Frasier, Roseanne and Cosby Show reruns – but sitcoms are serials too – family relationships, overcoming obstacles, love stories! I also love Orange is the New Black, The Good Wife and I think House of Cards is fascinating. Still like Grey’s Anatomy. Catching up on Parenthood, Last Tango in Halifax. I miss Friday Night Lights and Gilmore Girls. I like to think, but I like to laugh and cry and connect when I watch a show.

If you would like to see the interview on Lynn’s blog here it is and a couple of lovely pics to boot of Jill and Lynn in NYC Central Park. http://celtic-dragon.me/2014/08/03/conversation-with-a-storyteller/

AT THE BBC WRITERS’ FESTIVAL 2014 – A WRITER’S PERSPECTIVE #2

I am pleased to give you another writer – Nicholas Gibb’s view, on the recent BBC Writers’ Festival. He is also a member of my group on Facebook; The Script Advice Writer’s Room. Join him and me there if you haven’t already. Here’s Nicholas’ take on that packed and exciting day….

I was one of the writers who went to the TV Drama Writers’ Festival to listen to and engage with some of nation’s top writers, producers and the Director-General of the BBC.

Tony Jordan gave the opening Keynote speech ‘If Content is King, Where’s Our Crown?’ Everything starts with the writer but, yet, we do not wear that crown and the only way we will is by being brave, innovative and genre shaking. The truth is, irrespective of the platform by which viewers will watch drama, those platforms need content and it is that content which will help define a channel be it public service, commercial or subscription-based. Writers will have to create that increasing demand for defining content. Tony has issued a challenge to the writing community to be original and prepare for the coronation.

In Barbara Machin and Danny Brocklehurst’s session on ‘Developing Your Character’, it was fascinating to hear how these two writers work. Preparation and knowing your character before they end up on the page so that you know how your characters will behave and react in the narrative is important. Then there was the puzzle of how your characters fit together in the narrative. In that development process, characters may change or evolve. In Barbara Machin’s Waking The Dead, the original relationship between Boyd (Trevor Eve) and Grace (Sue Johnston) was to be on equal footing but in the series, it never quite achieved that.

An illustrative 100-second clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mtTrBqXMIQ ) about character dynamics from Waking The Dead, which was a scene all about character in which Boyd has come to apologise to Frankie. Boyd, a man who does not know what to say, to a woman who is not comfortable with expression of emotion.

Danny spoke of his work on Shameless and his fondness for characters of Kev Ball and Veronica Fisher and evolving their characters and their love story at the heart of which was a secret. Giving a character a secret presents an inner dramatic tension that colours choices and behaviour.

In Writers For Sale? Bryan Elsley, Sophie Gardiner, Levi David Addai and Hilary Salmon were in discussion about the practicalities of being a writer. Bryan Elsley noted that the biggest threat to being a writer is waiting to be paid. Like everyone else a writer need to put food on the table. He also mentioned that the moment you option your script it is no longer your script but that is name of the game for a writer – selling scripts. In addition, in this session, Levi David Addai (Youngers, My Murder) spoke of how he blew a gig on EastEnders but that has not had a detrimental effect on his career.

There was also a brief discussion about the changing role of script editors. Script editors appear to be less the writer’s friend and more on the producer’s side. There was also a question over the quality of script editors.

In The Politics of Drama session, Peter Moffat spoke about his experience of being a criminal barrister. He gave an inkling of how the legal system can help to prepare you to be a scriptwriter. His experience in court was the almost the same as writing a script. Essentially, in a criminal case each side is trying to present a narrative that a jury (the audience) is more likely to believe. Before questioning a witness, he would prepare a train of thought through a series of questions that would lean towards answers that supported his client’s narrative. It obviously inspired the stories in dramas like Criminal Justice and Silk. He also emphasised the importance of research and the reality, which influences his gritty dramas like The Village.

After lunch, Tony Jordan was in conversation with the Director General of the BBC Tony Hall. It is the first time I have ever known a Director General to speak directly to writers.

In Selling Your Idea, Jane Featherstone, Chris Aird, Toby Whithouse and Peter Bowker spoke about the pitching process. In essence, it is the script, ideally via an agent but there are exceptions but the likelihood of an unrepresented writer getting their script commissioned is very small. Competitions can be a way of getting notice. Kudos has an association with the Red Planet Prize and they have picked up writers from that competition. The other thing is, and it seems blindingly obvious, watch television drama. Take note of who makes what and what is the competition.

The final session I attended was with the writer Abi Morgan. She spoke of her experience and working methods – research is important – and the less pleasing aspect of being bumped off a film and The Hour being cancelled after two series.

However, the most important part of the day was talking with other writers and being out of my writing room!

Nicholas Gibbs trained as a script editor, he has years of experience in the television industry and is a professional writer whose book on writing for television and selling your script, is a great guide to the industry. https://www.hodder.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781444167597

THE BBC WRITERS’ FESTIVAL 2014 – From a Writer’s Perspective

I asked Jayne Lake; writer, twitterer, facebook member of my group Script Advice Writer’s Room and all round good egg, to pen me a blog about what she took from the BBC Writers’ Festival 2014. Here it is….

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The fifth BBC TV Drama Writers’ Festival came to Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, a one-time Victorian wheat store transformed into uber-cool lecture rooms and rubber clad studios for arty types, it’s industrial strength air con much needed – by me.

Kate Rowland and her team sprinkled fairy dust over the unrivalled schedule, I made a point of selecting all the available sessions about ‘women on the box’. Apart from the short notice withdrawal of doyenne Sally Wainwright, this year’s strong female line-up would not disappoint.

Keynote If Content is King, Where’s our Crown? – Like an entertaining fruit and veg wholesaler Tony Jordan outlined established and newly forming markets for drama output and gave us his rally call to feed the ever-hungry story beast. A community of writers drawn together to listen, learn, share and contribute, we are all connected, he tells us ‘[by] story struggling to tear itself from our souls’. Feeling a smidgeon taller, I floated off to my first sesh, my life’s goal to: ‘create something extraordinary’ tucked under my heavy-duty bra strap. Can-do-will-do-stuff indeed.

Developing Your Character – Writer Danny Brocklehurst discussed his writing process behind Exile and disgraced journo Tom Ronstadt (John Simm) – a character who returns to his backwater hometown to discover his once brutal father in the grip of Alzheimer’s. It’s the way his character relates in any given moment that hooks his audience Danny argues. There is a mystery to solve – why did a once beloved father violently banish his son? But whilst plot is crucial, for Danny character always lies at the starting block and at the heart. In Barbara Machin’s long-runner Waking the Dead the emphasis shifts. Character is the ‘elephant in the room’, what’s not said speaking volumes about protagonists the audience comes to love over time. Her characters develop in ‘slow burn… [they] occupy a deeper emotional place… [big] event moments allow new and exciting chinks in character’. Danny talked about writing self-indulgent ‘physical’ directions in the first draft to inform himself as much as anything else. Subsequent drafts stripped back to allow the actors and director to do the work. Someone asked Danny and Barbara to name memorable leading female characters in British drama. Time was up, a session for next year, or the year after, perhaps.

Women in TV: Unfinished Business – Head of Drama Scotland Chris Aird chaired a superb discussion on women in TV. Pier Wilkie and China Moo Young (Director/Producer-Director) and Sally Abbott (Writer) talked about working at the BBC and in the independent sector, giving anecdotes about obstructive others and critical selves. Sally described her early battles with self-confidence until a cathartic light bulb moment freed her from a creative cul-de-sac. Although her juggle with deadlines, kids and a rescue dog is not easy, she knows the value of her own voice now and rightly excels in it with the support of her family.

Pier Wilkie talked about the huge financial pressures on drama production. When she’s looking to hire the stakes are enormous, she needs ‘experience’ first. Conversely women can’t get experience as writers, producers and directors unless someone is prepared to take a financial (and I might argue here) conscious punt on an unknown quantity. There was a rumbling anxiety in the room – won’t moaning about inequality alienate the powers that be? To be valued in the industry, women need ‘an assured and calm and measured’ outlook – nothing divaesque!

Do women only write ‘domestic’ or are there any opportunities in genre? A mixed response from the panel but isn’t domestic writing just screaming babies, preeclampsia, dirty nappies? Is it that little show with nine million viewers Call The Midwife or maybe it’s Pier’s much acclaimed BBC 3 Murdered By My Boyfriend – both dramas depicting the stuff of life and death and everything in between. More next year on what women write/want to write. Maybe.

Do We Need Treatments? – A blessed rest from all this angsty feminist malarchy! Bryan Elsley’s entertaining take on the writer’s roadmap, he argues we need treatments to encapsulate the semi-coherent ‘idea’. The first draft treatment is the ‘what if’ document, the blueprint created by the ‘organized magician’ within. This is the place where Bryan feels most confident but for the production company the fully worked version is the solid thing that says this is ‘our property’, our development ‘asset’. Bryan’s advice is that the exec wants pure story. Some shot based treatments work well but may be too directorial? The exec’s bus or tube ride is a finite thing so as a guide; fit your story into his/her journey to work. A narrative based approach enables a quick read. For series treatments each ep should imply a defining event best embedded in its title. Set out the arc, the movements and connections between the episodes. Name characters with a brief description and how they relate to one another. Write the ‘out’, or in other words: Why you are the writer for this project and where your work sits in the market. Clarify the thing that is worth the money creatively and spiritually, then reduce the entire document by 10%! Don’t reference other shows – your story is ‘unique’. Be illusive. Tonal. Box clever.

Keynote The Two Tones – Tony J in relaxed conversation with Director General Tony Hall who affirmed his commitment to creativity, diversity and risk taking across drama at the BBC. Did you know that, despite his previous gig at The Royal Opera House, Tony Hall’s a real man of the people now he’s binge watched Happy Valley? Yay! The ‘Two Tone’s’ conversation flowed, Liverpudlian roots and regenerated accents made them blood brothers right? Tony J slipped comfortably back into expletive heavy. Tony H didn’t seem to mind and I felt assured this effusive, passionate bloke liked what we do and he wouldn’t let us down.

How I write – Sarah Phelps’s research task for BBC 1 six-parter The Crimson Field was gargantuan, not least because much of what we think we know about The Great War is so misshapen by the ‘heroic lies’ of history, mediated accounts of the men and women on the Western Front. Sarah’s main resource came in the form of Lyn MacDonald’s The Roses of No Man’s Land, a contemporary account of the women who volunteered to serve in the medical tents not a stones throw away from the trenches. So much material was handed over to Sarah that she was oftentimes overwhelmed, she made hard decisions about what to read and what to include whilst still staying true to her raw writers voice and trying to keep her sanity! For an hour Sarah had us spellbound as she recounted anecdote after anecdote about these brave women and men’s lives, many of whom found themselves transported from their genteel Edwardian British society into the bloody heart of the first world war. Off by heart, Sarah concluded her talk with Thomas Hardy’s 1916 poem In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’. Beyond moving.

Face to Face with Abi Morgan – I wanted to know every juicy detail, who, after all, wouldn’t want her life? Abi left university and got work imputing data about the building she worked in. Aside from the computer, she was entirely on her own in this empty office block; her employers didn’t seem to care what she did or how long she took to do the job. She wrote her first screenplay and didn’t input data. She got paid. For FIVE YEARS. It was great, she achieved tons. She was horrendously lonely. Today Abi has a partner and two children. When the children were small she worked from home but they’re older now, more distracting. Abi is currently working in an office at Kudos. Undisturbed. Abi’s working day is from 9 – 7. Sometimes this is filled to busting writing and sometimes she gets distracted by Solitaire Blitz. Yes! Yes! Yes!

Abi writes what she finds ‘profoundly moving’ and advises writers to ask of themselves always: ‘what is this story about?…[And] give something of yourself’. Have an outline, keep poetics minimal, tone is paramount. Abi doesn’t read back her early drafts she just clicks ‘send’! An audible incredulity (on my part covetous!) spread amongst the audience, this writer obviously is self-aware, majorly confident (not arrogant, I did not find her so) and brave. In the Q&A someone asked what work she was most proud of writing? And I was knocked sideways by her response…. introspective for a moment: ‘pride is something I find hard to associate with what I do’. What!? With such an influential body of work behind and undoubtedly in front of her how on earth can this possibly be? I may have misunderstood my heroine here but why the hell shouldn’t she be proud of what she’s achieved? It seems that women writers, even at the very pinnacle of the industry recoil from publicly blowing their own trumpet. Love her.

Keynote Unstoryfiable – Documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis believes story is in mortal decline, news on a continuous loop, nothing resolves. Google, Facebook, Twitter and Cisco reducing everything to a manipulated, homogenous stream, the worlds financial markets unelected and unchecked. Curtis calls this the ‘algorithm loop of news, power, money, media and [subsequently] STORY’. I understood in principle where this guy was coming from, I felt for him – for us, but rather than be gloomy I should go do something about this heinous state of affairs shouldn’t I? I mean I should write something… write something really ‘extraordinary’.

Adjusts bra strap. Clicks send.

Thank you Jayne for sharing your experience of the Festival with the Script Advice readership.
Contact me: http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk for help with your television writing and buy my book on the subject http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Television-Yvonne-Grace/dp/1843443376/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400840643&sr=1-7&keywords=writing+for+television

THE AMBER BLOG – How To Break The Rules And Get Away With It

Amber Ending Has Viewers Red With Rage: How Not To Break The Rules!

I have Charles Harris, writer-director and director of Euroscript, on my blog today. Charles has made award-winning programmes for TV and cinema. His blog is at http://www.charles-harris.co.uk

You may have noticed a great noise on social media over the ending of RTE’s successful mini-series, Amber, which finished on UK TV last week. And here’s a massive SPOILER ALERT. Because many people took great exception to the ending of an otherwise powerful four-part series about a missing teenager, while others (the producers included) defended it strongly as being a refreshing change, and to discuss it properly I’m going to have to refer to what happened and what didn’t happen. So, if you haven’t finished the final part yet, you may not want to read the rest now.

For those of you who are still with me, Amber broke one of the fundamental rules of crime drama. It didn’t solve the mystery. In episode one, 14 year-old Amber Bailey goes missing, sparking a nationwide search, and episode four ends with no further understanding of what happened to her.

Red with rage

Cue general outrage. One reviewer was “red with rage” at the non-ending. http://www.sundayworld.com/top-stories/columnists/daragh-keany/amber-ending-has-me-red-with-rage Many viewers felt they’d invested four weeks in the story, only to be cheated. Many asked for their licence fee back, one asking RTE if they wanted to pay “in one lump sum or weekly or monthly payments”.
However, cast and crew defended the lack of ending as being refreshing, with RTE tweeting “So Amber was never found. This is the reality for many families. Sometimes there are no simple answers.” http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/twitter-erupts-over-vague-amber-ending-as-stars-defend-it-for-being-real-to-life-29943468.html
True. But only half the story. Because a TV series is not real life, and a drama makes a contract with the viewer. That contract says there will be an ending to the mystery. If you break that contract, you risk having your head chewed off.

Can’t you be fresh and different?

But, hang on a minute. Surely there’s room for fresh and different endings. Does everything have to be fixed and formulaic in TV? Surely there are screen stories that don’t have a neat ending?
Yes, no and yes. The great Kurosawa movie Rashomon told the story of a killing from four angles, and never said which, if any, was true. The TV series The Shield ended without bent copper Vic Mackey getting arrested. The true crime story Zodiac didn’t end with the killer getting caught.

But here’s the thing. You can’t just cut out the expected ending and expect the audience not to get annoyed. It’s like shoplifting in front of the closed circuit cameras and expecting not to be caught. You have to be a bit cleverer than that. This is where RTE and lead writers Rob Cawley and Paul Duane made their mistake.

How to break the rules and get away with it

So how do the others do it? If you’re going to break the rules, you need to (a) know the rule exists in the first place and (b) work hard to defuse the audience’s objections. Here are a few ways the great writers do it:

1. Tell the audience up front.
Rashomon, written by Ryûnosuke Akutagawa and Shinobu Hashimoto with Kurosawa, tells you right at the beginning that this is a perplexing mystery. The film starts at the end, and is told to us in flashback by a woodcutter and a priest who tell us in advance that the story is a confusing one that tests the priest’s faith. When that turns out to be true, we are not surprised or annoyed – it was what we bought into from the first.
Indeed, the whole story is about the impossibility of ever knowing the truth. In the same way, it wouldn’t have been difficult for the Amber writers to have made the impossibility of closure a central motif of the story all the way through.

2. Give the audience something better
We know that the story of Vic Mackey in The Shield is not going to end well. However it would be too neat for him to be killed. Too limp for him merely to be arrested. And too disappointing for him to get away scot-free. In event, what happens to him is worse that being arrested or killed would ever have been. (If you want to know, watch the series – it’s great. Or email me!)
Rashomon too would be too neatly tied up if we were ever told what really happened. The mystery is better.

3. Make sure there is a climax even so
Zodiac was based on the true story of unsolved serial killings. However, while it can’t tell us who the serial killer was, it can build to a satisfying emotional climax, which it does.
The big mistake the producers of Amber made IMHO is not so much not giving a neat ending as not giving us a climax at all! There is an attempt at a climax, when the distraught father risks his freedom to track down an Eastern European crime ring who’ve been kidnapping Western teenagers and using them for sex.
However for some impenetrable reason (artistic? financial?) the entire climax happens off-screen, while we wait for a phone to ring. Four dramatic episodes end with a damp squib.

The problem with Amber is not that it has an unconventional ending, it’s that the director and writers don’t know how to sell an unusual ending to the audience. Overall the series is excellent (aside from a rather silly subplot in episode three about a mobile phone) and well worth watching if you haven’t.
But a bit of understanding about how to break the rules could have made it historic.

If you enjoyed this article you can follow Charles at
Website: http://www.charles-harris.co.uk
Twitter: @chasharris
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlesharris008
LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/charlesharris01/

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF …… A SCRIPT EDITOR ON EMMERDALE

Regular readers of my blog and readers of my book; Writing For Television Series Serials and Soaps  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Television-Yvonne-Grace/dp/1843443376/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400840643&sr=1-7&keywords=writing+for+television – will know how that I started my long career in television drama production via the script editing route.  My baptism of fire was on EastEnders, but here I talk to a busy script editor, working on Emmerdale.

Donna Metcalf’s route to script editing was not a straight forward one. Like anything worth having in life, she had to work hard to get the gig. But as I point out in my recent blog about making connections in the Television Industry – only-connect-making-contacts-in-the-television-industry – every one needs a champion, and once you find that person, you will find doors open easier. Be ready to take the opportunity that arises for you.

Here Donna shares her thoughts about working on the show, her specific role within the production process and tells us how she got in to the business in the first place.

How did you get into script editing for series drama‭; ‬was there anyone in particular who you feel helped you to get to this stage in your career‭?

Getting into script editing was a long hard slog‭!‬ I first heard of‭ ‬it by seeing a job description,‭ ‬and thought it was perfect for me‭ – ‬I wanted a job where I could use the analytical skills I learnt during my English Degree,‭ ‬whilst working in a fun and creative environment.‭ ‬As I had no previous media experience,‭ ‬it took a great deal of hard work and persistence to get my foot in the door.‭ ‬I started off by working as a runner and doing bits and pieces of work experience‭ ‬-‭ ‬I took anything from audience runner on Jeremy Kyle,‭ ‬to script development at Lime Pictures.‭ ‬As these jobs were few and far between and mostly unpaid,‭ ‬I worked as a waitress and receptionist to pay my way.‭ ‬I also volunteered to script read for as many groups as possible,‭ ‬widening my skillset to radio,‭ ‬animation and TV.‭

I found it difficult to find out about script editor training,‭ ‬so did a script reading course at The Script Factory in London,‭ ‬and script reading and script editing courses at North West Vision,‭ ‬where I later became one of their script readers.

My first big break was a short contract at Emmerdale covering the Script Secretary role,‭ ‬however,‭ ‬this was only temporary and I was soon back to temping.‭ ‬After a pretty fruitless year,‭ ‬the assistant Producer,‭ ‬Tony Hammond asked me to come back and I’ve stayed ever since‭ – ‬starting as script secretary,‭ ‬then Emmerdale archivist,‭ ‬assistant script editor‭ (‬a role which I created‭) ‬and then Script editor.‭ ‬I have so much to thank Tony for,‭ ‬because he was always willing to give me a chance‭ – ‬and eventually,‭ ‬it paid off.‭

To be a good script editor,‭ ‬you need to genuinely love writers and working with them.‭ ‬How many writers do you work with regularly on the show,‭ ‬and what,‭ ‬from your experience,‭ ‬could you say are the best sort of writers to work with‭?

My favourite part of the job is working with the writers.‭ ‬We currently have‭ ‬25‭ ‬writers on the team,‭ ‬so we’re never short on variety‭! ‬I find it really important to have a good working relationship with our writers,‭ ‬and the best edits are with writers who embrace the notes and want to discuss how to make the note work in the most exciting way possible.‭ ‬I love a good mixture of enthusiasm and creativity,‭ ‬and work hard to ensure‭ ‬the writer still feels they have their own stamp on the episode.‭ ‬It’s always easier if the writers are open to changes and want to have a healthy discussion rather than‭ ‬dig their heels in or passively take notes.‭

Note giving is a delicate job to do well.‭ ‬What are the techniques you use to get the best out of your writers and how do you handle giving tricky notes‭?

The key for me is to know the writer,‭ ‬that way I can deliver my notes‭ ‬appropriate to each writer’s temperament.‭ ‬I fully appreciate that writing is a lonely profession,‭ ‬and pouring your heart into something just to be given notes must be a difficult thing.‭ ‬So I make sure I’m always tactful and positive.‭ ‬I try to be as honest as possible,‭ ‬but also supportive and enthusiastic.‭ ‬If there’s an issue in the script,‭ ‬it’s often because the writer didn’t quite believe what they were writing,‭ ‬so I try to locate the problem so the next draft can be as strong as possible.‭

Can you briefly outline a typical script editing day for you on Emmerdale‭?

Emmerdale works on a monthly cycle,‭ ‬so for script editors,‭ ‬our week will generally alternate between first draft edits or publishing week.‭ ‬Each week tends to consist of a reading day,‭ ‬a script meeting where we go through scripts page by page,‭ ‬then I prepare edits and get on the phone to writers.‭ ‬A typical day would start at around‭ ‬9am.‭ ‬I usually work on the train to Leeds,‭ ‬prepping my edits,‭ ‬then pretty much as soon as I get to work I’ll be on the phone.‭ ‬I chat through headline notes on story changes and character through-lines,‭ ‬then we go‭ ‬through‭ ‬page by page.‭ ‬I tend to do about three edits a day,‭ ‬and in‭ ‬between that I’ll answer my emails and get calls from set.‭ ‬When a script is filming,‭ ‬we get regular updates on timings‭ – ‬often having to look for cuts or add extra material,‭ ‬but we also have to be available for any on-set issues.

How many scripts to do edit at any one time‭?

We tend to work on a block of four scripts at any‭ ‬one time.‭ ‬This can mean having four at first draft stage,‭ ‬four at publishing stage,‭ ‬and up to two blocks in production,‭ ‬where we’re on call from‭ ‬7am to‭ ‬7pm every day for any on-set issues or queries.

How many writers do you work with‭?

25.

How many script editors are there on the show?

There are‭ ‬4‭ ‬script editors,‭ ‬1‭ ‬assistant script editor,‭ ‬and‭ ‬2‭ ‬part-time‭ ‬series script editors.

Does Emmerdale use storyliners.‭ ‬And if so,‭ ‬how is your job affected by their input‭?

Yes,‭ ‬we have a team of storyliners as well as a story producer and story editor.‭ ‬Our stories are generated at story conference every month,‭ ‬where the storyliners go away and write story strands and a storyline document is produced.‭ ‬We use their story document when reading first draft scripts‭ – ‬it’s important to see what the intention of the story was,‭ ‬as well as understanding any decisions the writer has made,‭ ‬and to check that all story beats are covered.‭

Lastly,‭ ‬can you sum up what it is like,‭ ‬working on a huge juggernaut of a show like Emmerdale‭?

Working on Emmerdale is a dream come true.‭ ‬I couldn’t‭ ‬wish to work with a better team of people‭ ‬-‭ ‬there’s a‭ ‬wonderfully friendly atmosphere here.‭ ‬It’s a very busy and challenging job‭ – ‬the hours are very long and it can be stressful.‭ ‬There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thankful for where I work.‭ ‬I’m very passionate about Emmerdale,‭ ‬and when you work with so many talented people,‭ ‬it’d be impossible not to give it‭ ‬100%‭ ‬every day.‭

Contact me for script editing help and editorial advice on your work here http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk
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Script Editing – D. I. Y

 

 

 

Readers of this blog and writers lucky enough to have bagged an early bird discounted   copy of my book  ‘Writing For Television, Series, Serials, Soaps’ (order here from Kamera Books http://www.kamerabooks.co.uk/creativeessentials/writingfortelevision/index.php?title_isbn=9781843443377)  will know just how much I rate the job of the Script Editor and the vital position they hold within the script department of a television drama production.

It is a complex, detailed, creative and logistical job that does not suit everyone. That is why writers working along side a script editor, as they go through their various drafts of their television script, are in a rarified place. Here they can be assured of one on one attention and will benefit from having their work disassembled, analysed, tweaked, assessed and if necessary, put back together again in better shape than it was before.

For the writer, this process can be an un-nerving one.

So here I have listed the key areas a script editor will be covering at your first draft edit session and the things they will be thinking about when they read your script for the first time.

They are busy people; these script editors. Lots to think about. Give them less to do by nailing these aspects of your script. Do this before your first edit session, as much as you can. They will love you for it. And so will your script.

WHAT’S THE STORY?

DOES THIS RESONATE AND IF NOT, HOW CAN IT BE FIXED?

If the script editor has to ask this question; the chances are the story doesn’t ring true, or grab the attention. This could be solved by going back to the narrative structure and work out if there are any glaring plot holes, or it may be a research problem, in which case, do more of that and make the story feel rounded and real.

DOES THE MESSAGE COME ACROSS?

This is an issue of subtext. If there really isn’t an underlying message to the text/plotline, the story will read two dimensionally and lack an emotional connection on the part of the reader. This needs fixing here, in draft one, because if a weak subtext is allowed to continue being so, the script will die a death on screen.

DO WE CARE?

Again; a question of emotional connection. It is vital that the story line has a relevance and an immediate impact on the emotional imagination of the reader and therefore, an audience. If the script editor is asking this question, it may be a case of going back to the subtext and make sure your message is getting across.

GENERAL STRUCTURE

HOW THE SCRIPT STARTS – the first minute plus the next ten…..

The all important first ten pages. They must rattle along; be full of character detail and the story must be pushed on through these inital stages. In television, the first minute is vital and all the minutes after that. Each minute on screen counts. Make sure this is the case in your script. No extraneous description, superfluous plot points, no rambling or vagueries allowed.

THE MIDDLE – does it sag?

A constant and real problem in even the most professionally put together script. This is always a problem to do with plotting. Make sure your narrative has enough muscle, enough depth, to go the distance of at least 3 acts in a standard episode of television. This may mean stretching your story over an hour of drama, or half an hour, it depends on the format of your show. If the plot line sags, it is because there is not sufficient material to cover the distance. It may also mean you are being too obvious with your initial plotting and have missed a few tangental plot points you can make in the first act, thus adding depth and distance to the second act. Go back to your plot structure. Are you missing any story line connections? What about your characters? Go back to their subtext to motivate further story depth in the middle of our script.

THE ENDING – does it stick in the mind?

Very important that the ending of the script sits well in the mind and in the imagination of the reader (and therefore your audience) Make sure you are hitting both a visual and a narrative-led moment as you end your work. If you are contributing to a long runner, then your ending will often directly affect the script after yours. Make it pay. Leave the audience interested, and engaged.

DO THE SCENES INTERCONNECT AND CUT TOGETHER SEAMLESSLY?

Use your visual imagination here. I always encourage my writers at Script Advice Towers to ‘see’ their scenes cut together, in their mind’s eye as they write. Glaring omissions, in terms of narrative structure, will be obvious if you can ‘see’ your scenes in 3D on screen. Once you have written the first draft, print it out and cut it up. Now, move the scenes around and play with the way the scenes connect. There are often several interesting options as to how the scene structure will eventually look. There will be obvious scene runs in your narrative, which must do so in a linear fashion to make story sense, but in other cases, you can play with time and scene jumps; it just all depends on how clearly you take your reader through the narrative.

THE OVERALL SHAPE – once read; does it hold up?

If your script editor is asking this question, then the odds are you have gone awry somewhere within the scene structure you have adopted for your script. The story sits in the centre of your script; from it resonate your characters and their story arcs. Each one must be clearly described and followed in your script. If scenes have a disjointed nature and the story line is not smooth in the telling, then the overall shape of the script will be undefinied and the writing appear ‘woolly’. Clarity of structure is what gives your script it’s proper, defined shape.

THE CHARACTERS

ARE THEY TRUE TO THE SHOW?

If you are writing an epsiode of an established series or serial, then this is an obvious question for the script editor to concern themselves with. Make sure you are really famililar with the characters; watch a lot of the show you are writing for and read past scripts. Pick out your favourites and work out for yourself, how they ‘tick’. If you truly understand the characters you are writing for, even long-established characters that the nation know really well, will appear fresh and real on screen for your audience.

ARE THEY CREDIBLE AND INTERESTING?

In a new show, or an original piece with characters not yet established in the collective mind of the audience, all characters must be rounded, have solid, layered, detailed subtext. They must all have something to strive for, something to believe in and a journey to go on in each script you write.

DO THEY CARRY THE PLOT FORWARD?

If your characters have subtext and are motivated by it in your writing, then this will not be a question asked by your script editor. If they are not carrying their story weight, the script editor will help you come up with a better, more detailed, resonant story line for the character(s) posing the problem.

ARE THEY SUFFICIENTLY MOTIVATED?

It’s that subtext issue again. Subtext motivates text. Without it you have a one way, calorie deficient plot line that won’t satisfy anyone. And certainly not your script editor.

THE DIALOGUE

DO PEOPLE REALLY TALK LIKE THAT?

Well do they? Try and get your dialogue as real as it can be to both your ear, and that of your script editor. They are the litmus test for this element of your script. Dialogue should have a natural rhythm and flow to it. Replicate that, and you have done the job well.

IS THERE A SUBTEXT TO THEIR CONVERSATIONS?

That thing again. Subtext. Make sure your characters have a steady seam of subtext running through everything they say and do.

IS IT RELEVANT AND CURRENT?

So hard to get right but so important to do so. Dialogue reflects the mores of the day. Make sure your characters speak true to their nature and to their environment.

VISUALS

DOES THIS GRIP THE EYE AS WELL AS THE IMAGINATION?

Television is a visual medium and your script should be strong in terms of character and dialogue and also the visual aspect of the world your characters live in. Make creative decisions about where your characters are in a scene, what the scene looks like and what the action is; a stunt with tons of visual impact, or a small domestic scene peppered with real human detail

DO THE VISUAL PARTS OF THE SCRIPT SUPPORT AND ENHANCE THE TEXT?

When the visual apsect of your script works in tandem and harmony with the written word, then this television drama will begin to sing.

CAN THIS SCRIPT BE REALISED BY A DIRECTOR?

Your script editor will cry – real, salty tears – if you write ‘pan to’ or ‘developing shot’ or ‘long shot cut to mid’ or anything that remotely refers to actual camera shots in your scripts. This is not what is needed. Your script editor will be looking for visual clarity in scenes; so the director will be able to instantly understand and translate for the screen, what is happening, how it is happening and what it all means. So be clear about what a scene looks like, who is in it and what is happening. Use your visual imagination to impart a sense of mood and tone and always remember, less on screen is more. Visual imagery can often surplant the need for dialogue exchanges.

PACE AND TONE

OVERALL, WHAT’S THE RHYTHM OF THE SCRIPT?

Story telling is a lot like music. There is a structure to it that depicts the shape, there is a pace and rhythm that sits well in the inner eye and ear of the audience. Each script has a shape and a timbre, unique to that work. If the effect left after reading your work is a disjointed, jarring one, then your script needs re-tuning. Go back to narrative structure; how you have chosen to tell the story, to your scene structure; how your scenes cut together and your character motivation and personal story arcs. The problem lies in there somewhere.

DOES THE TONE APPEAL?

Some scripts have a ‘downer’ affect on a script editor at first draft read. Some read flippantly, or on one level; rather monotonous and undiverting. Make sure you have light and shade in your work. A good script needs both to resonate.

Then there are the day to day house keeping elements of the script editor’s job to take into account. Your script will have to deliver the requisite length, be on budget, and use the allocated cast available – this stuff you can’t do alone. Your script editor will take you through these areas.

LENGTH

This is something you can sort on your own initially and I recommend you do so as soon as possible in your writing process. Time your script as soon as you have got the meat of the story down and the structure in place. A script coming in at 80 pages which is meant to be for a 60 minute slot should be trimmed to fit before the second draft. If a script is over running a tad at this stage, then there is not too much to worry about. Under timed scripts are a problem though. Address the story line again. It may be a matter of introducing a mini strand or even digging deeper on a character’s motivation.

BUDGET

The script editor will be aware of the budget restrictions in place on your script so be guided here.

LOCATION V STUDIO ALLOCATION

This will have a knock on effect to budget, so make sure you have used the location allocated correctly to your episode. The same applies to the studio allocation. This will form the majority of your script’s internal workings.

CAST AVAILABILITY

Again, take advice. Your script editor will tell you who is available and how they must be used in your episode. If you are writing on a long runner, the Story Document will tell you who is available and what story lines you are writing.

DAY/NIGHT SCENES

Add a night scene without thinking and you have just caused your production team a headache they may not have to schedule. So (again, guided by your script editor) be certain each night scene you write has to be done after dark. If not, then make it a daylight scene or one that can be shot without direct reference to the outside at all!

Get help with your scripts by contacting me on http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk and follow me on twitter Yvonnegrace1

Happy Writing!

WRITING TO GET NOTICED: FIVE WAYS A WRITER CAN STAND OUT IN TELEVISION

 

 

 You have been writing for a while now;  honing your craft;  you are serious about being  a professional writer, one who gets paid for the scripts they produce and you have decided you want to be a Television Writer and As Soon As Possible.

There are doors in your way.

All of them closed right now.   And non open automatically.

Doors worth passing through are like that.  Doors that open automatically do so for a reason.

 

 

Supermarket doors want your money. Shopping Arcades make getting in, and spending money easier by whizzing open with lightening speed, sensing your approach ‘come in, who ever you are, come in come in’.

 

Televison doors are much more selective.

In my book;  Writing For Television; Series, Serials and Soaps I go into more detail as to how you can garner the skill base you need to get through that shut door and into a busy drama production office and so on to a show as a writer, but here for ease and quick reference, I set out the TOP FIVE WAYS to get seen, heard, and commissioned in television.

1/ BE TRUE TO YOUR OWN PERSONAL VOICE

I will take it as a given that you are writing every day.  You need to do this like breathing.  The writing muscle needs consistent and dedicated work outs to keep it in shape.  The way you look at the world, even at the most everyday things, is where your strength as a writer lies.  Only you can tell it how you see it.  So keep doing that every day.  And finish what you start.

2/ GET NETWORKING

There is no longer any excuse for any one of us to hide our talent or to shy away from the public eye.  If you want to be a professional writer working in television, you can be as retiring as you like in your personal life, but you owe it to your creative ability and desire to furnish yourself a healthy writing career, to be as open and as communicative as you can possibly be.  Getting the most out of the social networks available to us as switched on writers is key to getting heard and getting noticed.  There are people out there that can help you begin to push on that door, so make sure you connect with not only like-minded types on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace etc, but also have no fear in asking to connect with producers, script editors and established writers.  In my experience, most people, even if they are quite high up the television tree, are approachable and open to making contact with writers that are serious about what they do.  Just make sure you do the contacting with politeness and grace.

3/ GET UP TO SPEED

Don’t get found out.  Make sure, before you send your work out to people you have made contact with, that your script delivers the polished professional look that will be expected by the industry in general.  So it really is worth investing in a reputable script editing professional or script development exec (like myself!) to make sure your work cuts the mustard.  A professional script editor will be looking not only at the essential creative elements of your script (narrative, structure, characterisation, dialogue, tone, pace etc) but also will obliquely have noted in the first read, whether the layout meets the industry standard.

Layout, scene headings, scene description, page count, all these details are not what will get you a commission, should they be beautifully and correctly present in your script, but they will stop you being commissioned if they are not there at all.

So get your head around the nuts and bolts of script appearance and stick to the rules of script layout.  No point trying to re-invent the wheel when the wheel has been turning smoothly in this way for decades.

4/ BEAT THE ZEIGEIST

Television drama feeds off ideas.  Dramatic stories form the vital food group all television production and broadcasters need.  So the journey to the door, which we endeavour to open, begins with your idea.  Make it a commercially savvy one as well as being a creative and interesting one.

Television drama producers want to make money, appeal to a mass audience, deliver quality on time and to budget.  No one wants to lose money and fail the ratings war.  So ideas must be boyant, strong, and have a rock solid human appeal.

There is a reason why there is a steady stream of ‘precinct’ dramas like Holby City and Happy Valley on television.  Although these two examples are obviously clearly different creatures, they are formed from the same gene pool.  Their DNA is similar.  A format you can return to.  A strong set of characters to which we can relate.  Both prodcedural (one medical, one police) both informed and infused with relatable characters and cracking story lines that have immediate resonance and impact on a wide ranging audience demographic.

Often the strongest dramas on television are those that cover tried and tested ground but come at the subject from an oblique angle.

In television it is all about the angle.

In Broadchurch, Chris Chibnail cleverly focused on the impact the suspicious death of a child had on the community that child lived in.  In Last Tango In Halifax, the relationship between two oldies (not the most original idea) was explored to perfection by Sally Wainwright as she cast an unforgiving light on the pre-conceptions of the families involved.

If you are coming up with ideas that you then frustratingly see on screen; celebrate, don’t get bitter.  You are doing it right.  You have tapped into the Zeitgeist.  You just have to keep doing it because you will, eventually, be one step head of it, and that is just the right place to be for a television writer.

5/ RELIABLY DELIVER

So let’s say you have done what you once thought unthinkable, and walked through the door and a television person (script editor, producer, development script editor) is asking to see your work. This is now the time to shine.

Only deliver what they asked for.

Do it before they expect it, but once done, do not chase until at least 2 weeks have elapsed. Then do so politely and with an open mind.

If you said you were going to deliver a treatment with your script then make sure you have done.  And make no mistake here, treatments in television are not the chunky tomes they sometimes are in the film industry.  Keep your treatment (your selling document) as succinct and as interesting as you can.  I like to say 6 pages maximum.

Once comissioned, keep up the momentum.  You need to be the writer the industry see as both consistently good and reliably dependable. Be the writer everyone wants to commission.  No point in being tricky, difficult, vague or generally rubbish at meeting deadlines.  Be the good guy.

I hope you get to open those doors – the ones that are presently closed to you.  Use my book and blogs, get professional script editing help and keep honing your craft; remember – you have the key.

Pre-order your copy of my book here – out in June published by Kamera Books

http://www.kamerabooks.co.uk/creativeessentials/writingfortelevision/index.php?title_isbn=9781843443377

Contact me for help with your scripts http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk

Follow me on Twitter: YVONNEGRACE1 and join my group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/237330119115/

Happy Writing!

THE CREATION SPARK

 My son has Chicken Pox. He is not at school and as I type this, he watches his favourite Lego-themed DVD; ‘Clutch Powers’; Malick The Maligned has stolen  Clutch’s father’s Creation Spark….I feel a blog coming on………….

 Do you have a bank of ideas? A space in your head where your (as yet) unwritten ideas come from? Some writers I work with have a drawer (metaphorical or actual) where their ideas languish until realised on paper. Others don’t sweat it, but rather expect their creative ideas to come whilst doing something entirely different. Usually repetitive, or mundane tasks, like housework or driving, or taking a bath.

 I have worked with writers who must finish one idea in script form, before moving on to the next. The opposite also is true and a lot of writers I help, have more than one idea,  at varying stages of development.

 There is no right or wrong way, to creating, devising, grabbing-out-of-thin-air, dramatic conceits for the screen. But every writer I have come across has their particular way; something pertinent to them, that aids the creative process.

 The urge to tell stories is innate all of us. Some people become more obsessed with the process than others and it is this obsession that separates writers from other people; those that like a good story, but are not concerned about the process of telling one well. The latter is a fixation afflicting all writers I work with. And as a writer myself, I empathise.

 The chances are if you are a writer, that you will spend a disproportionate part of your day observing your life in a removed sense; a part of your brain appraising the view from your car, office or kitchen window as a potential scene opener, or the dialogue you over hear on the bus or in the supermarket check out queue becomes great material for a couple of characters you have been bringing to life. Imagery, snatches of dialogue, smells, sounds and the way these things click together, forms the building bricks of future scripts.

 And the key to getting these disparate, eclectic images and snatches of spoken word into the beginnings of a beginning, are the connections, the correlations and the relationships you find between the various components of your script.

 The narrative: story + plot + subtext; must tie into, weave through and relate to, the visual side of your story; imagery and text work together, counter balancing the narrative, or highlighting aspects of it. Both must be present and both have a specific job to do in the telling of your story.

 Your voice; the essential component of all script writing that is particular only to the creator, provides that vital element of a successful piece of screenwriting – the message. There must be a reason why you wrote this script and this reason must come across subliminally, suggestively, subtly, to your audience. It is your voice, your intent, that comes through in the end.

 Why tell your story in script format in the first place?

I hazard an opinion here, that you want to tell your story in scenes, filmed by a camera and cut together to make a cohesive narrative, because you are an immediate sort of story teller. You like narrative that has a pace, a rhythm, a beat.

 Television writers understand the pr0cussive nature of good story telling. There is always an under tow of momentum in anything worth screen time.

 So the idea has hit home. You need to get this down before it either drives you mad, or goes away entirely.

 * Pitch it to yourself in a couple of pithy, grabby, interesting lines. If the idea has a purpose, a message and a natural shape, it will become apparent here.

 * Then do a quick plot outline. A meets B and C happens. Still hold water? Carry on.

 * Write a treatment. No more that eight pages. Six if you can control yourself that much. Less is more. Here’s my blog on definitive treatment writing for quick reference: https://scriptadvice.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/the-definitive-guide-treatments-for-series-and-serials/

 * Scrivener, Final Draft, or doing it by hand, now you need to plot your character story arcs across your script. I use post-its, or cards stuck on a wall. You will be able to see at glance, where your plot has holes, or where you need to beef up a story line for a character. Points of contact, of cross-over and correlation will now present themselves between your various story lines.

 * Write your script outline. Order your scenes roughly. Using broad strokes, don’t get bogged down in ‘he said then she said’ detail; you will hate yourself and it will be both dull to write and duller to read. This document will highlight the push and pull of your story line; the pace and beat of it. If you find it a good read, then the first draft of your script will reflect this.

 Several drafts later, you have your idea fully realised. From creative spark to full script.

 Take heart; it is impossible for your creative spark to be stolen. The world around you reflects back into the inner eye of the writer; Malick the Maligned, be warned.

 Get help with your creative projects: http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk