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.

TV STORY STRUCTURE – HOW TO CREATE STORY LEGS….

Here I am guest blogging for writer/director Charles Harris.

Part One: I delve into the story structure we use in television and show you how you can create the longer run story line.

The Structure of Story. Creating Story Legs Part 1

 

 

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

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE: TREATMENTS for series and serials.

Over the last few months, via my work with writers at all levels of experience and development and through teaching writers at my workshops, I have found that for a lot of you, the area of treatment writing is the most tricky.

There is some really good advice out there regarding treatment writing, but much of it covers treatments for the feature film industry, with the occasional nod towards the smaller screen. I felt the need then, to write a blog that focuses entirely on that which the Television Industry expects of a treatment.

Here are the key areas to make sure you get right and get in, when writing.

Your treatment must have:

 * CLARITY

* VISION

* CHARACTER

* STORY

* A MESSAGE

 CLARITY:

The reason why I have seen so many projects fall by the way side over the years I have spent in development, is because often the treatment does not support the original idea.

The irony here is that the writer in question may have delivered a storming pitch for their embryonic idea during our conversation which may have started with something like ‘what are you working on at the moment?’.

Then, in our follow up meeting (in the words of Frank Sinatra) they ‘go and spoil it all by saying something stupid’.  Not, to quote the song; ‘I love you’ (that would put the kibosh on any potential partnership) but more likely something like ‘ this is the treatment for the idea I had. It’s a work in progress, but I wanted you to have the gist of it’.

No. Treatments are not about ‘the gist’. Treatments contain all of the vital elements of your world. Laid out. In a pleasant black and white font. They will be between 4 and 8 pages long and be above all things; easy to read; a linear trestle table of mixed fare, presented clearly, for a potential buyer to see at a glance.

Treatments contain the kernel, the nub, the essence of your idea. They also should contain the extension, the continuation, the development of the idea you first came up with. The centre of this world, in story terms and it’s attendant parts, must be represented here.

The language is simple, but direct. The phrasing is uncomplicated, the tone reflects the subject of your treatment.

You are not writing a shopping list, nor are you constructing a poem. You are not florid, or over flamboyant but you are, in the name of clarity, succinct.

VISION:

This is not a dry document. This is your potential series or serial distilled to it’s most arresting, alluring components. So it must be not only written with an eye on the visual aspect of your story, (never forget that we are in the business of creating stories for a visual medium) but also contain the element of vision; that is, bring to the table a new way of looking at the world.

The treatment shines a light on the story you present via your own special perspective.

I am not advocating that you re-invent the wheel here. Far from it. I hope your treatment contains a dramatic idea that hits the Zeitgeist and that is in turn, both creatively inspiring and also commercially savvy. We don’t want something too crazy. Just different. In a good way. I know…. it’s not easy.

There are the tried and tested areas that producers love; the medical precinct (or backdrop) the fire fighters, the police procedurals, the murder mystery formats and the period drama serials. There will always be at least one of these dramas in the mix of a commercially viable channel, but within these ‘safe’ areas; there is room for experimentation.

If you are going down the route of the ‘been before’ subject than make rock solid certain it has a angle, a take, a vision that is purely new and purely you.

CHARACTER:

Often when I am talking telly, the subject of characterisation comes up. It is one of the legs on which the edifice of television drama is built.

Characters inform the world of your treatment. It is through their eyes that ultimately, your audience will see your world.

Avoid at all costs cliche and it goes without saying, two dimensional, stereotypical characters. You are a story teller; you have a narrative vision and you have created these characters to carry your story across more than one episode of drama. I am probably on fairly safe ground then when I say, ensure you have created characters solid and developed enough to carry your story lines.

Characters enact the text (they do things) and they motivate the subtext (they feel, react, and behave accordingly). So give your characters something to do and something to believe in.

In the treatment, each character you create has a job to do in narrative terms. You need to clarify what this journey is for each character and bring a suggestion forward, of what they are going to learn in the process. Tease here. No need to lay it all out. Keep something back. But engage the reader in a guessing game as to what will happen next for your characters.

A treatment containing fabulous, rounded, likeable, unlikeable, engaging characters will always leap off the page. Often it is at this hurdle that treatments fail however.

This is because carefully crafted characters have to do something, learn something, affect something and say something before the treatment will work. In short. There has to be a story.

STORY:

Well am I stating the obvious here? Probably, but as is the case when I find myself discussing the need for great characters in drama treatments, along comes the sister obvious point; let it have a story.

The hardest part of treatment writing is often the demands a good one makes on your skill in being succinct, pithy and lean when it comes to summing up the idea in an easily digested paragraph.

We call this the logline.

What’s this about? Who is it about? What are the stakes here and How does it end?

This is ‘Full English’; a series I wrote a while back about the world of the Bed and Breakfast.

‘Evelyn Moon makes Boudicca look like Pam Ayers when it comes to fighting the battle of the full house every holiday season. Her bete noir comes from an unlikely source from which not even her Grade II listing can shield her’.

 Next you need to nail the structure. And this is where the all import serial element comes in. Make sure you have created enough ‘legs’ in your story, to go the distance of more than one episode.

You may chose to tell your story through the eyes of one character; originally, in series one of ‘Life On Mars’ for example; we saw through Jon Sim’s character, what the world of 1970’s police procedure looked like. Or, you may want to introduce your world through an ensemble cast. For example; Last Tango In Halifax begins with a couple of characters, sending shock waves through their families, or in the case of The Syndicate, Kay Mellor takes us through the process of winning the lottery via her tightly knit group of characters.

Either way, which ever structural route you chose, you must lay this out clearly in your treatment, so a potential producer can see at a glance, how the story unfolds from the first episode to the last.

At treatment stage, it is not necessary to go into beat by story beat of each episode. It is however, important that you show the broad strokes of each episode, taking the narrative from the first through to the last episode.

You can go into more detail for the first episode, but again, try and write this as engagingly as possible. There is nothing as dull in the drama landscape as a treatment that says ‘then she says, then he says, then this happens after that happens’. We don’t want to know this. We do want to know what the main beats are in the episodes you propose to explore and we do want to know how this affects your characters and the main protagonist(s).

A MESSAGE:

A good treatment does not preach but it does leave the reader with a firm message.

What is it you want your potential producer to be thinking about when they have finished reading?

A special treatment leaves a taste in the mouth that the seasoned producer and reader of many treatments, will enjoy savouring for a while.

A story is only as good as what it says about the world. You are presenting in your treatment, your take on a subject matter and describing a world created by you for the purpose. This is a credible, dramatic world of human dynamic and action, but unless you want the reaction to be ‘so what?’ have something to actually say and say it as clearly as you can.

For example, a story about a group of characters winning big money on the lottery turns out to be a salient commentary on how money changes people. (The Syndicate). A Detective Sargent, via his rites of passage experience on a Caribbean Island, discovers never to judge a book by it’s cover and learns to ditch his preconceptions about other cultures (Death In Paradise).

To Sum Up

A typical treatment will have the following components:

TITLE.

FORMAT.

LOGLINE.

THE STORY TABLE.

THE CHARACTER BIOGS

THE MESSAGE

Learn more about the skills necessary to be a writer for television, in my new book: Television Writing: Series. Serials. Soaps out in June 2014. You can pre-order your copy here:

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

Get in touch via my website if you need me to help get your script on track: http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/YVONNEGRACE1

Join my group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/scriptadvice/

Happy Treatment Writing!

HOW TO STORYLINE A TELEVISION SERIES – WORKSHOP

Chain Link Fence (Photo credit: camknows)

ATTENTION ALL STORY-TELLERS!

If you follow me on Twitter, or are a member of my facebook group Script Advice Writer’s Room, then you will know a bit about how much I am obsessed with structuring and shaping stories for television.

It’s in my DNA. I can’t listen to an anecdotal story without internally strapping the various beats of the tale across my mind. Anyone would think I do this for a living…

Just as well then, that the Indie Training Fund have asked me to run a one day workshop next year for them.

How To Storyline A Series For Television Workshop.

In this, I ape what it is like to attend a Story Conference. You, the workshop attendees, are the writers who have been asked by the Production, to come and pitch, and plot, a particular block of episodes for the (fictional) Series HARKNESS HALL. I am your Executive Producer and I will take you through the process of story creation, plotting, structuring and planning a new season of this series.

It’s intensive, collaborative, creative, exhausting, practical and hugely enjoyable.

Here’s some comments from writers who have attended my storylining workshop for the Script Factory:

“Yvonne is a powerball of energy, humour, and wisdom. There is never a dull moment in this hands-on course, which provides an authentic taste of what it is like to take part in a storylining conference, but in a safe and supportive environment. Never have so many storylines been created in such a short time by so few! A real creation experience.” Gale Barker – Writer

 “Yvonne’s storylining workshop was superb. Her enthusiasm, experience, and ‘tell it like it is’ humour made the course an invaluable learning tool. It stretched all of us, giving practical structure advice that crosses and informs other related media – I loved it.” Sue Nelson – Broadcaster

 ” A highly productive and refreshing experience that showed me how collaborative ’round table’ writing is actually done. An enriching and enlightening practical workshop. Yvonne is an excellent and insightful tutor who creates both a relaxed and productive atmosphere to work in.” Lee Ramseyer – Media Student

WHERE: INDIE TRAINING FUND: HOXTON SQUARE, LONDON.

http://www.indietrainingfund.com/about-us/find-us/

WHEN: FEBRUARY 6th 2014 – 10am – 5pm

 COST: £50.00 to all freelance writers

 MORE INFORMATION: tel: 0207 3487 0354 email: info:indietrainingfund.com

I hope to see you there!

www.scriptadvice.co.uk

WINTER ROUND-UP THE BEST OF MY SCRIPT WRITING BLOGS

Snow crystals 2b (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The nights are drawing in, 2013 is putting it’s feet up.

Now, with Cocoa in hand, I feel is a good time to give you the best and most popular blogs I have written on screenwriting, over 2013. All in one place. So you know where to go.

Over the past year, Script Advice has been busy and I have had the pleasure of working with writers and their scripts in various ways:

Running workshops; (thank you Jersey Arts Trust for hosting my Treatment Writing Workshop Weekend in October this year.)

Conducting Script Edits with you, on your features and television drama hours, both series and serial formats, over Skype and telephone.

Reading and writing Script Reports for writers new to the game and the more experienced, seasoned writers.

Next year, I will be running exciting workshops for the Indie Training Fund; http://www.indietrainingfund.com/

‘How To Storyline A Series For Television’; more details on this one to follow – I hope I will see some of my blog followers and members of my writer’s group on Facebook; Script Advice Writer’s Room there.

My book is out in May next year too; published by Kamera Books; Television Writing: Series and Serials. More information on that nearer the time as well.

I hope you follow me on Twitter so you can keep up with my blog posts and the writing information I tweet over the writerly web. https://twitter.com/YVONNEGRACE1

Similarly, here is my Facebook group which I would love you to join. It’s a great place to keep up with all things screenwriting related https://www.facebook.com/groups/237330119115/

Without further ado, and not gift-wrapped, but it’s the thought that counts….here are my most popular blogs on the business of script writing:

 * FIVE SCRIPT WRITING TRIPS AND SLIPS:

FIVE SCRIPT WRITING TRIPS AND SLIPS

 * SHORTENING THE ODDS:

SHORTENING THE ODDS

 * INT: A SCRIPT EDITOR‘S MIND:

INT: SCRIPT EDITOR’S MIND – HQ – SCRIPT ADVICE TOWERS – DAY

 * STORYLINING – IT’S AN ART:

STORYLINING; IT’S AN ART

 * SCRIPT EDITING – THE LOW DOWN:

SCRIPT EDITING – THE LOW DOWN

 * WRITING MISTAKES YOU DON’T WANT TO MAKE:

WRITING MISTAKES YOU DON’T WANT TO MAKE

 * PULLING OUT THE STORY

PULLING OUT THE STORY

 * TEN MISTAKES WRITERS MAKE WHEN WRITING FOR TELEVISION:

10 MISTAKES WRITERS MAKE WHEN WRITING FOR TELEVISION

 And over on the Euroscript Website; two popular blogs I did about the journey a storyline makes from conception to production….

 * TELEVISION WRITING; GETTING INTO SHAPE PART ONE:

Television writing – getting into shape

 * TELEVISION WRITING: GETTING INTO SHAPE PART TWO:

Television writing – getting into shape (part two)

The Festive Season is upon us, but believe me, it’s not just the smell of a good mince pie and the sound of a popping cork that makes me say that I genuinely love helping writers write better scripts, and if you’ll have me, I hope to do this next year too.

Here’s to working with more of you in 2014. Cheers!

WRITING FOR TELEVISION: WHAT TO EXPECT

Those charming folk at the KFTV website; (use this to search for companies/agencies/individuals in the writing and film making business) link to a blog I wrote about what to expect as a writer, going into television writing for the first time. http://www.kftv.com/guides/2013/10/17/Tips-on-writing-TV-drama

AUTUMN NEWSLETTER – STORY STRUCTURE

WHAT THE SCRIPT FACTORY SAYS ABOUT SCRIPT ADVICE:
We can heartily recommend Yvonne’s workshops – she unravels television like no one else!
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.

Join me on Facebook at the Script Advice Writers' Room; http://www.facebook.com/groups/237330119115/
Here's what Phil Gladwin of http://www.screenwritinggoldmine says about it:
'It's run by Yvonne Grace, a seasoned BBC producer, and her … incredible energy, passion, and dedication (in true, old school BBC style) means new links, new resources, and a very nice community of like minds on a daily basis.'

I am on TWITTER here: https://twitter.com/YVONNEGRACE1
* HELLO
* STORY STRUCTURE
* TASTY LINKS

It has been damp for months. I am human compost. I am rotting from the soles of my shoes upwards. It’s raining again. Autumn; not with the usual blistering display of colours, but I live in hope.

Here is my non-soggy, water retentive writerly newsletter for all writers fighting the gloom of persistent wet.

STORY STRUCTURE

The Net is awash (more water) with advice on story structure.

There are very specific, prescriptive, formulaic ways of making sure you have the per-requisite amount of drama in your scripts and there are rules for 25 minute episodic television drama, half hour Sit Coms, television drama hours and feature film length scripts. If you are a rule hound, there will be something for you within the omnipotent reach of the Internet.

However, I have a confession to make. I don’t do rules. Not prescriptive ones. I am not one of those script consultant types who set out their stall selling ‘This Way or No Way’ theories on how to make your screenplays work.

I just have a lot of experience doing this. For real. Against deadlines and within budget. And for some of this time, I was giving up smoking as well. There’s pressure. Forget what your inciting incident is; who’s got a Silk Cut?

Flippancy aside, there is a true art in structuring a story properly. It’s a lot to do with instinct, and a fair amount to do with natural flair, and a big dollop of experience and then there’s the craft stuff. The stuff you learn as you go along.

There are basic rules to shaping any story, but if you are a writer, chances are, you already know them – innately.

My take on the knotty problem of story structure is that you will already have a strong idea of how to structure your story in the moment you first think of the idea. There will be a natural shape or approach to the story telling part of your idea, that will have presented itself.
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Playing with the structure of a story is both creatively liberating and at the same time, restricting; as all structure gives shape and therefore boundaries within which your story and your characters are free to move about.

Story telling is all about perfect communication. Getting the structure right of your script; ensuring it supports the story you really want to tell; will guarantee your audience will follow you every step of the way.

The three act structure is most commonly used. The Beginning, the Middle and the End. It’s an obvious shape; the set up, the exploration and the resolution. But what you do with this simple three act structure is up to you.

You can sub-divide these three basic sections; you can stretch or shrink any component of this shape.

Your story may best suit a bigger build up; more sub acts within the first act for instance.

Your narrative may depend on a longer middle act; you may want to give your story more development time here; there may be a multi-stranded narrative in need of stretching in this middle, (now fat) act of your script.

The third act; the tie up, may be little more than a epilogue. This is ok. More than ok if your story has dictated this shape.

The key to all story structure problems is at the base root, simple; and the root of story creation begins with a question; what is the natural shape of the story you want to tell?

Does your story depend on flashback, do you feel the need to use montage? V/O is useful here or not?

Does the time line of your narrative (and by narrative I mean the writer choices you make to tell the story dramatically) have a linear pattern? Chronological, straight?

Does your time line flip backwards and forwards; in a non-linear pattern?

Do you have an ensemble group of characters who’s storylines work in tandem with each other?

Or does this group of characters have separate storylines that run parallel with each other and cross against each other?
Does your script have a protagonist who has a linear storyline; but told backwards; entirely in flashback?

These are exciting, variable questions and all of them relevant to the process of getting your story straight (or otherwise) on the page.

Knowledge of structure is essential to all good writing. But prescriptive formulas are to my mind, alarming and cut out the creative process.

Television writing more than any other discipline, demands a respect for and a working knowledge of structure and the rules inherent within it. But (and I speak as a television drama producer with years of experience in making long running serialised television) no-one wants a writer who delivers to formula.

Producers want original voices. Writers who can keep their end up in a highly competitive market by proving they can write slick, structured, polished work to deadline and with a personal flair all of their own.

A little of what I have mentioned here is taken to a dizzy height by the staggeringly clear and very insightful Linda Aaronson. Here is her website. http://www.lindaaronson.com/

Linda has given names to some of the examples of different story structure I mention; if it helps to name the decisions you make in your natural writing day, I would recommend both this site and Linda. There are few to match her.

Writers often work out their structural problems themselves. Draft by draft. If a story is sticking; if the script is now painful to write, if the narrative is not flowing, then you know there is something wrong with the basic structure. If you are lucky enough to have a script editor working with you, or a professional like myself reading for you, then you will find the impurities in your story structure may be flushed out between you.

A good script editor + writer = potent team.

If you are a writer and also tend to script edit yourself as you go along, please I urge you, gag the script editor in you and get the script writ. Then go back and script edit.
Do not worry about formula. Ask yourself – ‘what shape does my story need to be?’
Then work it out from there. If you get stuck; ask me.

TASTY LINKS

THE LONDON SCREENWRITERS FESTIVAL: Here, the website for what is now the biggest UK film and tv festival dedicated to all things writing related. I have had the pleasure of speaking at their sister forum, the London Breakfast Club and ran a popular session dedicated to storytelling in series and serials. Get your ticket here for next year. Pricey. But great exposure and a challenging, enjoyable experience for writers at all levels. http://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com/

ROPE OF SILICON: a great site where you download the 2014 Oscar nominated scripts http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/2014-oscar-screenplays-download-midnight-frozen-rush-past/

LA SCREENWRITER: another site dedicated to downloadable scripts – this time, tv pilots from the US
http://la-screenwriter.com/2013/10/11/this-seasons-tv-pilot-scripts/

TV WRITING: dedicated to television in UK and US; downloadable scripts for your reference. https://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/

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!
YVONNE GRACE OCTOBER 2013

INT: SCRIPT EDITOR’S MIND – HQ – SCRIPT ADVICE TOWERS – DAY

I have a steady stream of writers coming through the Script Advice portal via my website http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk. I read a lot of scripts.

That’s what television and film production is all about. What it boils down to. It’s all about the script. At the end of the day.

You have sent your work to a reputable, professional person; you need feedback to feel confident to proceed, but it’s daunting. Like leaving your child at the school gates; his coat unzipped, no hand to hold. But it is ok. Your ‘child’ will be fine.

So here then, is what goes on in the mind of a Script Editor/Development Producer like myself when I get one of your scripts.

Firstly. I check the page count. You don’t need to be over prescriptive at this stage about length, but if a client has said they are writing a series for television and the first episode comes in at 100+page count, I know something has gone wrong somewhere with the story telling. A standard television hour is 60 pages. Rule of thumb; a page a minute.

Then I check the layout. I am not one of those people who eschew a script typed in anything other than 12pt Courier; I see this font more often used in film scripts than television anyway; but I am keen on keeping to a standard length. So, if your font is too small, or too large, it not only looks unprofessional, it also adds drastically to the over all length, or in the case of small font, cheats the real length of the script.

Then I take an overall view; flicking through the pages, so that I can get a sense of what the text looks like on the page. If it is overly blocky; too dense, over-long passages spoken by one character; static and verbose; warning bells begin to ring. Not loudly. But I do hear a distant peel.

This is because over wordy exchanges, or (heaven forfend) large passages of exposition are not only the narrative form of Strychnine, they are also extremely dull to watch on screen.

When I see passages in a script like these, I know the writer has forgotten the visual aspect of the medium they are writing for. And worse than that, they have forgotten the audience.

Then I read it all the way through, only stopping briefly to make what I call ‘a big note’. I only stop reading for those.

Once read, I allow myself an instinctive reaction to the script.

This, time and again, will prove to be the correct conclusion of the script’s strengths and it’s current weakness.

Then I go back and make detailed notes page on page.

On the front cover of your script, after I have finished reading it, there will be lots of scrawled notes (I understand my jottings; like a doctor of scripts; the prescription is often only legible to me). They can differ from a note about structure: ‘we have forgotten all about X’ or about dialogue ‘no subtext here’ or even just a ? which can mean many things.

I don’t transcribe my rabid jottings in the report I send to the writer – I translate them. Into legible, acceptable, understandable comments that I know the writer will be able to use and apply to their own work.

The key to being a helpful, as well as professional Script Editor is diplomacy and kindness.

I am not setting myself out to be the Mother Theresa of Script Development, but a sensitive approach to giving notes reaps greater rewards for all concerned. I focus on the strengths first and tackle the weaknesses later.

To be given the opportunity to help improve and hone the creative spark of a writer, is a responsibility and I am always mindful not to knock confidence. This goes for experienced writers, not just those starting out. I read work for all levels of expertise.

The years I have accumulated, script editing and developing the scripted word of writers; so many hours of script reading, has meant that often I am instinctive, almost knee jerk, about some aspects of the writing I read on the page.

If the flow of the storyline is not controlled sufficiently; if the structure of the script is undermined by poor choices regarding the shape of the script, then as I read it, something will snag; stop me turning the page. I always then refer back to the structure of the work.

I know it’s not fashionable and I know it may seem I am hampering a writer’s creativity when I write this note on their work, but structure really is the beginning, the middle and the end of truly good writing.

Text (the plot; what is happening, what is action) and Subtext (the motivation: what drives a character, what is suggested, not stated) are the dramatic siblings I will look at next.

This is because my analysis of the structural issues will inevitably over-lap in to considering text and subtext.

As I am reading the script, I will be aware of the storyline, noting how it is being pushed through the script, but keeping a tab on the subtext; what is essentially the motivational force through a scene.

Subtext and Text will have a dramatic impact on the next area I need to address;
another often warring coupling; Dialogue and Characterisation.

When addressing the dialogue in a script, my knee is already jerking if I see the subtext poking through the spoken word on the page. When a character literally speaks their subtext example:

‘Being here like this, with you, makes me feel uncomfortable’, the phrase ‘on the nose’ always comes into play.

Overused no doubt, in script reports, but it does describe well, what is happening in a scene when there is now no subtext, because it is being forced into the role of text; of something being stated.

Overall pacing in the script is also important to handle from scene one through to FADE OUT. There is a natural flow to storylines if handled correctly; and scripts that stand up to the description ‘page turner’ do not need to contain high octane, high impact action scenes from beginning to end. There needs to be something going on, obviously; the storyline needs to be impactful on one or more levels, but action doesn’t have to come in the form of stunt.

The script needs to answer to the internal metronome of the storyline. Some have a gentler beat than others. The key is to mix it up a bit and not allow your work to level out or flat line.

There is more to say on this subject; there’s lots a Script Editor thinks about when reading your work, but I will do another blog another day.

I have scripts to read.

Enjoy your writing and contact me http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk if you are not.

WORKSHOPS – WHAT DO THEY TEACH YOU?

“I am absolutely loving your blog columns. Packed full of amazing guidance from first hand experience. Thanks Yvonne!” Kelly Veno Creative Consultant. Transmedia

I love to teach my television writing workshops. I am a natural born teller of how it’s done.

This could mean several things about me:

* I have years of experience and I am a generous soul who likes to share it
* I am a control freak whose way is the best way.
* I am nosey about writers and what makes them write the way they do.
* I am a social type who enjoys a good chat and a laugh

They all true are actually.

However, running my short courses and workshops, script editing my clients and passing on pages of notes week in week out, does not mean the information goes just one way.

No, here at Script Advice Towers there is a symbiotic relationship going on.

I have just come back from running a weekend workshop on TREATMENT WRITING FOR TELEVISION in Jersey, thanks to the support of the Jersey Arts Trust. I met fourteen writers, at varying levels of experience and covering a staggering age range of 15 years old to late 60’s.

Gathering around the table, the writers came, eager to learn; everyone supportive and interested in their fellow’s contribution and ‘take’ on the exercises I set.

There is a lot to take in on any workshop I run. I believe that information builds skill and practical usage of that information builds a career. So I put everyone that came on Saturday 5th October to the lovely hotel Banjo, in St Helier, pretty swiftly to work.

I run workshops on Treatment Writing, Story lining and Script Editing for television. People that come, do learn, but I do too.

I find that the way a novice writer approaches their writing, or day on a workshop is very revealing to note, as is the way in which the more experienced writers apply themselves to an edit session or a workshop attendance.

Some writers turn up in a flurry of paper, make tons of notes and talk a lot.
Others are armed with their laptop. They listen intently and speak only when they really feel it necessary.
There are the Jokers, the Laugh-Out-Louders, the Interrupters, the Timid, the Boisterous, the Wincers and the Moaners.

There are also the Pitchers. They are the worst sort. Don’t be one of those.

Around a table at any one time, there will be writers there who want to learn, who want to refresh, who want to develop their skill base. It is my job to make that process as enjoyable and informative as possible.

But I also need to keep learning. Because knowing stuff is one thing, (having learnt it in the first place and then applied it to the business of making television drama) passing it on successfully to diverse, unique, different people is another.

Everyone at the Jersey workshop was delightful. But that’s not always been the case.

Over the years I have learned to bury my own ego when delivering a workshop or a short course to a group of writers. This has taken time. (There was a lot of ego to bury!) And the process probably started during the years I was a Script Editor at BBC and then Granada Tv. Dealing with writers under the process of producing drafts of their episode under a time deadline teaches you really early on, to shelve your differences, your sometimes clashing approaches to the writing ethic, and set about getting the bloody job done.

But experienced, and novice writers alike, sometimes fall foul of the process and then no-one gets the experience they wanted.

Here are some key things to keep in mind when attending a workshop:

* Come ready to learn. Keep an open mind.
* Do not think you can use the workshop time to pitch your idea, or use the session to promote your own work.
* Be supportive of others’ work around the table. If you can’t be, don’t say anything.
* Avoid putting the workshop leader on the spot. You are not Jeremy Paxman, you are a writer who has paid to be taught something specific.
* Ask questions. Be inquisitive.
* Get involved. Try not to be shy with your ideas and contribute during group discussions.

Here are some of the things writers have said about my workshops:
http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk/scriptadvice_endorsements.html

Watch this space for future ones and please join me on twitter: https://twitter.com/YVONNEGRACE1 and my Script Advice Writer’s Room on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/237330119115/ to keep up with what I am up to and where I will be teaching next.

Happy Writing!