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.

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/

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
Follow me on Twitter: YVONNEGRACE1
Join my writer’s group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/237330119115/

Get in touch and happy writing!

ONLY CONNECT – MAKING CONTACTS IN THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY

Writing is a solitary exercise. But the business of getting your writing read, talked about and appreciated is just the opposite. You need to be a focussed solitary scriber, and then morph when the time dictates, into a sociable, approachable type who is more that happy to talk about your work and ask questions of those that are experienced and able to help you get in and get on in the industry.

Even if you have a writing partner; someone with whom you work to create and construct your drama scripts, there is always that point in the creation process where you must turn the collaboration switch to ‘off’ and get on with making your part in the writing process your own. You need to get your head down and start writing.

If you work solo, (like most writers in my experience do) then it can be really hard to put on a convivial face and go off to rub shoulders with, most likely, writers like yourself, who work alone and then feel they have to socialise for the good of their work.

 But I think its important that you do this.

The television industry dictates that writers be both disciplined (in terms of getting the pages done in a structured, accessible time frame) and also able to turn on the sociable charm when the time is right.

 I have had the pleasure of working with some great writers who are now at the top of their game and showing by the sheer calibre of the work they are now producing, the way forward for lesser experienced television writers, making their way up. Writers like Russell T Davies, Sally Wainwright, Jonathon Harvey and Tony Jordan. If you were ever in a position to ask any one of them if they, as they were starting out, had a champion, or if there was a person they felt they could point to that helped them, when they needed it, I believe each writer could come up with more than one name.

 I had my champions too.

 We all need at least one.

 So where do you find your champion? The person(s) who may turn out to be the people you, when asked the question, sometime in your future you happily name as the individuals that helped you most?

 There are many ways you can potentially meet like-minded writers and also connect with professionals that can either champion your work themselves, or suggest others that can.

 I suggest you spread your area of connection wide.

 Initially, I would encourage you to join a good writer’s group. I run a very good one on Facebook. My members come from all over the globe and represent all levels of writing experience. Many are professional writers who, like myself, genuinely enjoy sharing their knowledge of the industry. It’s a great place to start.

 The Script Advice Writer’s Room:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/237330119115/

Another good way of opening up communication with others in your chosen field, is to use online forums. Phil Gladwin runs a great one here. His organisation the Screenwriting Goldmine also runs writing competitions and workshops:

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/forum/

 In general, the BBC website for writers is a good place to bookmark. You can download scripts and keep up with the initiatives they run.

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

 Attending workshops on writing and those that teach the skill base needed to work in television as a writer is a good way of making contacts and building useful friendships with other writers.

 I run workshops for the Indie Training Fund regularly and throughout the year.

http://www.indietrainingfund.com/courses/production/how-to-storyline-a-series-for-television/

 Euroscript is very good for writers wanting to connect with others and they also run courses throughout the year:

http://www.euroscript.co.uk/

 Engineering meetings between writers and Producers, Commissioners and key players in the Industry is a central aim of the Rocliffe Forum:

http://www.rocliffe.com/index.php

 Attending festivals and specific events aimed at networking and sharing of information related to screenwriting is a great way of building your connections and making potential key connections with useful to know people.

The London Screenwriters’ Festival is a brilliant, exciting, informative and genuinely friendly event run by people passionate about the business of writing for the big and small screen. This link takes you to the page showing some of the speakers of this year’s event. You will notice I am there and very pleased to be so!

Speakers

 Raindance run both a film and television festival:

Home

My book attempts to bridge that gap between you, the solitary writer who wants to get in to Television and stay there, and the Industry itself; comprising of important people you need to get to know and to make them aware of your existence.

Here’s a lovely review on Amazon by writer Mark Davies. I add it here because he highlights my intention when writing it, which was to metaphorically hold the writer’s hand through what can be the labyrinthine nature of the Television Industry.

 ‘Rather than a dry how-to style text book, reading this book is like being invited to spend the day with an expert and having her take you by the hand for a tour of Television Centre, and being introduced to everyone you could ever need to know in the process. Then imagine someone following you the whole day with a camcorder and giving you all the footage afterwards so you can rewind to your favourite sections and live them all again. And again!’

Follow me on Twitter: YVONNEGRACE1. Here too, it is almost too easy to hook up (in cyber space) with a whole new strata of writers, producers, script editors and agents who may well take up a big space in your future.

 You don’t know who’s out there till you get your sociable coat on and venture outside…..

 Check out my website for my script reading and script development services and to access my blog and find out what I am up to over the year.

Home

 I hope to be able to help you in the future.

 Good Luck and Happy Writing.

 

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

 

 

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

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 STORY LINE FOR SERIES TELEVISION – workshoptastic!

The London tube strike and the resulting crush and cram across our dear capital, could not diminish my hard-boiled enthusiasm for the day ahead and the workshop I was about to run for the Indie Training Fund in Hoxton Square.

Delivering a packed five hour workshop to a room of focussed, eager to learn writers is to me, a great big lovely thing and I always get a real buzz from doing my Script Advice workshops.

This is one of my favourites.

 Story lining is a skill all writers should have in their bag of tricks, but it is often over-looked, or ignored completely. Often it seems, creatives prefer the noise and fluster more frequently made about letting the muse hit and seeing where it takes you.

I am not of that branch of thought. Mine is the old school. The ethos that says there is a happy balance to be created between creation of a rough idea, and the execution of that idea into a fully fledged, coherent, structured story line across an episode of drama.

And this workshop is based purely on that ethic.

I created and wrote an extended treatment of a series idea called Harkness Hall which I use as a blue print for the workshop. Using this document, delegates create their story lines and come fully prepped on the day.

I ape a true Story Conference at the workshop; so each writer is expected to create, pitch and discuss their story lines and those of the other writers around the table. It is a collaborative, inclusive experience and always involves a lot of mental leg work.

I aim to initiate this creative process, then, using the raw material delegates bring on the day, I plot across a variant series length, the story lines we have to work with.

At first, a white board, divided into episode blocks, with the characters running vertically down the side, is empty and can be a daunting sight. A desert of story. Only blocks to fill.

 But I tell my writers to have faith. Everyone is always surprised as to how quickly this board fills up with story.

 An idea is never wasted in an environment like this. Not all story lines are accepted; mostly I find writers come up with short run ideas, that will only cover one or two episodes. But these embryonic ideas often form the foundation of a much bigger story and one that can strap across three or more episodes.

 The skill is recognising what story line constitutes a single and what could run for much longer.

 This takes practise. The answer lies in creating stories that not only have a built-in impact, but also ones that affect and influence other stories in the series.

How characters aid and abet each other via their individual story lines, is the measure of a truly engaging, exciting drama.

Issues; political, social, religious, are an important back drop to relevant, vital story lining. But I push home the fact that without the human dynamic, without the character-driven motivation behind these story ideas, the impact may be powerful, but the message lost.

 The best stories marry human condition with the social condition of the time.

 So it was, that at the end of a very productive, tiring, creatively fuelled day, we had a 6 episode series, featuring a varied cast of 12, which discussed and explored: Nazi art theft, geriatric manslaughter, sex, drugs and naked dog walks…just another day at the story creation coal face.

 Thank you writers. Let’s keep learning. Keep creating. Keep on story lining.

 If you need help with controlling your creative muse, I am here http://www.scriptadvice.co.uk.

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