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I received over 50 submissions for this thing I’m working on and I just have some basic notes for the writers out there. These are my view and not gospel and definitely don’t apply to everything.
Do basics like label your work and have your name on it and contact info. I need to be able to reach you and also know who wrote what cause there is always lots of stuff and this is true doubly so for editors and producers. They don’t have time to faf around looking for your shit
Greet. I can’t tell you how rude it is to send a blank email to a stranger and expect them to take their time to read your work. Why should I engage when you won’t?
Tell people a little about yourself, who you are and what experience you have. Not your whole life story but the headlines. It helps people understand why you write the way you do and what level you’re at.
When referencing that a person referred you, be careful. Sometimes name-dropping can hurt you. You say a name that I don’t fuck with and now it’s tense. Yikes.
Stop being so apologetic for not having experience. Its nothing to be ashamed off, we all started there, it doesn’t make you humble or special.
Invest time in your work. A lot of you write in response to a call or an opportunity and it shows. Sharpen your skills and develop your ideas when there is nothing on the line. It will do you wonders cause when opportunities come, you’ll be ready.
A lot of people write in first person voice which I guess when you’re starting is normal. Crossover to the other side and write in the third person.
The third person allows you much more distance to see your characters and be cruel to them and real about who they are. It allows you to build a world not just to be a participant in it which is mostly what the first-person voice does.
A lot of people write about how they feel as opposed to what happened. The writing is high on emotion but thin on incident or plot and I found myself thinking, why does this character feel this way though.
Generally, stay away from describing intention. This is not something we can see, we can see action, however and that is often the best showcase of intent.
You guys don’t read and those of you that do read, read the same things hence every story has an African tree, a sunset, a wailing woman and descriptions of hands. Swim further away from the shore with your reading selection.
Sometimes the best form of editing is not editing what you have but transcribing it again, you spot little mistakes when you rewrite and can change tone, pacing etc.
Be as detailed while using as few words as possible. Often the most important part of writing is editing yourself and your ideas to their simplest form. You don't necessarily have to be overt and direct all the time or say the same thing a million times.
Readers are perceptive. Plant the seed and let the reader use their life experiences to reap
You know how your grandparents used to read the dictionary, do that. Cause I find people using words whose meaning they don’t understand, and generally poor diction makes everything seem exactly the same. Learn more words but use them wisely and sparingly.
If you want to write scripts, watch the work and then read the scripts, the page and how it is executed can be some of the best education you can get.
Follow @bbcwritersroom they have great training resources for free, thousands of scripts and writing opportunities across theatre, TV, radio and film.
Nobody cares about your realistic dialogue bro. The best dialogue is not realistic but is natural. It makes you feel like you’ve heard it before even though you haven’t and makes you wish you’d used those exact same words in your own life.
Play with genre. Take a genre that you hate and write within it. You can learn a lot about your capabilities doing this cause you work in an uncomfortable space. This one note sincere drama thing is not a vibe.
And watch this
And listen to this
