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33 Experts Share What They Want Next From Female Characters

Personality first, gender second? The Bang2writers are writing more and more female characters now, but it’s not just as simple as that. We can ALL fall into “the usual” representations, or screw up and write trite, incorrect or two dimensional stereotypes. It’s also important to note any one of us can do this regardless of our experience with writing, or even if we *are* women ourselves! As I often say, I have seen NO correlation between gender of writer and how bad OR well they write female characters, yet I’ve literally read thousands  of screenplays over the last decade and… Read More »33 Experts Share What They Want Next From Female Characters

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33 Experts Share Their Notable Female Characters Of Recent Years

Delighted to unveil the very illuminating thoughts of various industry pros I’ve managed to pin down this week! DO make sure you click on the links of their names to find out more about them. Remember, you can also find out what these Industry Pros want NEXT from female characters – direct link at the bottom of this list. Enjoy! Over To The Experts … 1) Tony Jordan, screenwriter & showrunner. Carrie Mathison – Homeland. Complicated, fucked up, intuitive, loyal and proactive. Red – Orange is The New Black. Direct, uncompromising, funny. Alicia Florrick – The Good Wife. True modern… Read More »33 Experts Share Their Notable Female Characters Of Recent Years

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5 Arguments Against A Female-Centric GHOSTBUSTERS

So this week, we had an announcement: the cast for the much anticipated female Ghostbusters reboot. See the actresses picked and read more about it in this article, “Why Studios Want More Female-Led Blockbusters”. I’d say it’s a pretty solid list and I for one can’t wait, though apparently the rest of the internet CAN, ‘cos when I say “much anticipated” what I really mean is a neverending outpouring of complaints and condemnation of a movie NO ONE has actually seen yet*. But hey, why let something like REALITY get in the way of Twitter-and-Facebook-facilitated outrage??? (*While I’m on the subject… Read More »5 Arguments Against A Female-Centric GHOSTBUSTERS

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Writing Women: 5 Lessons From Shakespeare

I’ve said it, countless times now: I’ve seen NO correlation between gender of writer and how “well” s/he writes female characters. In my experience, a male writer is just as likely as a female writer to write a GREAT, complex, flawed character who just so happens to be a woman. ‘Cos that’s what we’re aiming for, right? RIGHT. “Shakespeare’s a dead white guy, but he knows his shit!” YES, Shakespeare is well old and NO, he’s not PC because he was writing a trillion years ago, but he STILL managed to pull of complex female characters who were a helluva lot… Read More »Writing Women: 5 Lessons From Shakespeare

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5 Screenwriting Hard Truths (Or The Best Way To F*** Up Your Screenplay)

I’m proud to welcome my collabro JK Amalou back to B2W today to share with his thoughts on what REALLY sells your writing “off the page”, which is a great concept! Like I always say to Bang2writers and screenwriting students, I can read great writing whenever I want so how are you going to differentiate if you want to make a SALE? Even if you want to write samples, you STILL need to differentiate from the rest in the pile!! Read it and weep, spec screenwriters … and take the first step towards harnessing the power of concept by contacting JK today,… Read More »5 Screenwriting Hard Truths (Or The Best Way To F*** Up Your Screenplay)

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5 Ways To Stay Focused On Your Writing Dream

1) Start Calling Yourself A Writer In Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, ‘If when you wake up in the morning you can think of nothing but writing, then you’re a writer.’ If you woke up thinking about writing before turning up to do your thing this morning, you are a writer. If you turned up yesterday morning – and countless mornings before – you are a writer. One morning, I woke up thinking I must be a lavatory attendant – but we won’t go into that… If you commit yourself to write most days then you… Read More »5 Ways To Stay Focused On Your Writing Dream

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Audiences & Ownership OR The REAL Reason You Reacted Badly To News of TOY STORY 4

I love sausages (quiet at the back). Seriously, I do. TBH I’m fairly ambivalent about eating them myself (arf) but as the working mother of three kids, sausages are handy as hell: they’re relatively cheap (always handy when you’re a broke writer) and during the week my brain is invariably distracted by the Bang2writers and their stories, so I nearly always forget to defrost meat in time (I haaaate microwave defrosting). But you can cook these little beauties from frozen and whip up some mash and boil some veg in no time. What’s more, sausages are pretty much the only thing… Read More »Audiences & Ownership OR The REAL Reason You Reacted Badly To News of TOY STORY 4

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3 Ways To Make Your Film A Reality

How do you bring your story to people, especially when you are “off the beaten track” (ie. Not in an English-speaking country)? Today we have Vojislav on the blog demonstrating how guerilla filmmakers and screenwriters can use their understanding of their own countries and culture to their advantage when making films. Enjoy! 1) Demonstrate how your story is important to your country What is the first (and probably only) thing you might think when someone mentions Bosnia and Herzegovina? Of course, the war! And we would not blame you for that, especially as a seemingly endless sequence of bad politicians,… Read More »3 Ways To Make Your Film A Reality

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4 Reasons It’s All About Entertainment, Not Theory

‎We are writers and makers. We all know this, but it would seem we mix up our PERSONAL responses as audience members and our writerly responses far too often when thinking about what works – or doesn’t work – on screen … And a result, end up like THIS: So here’s a round up of 4 arguments that seemingly NEVER go away, especially on Twitter, plus my counter arguments on how it’s probably not as simple as we all think! But more importantly, how we should be thinking ENTERTAINMENT, if we want to reach audiences and make that all-important connection… Read More »4 Reasons It’s All About Entertainment, Not Theory

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5 Reasons To Write Novels

National Novel Writing Month aka NanoWrimo starts today!!! To celebrate, this November I’ll be asking author friends to stop by on B2W to share their thoughts on writing novels. To kick off, here’s best selling indie author Stevie Turner (A HOUSE WITHOUT WINDOWS) to share her insights on why she writes novels, in the hope that if you’re wondering whether to dip a toe in the writing pond this NanoWrimo, you’ll dive straight in. Enjoy & over to you, Stevie! 1) If you like doing it I reckon you’re either born creative or practical. If you’re creative, sooner or later that creativity… Read More »5 Reasons To Write Novels

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Top 10 Tips For New Screenwriters

Some down to earth, practical tips from Russ today for new writers: is this you? What I like about Russ’ advice is it gives new writers ACTIONABLE steps to get started! So take some pointers from a guy who’s been there and done that! Thanks Russ 😀 (NOT a new writer? Then I’d love to hear YOUR tips in post like this, but for writers at your level – check out the guest post submission details HERE). Enjoy! Got an idea for a script? Want to become a writer? Well, here are my top 10 tips for any newbie writers.… Read More »Top 10 Tips For New Screenwriters

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A Tale Of 2 Scientists: How Contrast In Characterisation Works

Action/Adventure is one of my favourite genres of Hollywood movies (sci fi or not), and it would appear Bang2writers share this love too, because I get a LOT of spec screenplays in this type of vein, especially dealing with such issues as extreme weather or climate issues; giant monsters or meteorites; sometimes all of these things and more. And why the hell not? If you like this type of movie – and I do – it’s a great way of showcasing how BIG you can think as a writer AND deliver. What’s not to like??? Now I’m a big fan of… Read More »A Tale Of 2 Scientists: How Contrast In Characterisation Works

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