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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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5 Reasons “Missing” Female Characters Might Not Actually Be Missing After All (Plus What Writers Can Do Instead)

So this week, Twitter broke two pieces of news. Sheffield Theatres here in the UK are pledging to have an equal split of male and female roles in plays developed in-house: their artistic director (a man, by the way) says it’s “not just about numbers, but also about the scope and range of parts female actors get to play”. On the very same day, it was announced that Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn will be helming series 2 of HBO’s TRUE DETECTIVE. It would be fair to say a minor avalanche of tweets erupted in my TL and @ box  at both announcements. I didn’t… Read More »5 Reasons “Missing” Female Characters Might Not Actually Be Missing After All (Plus What Writers Can Do Instead)

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Top 6 Reversals In Movies

FYI – SPOILERS! I’ve said only recently I don’t read enough reversals in spec screenplays, in ANY genre. I thought it time to offer up some examples of those I’ve watched that I felt were effective. Before we get going however, here is the definition of ‘reversals’ I am using for the purposes of this post … “A place in the plot where a character achieves the opposite of his aim, resulting in a change from good fortune to bad fortune.” You may also want to read THIS POST, which contains a definition of what screenplay reversals are. There’s also a great… Read More »Top 6 Reversals In Movies

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5 Weird Things We’ve Done To “Kickstart” Our Film Off The Page

I’m a big fan of Tim Clague and Danny Stack AND kids’ movies, so when I saw they’re currently crowdfunding for their kids’ feature Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg?, it was a no-brainer: I HAD to have them on B2W to share their delicious brains with you lot!! There’s some BRILLIANT advice here that **anyone** can achieve, so don’t get down in the dumps about getting nowhere, think about how you can MAKE IT HAPPEN, just like Tim and Danny. And then show your appreciation by backing them! Check out their Kickstarter page, or click the pic below. Hi Bang2Writers. Tim… Read More »5 Weird Things We’ve Done To “Kickstart” Our Film Off The Page

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6 Reasons To Follow The Decision

So I’ve written a lot online about teen pregnancy (especially on Twitter, via #teenpreg & #FeminismIsForTeenMomsToo), as well as  my prochoice novel, THE DECISION: LIZZIE’S STORY, not to mention my own experience of becoming a mother as a teenager. Lizzie’s Story is out this year sometime in English, having been published in the German Language last year … And she’s a character that just won’t stay confined to the pages of the novel, ‘cos she’s JUMPED OUT and got her own Facebook page and Twitter account! Follow her here, as LizziesDecision, tweeting about the ins and outs of #prochoice matters,… Read More »6 Reasons To Follow The Decision

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9 Ways To Write Great Characters

Great Characters Wanted Great characterisation is layered and complicated – y’know, like REAL people. This is why  characterisation is the hard bit of writing. Yet over the years I’ve been working with  writers, I’ve found many will too often plump for the first character that comes into their mind and then add all those distractions on top for decoration. People are more than the way they look, act or seem. We all *know* this. So why don’t spec screenplays and novels reflect it? I don’t believe in creating character profiles, or questionnaires. I don’t care what your character had for breakfast, went… Read More »9 Ways To Write Great Characters

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Women & Writing # 1: Suzanne Palmieri, Novelist

Now, a new series of articles dedicated to women and writing – I’ll be profiling inspirational ladies and their writing (or related work) in the coming months. First up we have novelist Suzanne Palmieri who I befriended on Twitter recently and discovered I have an amazing amount in common with! Plus her book comes out today – happy publication day, Suzanne! Enjoy … 1) If you could describe yourself in 3 words, what would they be and why? Scrappy: I was a young, single mother on welfare and I picked myself up, went back to college, received a presidential scholarship to Fordham to do… Read More »Women & Writing # 1: Suzanne Palmieri, Novelist

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6 Stock Characters That Need Retiring By Writers NOW

All About Stock Characters A stock character is a stereotypical fictional character in a work of art such as a novel, play, or a film. Stock characters are immediately recognisable because they occur so frequently. I put it to you there are the stock characters infecting – yes, infecting – the spec pile. We must attempt to treat this disease with a huge dose of Spec Writing Salve, so we might cut off these tired tropes and offensive myths, rather than perpetuate them in our novels and screenplays! But where do we start??? 6) ‘Magical Queer’   AKA The “Gay… Read More »6 Stock Characters That Need Retiring By Writers NOW

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Want To Get Noticed? Then Don’t Write These Type Of Screenplays

Updated Previously titled, ‘Want To Get Noticed? Don’t Write Low Budget Depressing Drama or High Budget Science Fiction/Fantasy Spec Scripts‘, this post will outline why trying to get out of the submissions pile with a low budget drama or a high budget sci fi TV pilot like a gazilion other writers (probably) ain’t gonna work for you. Strap yourself in and suck it up, peeps … Cliches + Stereotypes = BORING When I started script reading, everyone was writing very “worthy”, very personal psychological dramas where generally everybody died or was at least miserable as Hell and in the grip of addiction,… Read More »Want To Get Noticed? Then Don’t Write These Type Of Screenplays

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Guest Post: Want To Write Better Screenplays? Read A Picture Book by Ezra Paris

A GREAT guest post from Bang2writer Ezra here, with some fab advice and writing exercises for screenwriters… Let the other Bang2writers know how you go if you give any of them a shot. Thanks Ezra! ————————-Picture books, you say? I am writing a Lynchian take on the Western. I’ve completed character biographies, a beat sheet and a coloured coded layout of my three act structure. Surely there is nothing for me to learn from plucky little steam engines, children who do not wish to sleep and an array of cute baby animals who are unable to locate their mother? Think… Read More »Guest Post: Want To Write Better Screenplays? Read A Picture Book by Ezra Paris

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Happy New Year: Highs & Low

It’s been a great year – London Screenwriters Festival was bigger and better than its first year; Deviation, the thriller I associate-produced, sold to Revolver Entertainment for distribution in the new year and BUT WHAT NEXT? my first YA novel, sold to Rowohlt Publishers in Berlin and continues to be considered by a number of prominent UK publishers. And of course there was the arrival of our beloved Wee Girl # 2, who has found her voice and makes her feelings known every chance she gets – just like her elder siblings, the Wee Girl and The Male Spawn, both… Read More »Happy New Year: Highs & Low

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Nemesis

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know I’ve fretting about the upcoming arrival of the bebe, aka MICROSPAWN. Not for any birthing trauma reasons (though that is obviously a *bit* of a factor!) but because of my family’s GROUP DYNAMIC. As one tweeter pointed out a while ago, introduce a new character too quickly MID-SEASON and it could lead to CANCELLATION! After all, like any good scriptwriter’s family, we all have our CHARACTER ROLE FUNCTIONS: ME – I’m the protagonist, **obviously**. There aren’t enough female-driven comedies/tragedies/action-adventures/horrors/dramas and though the genre mixing is troubling, I’m hoping it will settle down… Read More »Nemesis

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