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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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How To Introduce A Character In A Screenplay

How To Introduce A Character If you are thinking about how best to introduce a character, you are not alone. This is one of the questions I get most often from Bang2writers. Many thanks to writer @davidbishop who asks: How best to introduce characters … Should we list 3 attributes, a single sentence, or let their actions [and words] speak for themselves? First up, I’m going to be really annoying and saying there’s no best” way, just people’s opinions. That said, David’s suggestions are all great in theory. How they work out on the page however can be different! This… Read More »How To Introduce A Character In A Screenplay

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Writing & Kids, Pt 2: Working From Home

The title of this post is a little misleading, as I feel it can be applied to anyone who works from home whilst looking after children – not just writers. And there are a lot of us: I am of course not just a writer, but a script reader and self employed teacher (ie. “outside” the state school system) as well. I know parents who make jewellery and other crafts whilst looking after children (my own parents did this for a time as I was growing up, in fact); accountants; copy editors; web designers – the list of jobs you… Read More »Writing & Kids, Pt 2: Working From Home

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Writing & Kids, Pt 1: Getting The Spec Done

This post is for StrawLaneScott, who asked on Twitter for advice on writing when you have kids in the house to look after at the same time. I was a parent long before I was a writer or script editor; having a child in your teens before you have even gone to university, never mind started your career, means you have to be able to time manage. Yet there appears to be this feeling one has a baby, then you wait for it to get old enough to go to nursery or school, THEN you get started on whatever it… Read More »Writing & Kids, Pt 1: Getting The Spec Done

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