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How To Write An Interrogation Scene (And What Most Writers Get Wrong)

All About Interrogation Scenes Interrogation scenes can be exceptionally powerful in our stories. They can be tense, adding to cause and effect, escalating the story towards the showdown. They can also be the moment one character – on either side of the table! – can move from one state of being to another (whatever that means for the story). When writers hear the word “interrogation”, most of us immediately think of police procedurals. Detectives sitting under fluorescent lights trying to get a suspect to crack. Yet interrogation scenes crop up in virtually every genre and type of story imaginable! Such… Read More »How To Write An Interrogation Scene (And What Most Writers Get Wrong)

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How ‘The One with The Embryos’ Nails Stakes, Tension & Pay Off

The One With The Embryos (s4, ep12) The One With The Embryos (aka ‘the quiz episode’) is one of my favourite Friends episodes of all time. In fact, I just lovelovelove s4 of the show; it’s probably my favourite season. The trivia contest is hilarious, but other iconic s4 moments include: Ross saying ‘Rachel’ at the altar Monica getting stung by a jellyfish Chandler and Rachel’s fight over the handcuffs in Joanna’s office Phoebe’s pregnancy with triplets Joey saying ‘How you doin’?’ for the first time and of course ‘The Friendly Finger’ (Ross’ way of giving The Finger with two… Read More »How ‘The One with The Embryos’ Nails Stakes, Tension & Pay Off

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The Curse of Plot Armour: Why Some Characters Can’t Die (and Why It Matters)

What Is Plot Armour? Plot armour is when a character cannot die in a story, no matter what happens to them. It’s … The smooth-talking hero who survives falling off skyscrapers, cliffs, out of planes without a parachute Villains who appear to be dead, yet inexplicably come back to life Kickass hotties who can stop bullets hitting them by being super-fast Characters with supernatural or scientific abilities that stop them dying (including superheroes) Hitmen who have a ‘bulletproof suit’  (hello, literal plot armour in John Wick 4!) Plot armour is most obvious in horror, fantasy or science fiction, though it… Read More »The Curse of Plot Armour: Why Some Characters Can’t Die (and Why It Matters)

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5 Ways Podcasting Can Help Your Writing Career

All About Podcasting Podcasting is big business with the latest data showing over 460 million podcast listeners globally and growing.    I could give you fifty reasons why podcasting is a good idea, but I wasn’t allowed, so here’s five. 1) Podcasting Helps Build & Grow Your Audience It’s the most obvious one; it’s finding and expanding your audience.  They are out there.  This is especially good if you think you write for a niche group or your demographic is outside the coveted 18-34 age group. Using a podcast service like Buzzsprout will mean you can reach people worldwide on multiple… Read More »5 Ways Podcasting Can Help Your Writing Career

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10 Awesome Young Female Characters Recommended By My Kid

All About Young Characters Young characters are hard to write … Yet writers frequently under-research young people when it comes to characterisation. As I was a teen mum, I’ve been a parent for over half of my life now. It is often very clear to me which writers hang out with youngsters and which do not. As with all authentic characterisation, we need to do our research or get found out. If we want to write young characters, then it pays to find out what young people are actually interested in!! This might seem obvious – and it is! –… Read More »10 Awesome Young Female Characters Recommended By My Kid

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Top 5 Ways To Make Your Web Series Successful

Web series can be a great way for a writer to making content that is meaningful to them. It’s also a fab way to get that content in front of an audience without waiting around for a network or commissioner to greenlight a project. But just like every other part of a writing career, producing a successful web series requires planning and persistence. Here’s my advice and top tips after creating my own web series BLACK GIRL IN A BIG DRESS, which currently has over one million views online! 1) Know your goals and plan specifically for them To use… Read More »Top 5 Ways To Make Your Web Series Successful

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8 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Comedy Screenplay DEAD

Being gifted at comedy always makes people popular. Why? Because no one EVER says, “You know what I need to do LESS in my life?? Laugh.”  On this basis then, writing comedy is a great way to get you and/or your work noticed. But, just like other genres that have their own specific pitfalls, comedy is no different. Feast your eyes on these issues that can make your comedy craptacular and your funny fizzle out in your spec screenplay: 1) Forget Physical Comedy Funny dialogue is absolutely essential in comedy screenplays, whether feature, TV pilot, sitcom or short film. However,… Read More »8 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Comedy Screenplay DEAD

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25 Female-Centric TV Pilots Coming To A Screen Near You

Following my round up posts on female characters at the weekend, I’m delighted to say Hollywood Development Exec Steve La Rue decided to let me know how TV Pilot season is coming … and it’s going female centric, which is GREAT news! Check out these 25 loglines for size … Will be really interesting to see which ones make the cut through the infamous US “Pilot Season”! I’m gratified to see a fair amount of diversity to the list, with careers ranking as highly as parenthood … Plus of the “usual” roles (ie. Mom), we’re seeing characterisation left of the… Read More »25 Female-Centric TV Pilots Coming To A Screen Near You

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The Transmedia Starter Kit

Lots of Bang2writers are interested in Transmedia, but have no clue where to start – so here’s Luke with a short but sweet “step by step” guide to getting started. Thanks Luke! So, no excuses people … what are you waiting for?! There’s so much information out there on the internet, it’s hard to know what’s relevant and what isn’t. Particularly with Transmedia. It’s such a broad term that it invites chaos when trying to find out how to start in Transmedia yourself. So I wanted to create a small list of resources – inspiration, tools, books, blogs, etc, to… Read More »The Transmedia Starter Kit

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5 Ways Transmedia Can Help Scriptwriters

Sofia’s Diary was a real inspiration to me when planning and creating the transmedia strategy for my Decision Book Series, so I was DELIGHTED when the show’s creator Nuno Bernardo approached me to write a guest post for B2W! This is a real treat for you Bang2writers on using the power of transmedia to engage your audiences, so enjoy! When I sat down to write Sofia’s Diary, my first Web series, back in 2003, I had no real scriptwriting experience, let alone transmedia writing experience. So, for me, it was always going to be a process of trial and error. As… Read More »5 Ways Transmedia Can Help Scriptwriters

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7 Tips On Sci Fi Arenas / Worldbuilding In Your Screenplay Or Novel

On Worldbuilding When it comes to worldbuilding and writing, I think this definition from Wikipedia is actually pretty good … Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. The resulting world may be called a constructed world (or conworld). Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task for many science fiction or fantasy writers. Worldbuilding often involves the creation of maps, a backstory, and people, including social customs and even in some cases an invented language, for the world. So with this… Read More »7 Tips On Sci Fi Arenas / Worldbuilding In Your Screenplay Or Novel

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