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What Writers Can Learn From The Short Film That Launched a $1 Billion Franchise

Selling, Not Selling Out ‘Write me a low-budget screenplay that launches a $1 billion dollar franchise.’  A producer said this in a room full of writers I was in, back at the very beginning of my career. To say it landed with me BIG TIME is an understatement. It made me realise that story is not the only thing writers must contend with. As a collaborative medium, it’s also our job to come up with ideas that SELL. Of course, this is where writers might say: ‘But I don’t want to sell out!’ I totally get this. It can seem… Read More »What Writers Can Learn From The Short Film That Launched a $1 Billion Franchise

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Fantasy Vs. Science Fiction: What’s The Difference?

Fantasy Vs. Science Fiction One of the most searched-for terms leading to this blog is ‘fantasy vs. science fiction’. Since so many writers seem to want to know the difference, I thought I’d round some up. Fantasy and science fiction are two VERY popular genres in the spec pile, screenplay or novel. I seem to read them all the time. These genres have some similarities, but also some distinct differences as well. Without further ado, here’s my breakdown of  fantasy vs. science fiction … Ready? Let’s go! 1) Setting First up on fantasy vs. science fiction is setting. Whether urban… Read More »Fantasy Vs. Science Fiction: What’s The Difference?

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Do You Hate The First Draft, Or Love It?

We all have a stereotypical vision of a writer. You know the type: s/he doesn’t manage his or her time properly, so spends too long arsing around on the interwebs; chatting too much on social media, even playing on games sites like https://www.lapalingo.com/en … then it’s PANIC STATIONS! S/he ends up overdosing on coffee and staying awake ALL NIGHT to finish those deadlines! And sure, this does happen sometimes, but thankfully not too often. Now, you might remember that only recently I asked if you Bang2writers like to BINGE on writing, or write every day – and I was surprised… Read More »Do You Hate The First Draft, Or Love It?

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Are You A Binge Writer, Or Do You Write Every Day?

Out in the blogosphere, there’s often a lot of discussion around the idea of writers being ‘plotters’ or ‘pantsers’ (for the uninitiated, the former is a writer who plots everything out, knowing the ending in advance; whereas the latter will just begin and see where the story takes them, the idea being they ‘fly by the seat of their pants’, hence the ‘pantser’ epitaph). As any veteran Bang2writer knows, B2W advocates being a plotter, especially if you’re a screenwriter. Structure is key in screenwriting, so starting without an end point in mind can land you in what I call The… Read More »Are You A Binge Writer, Or Do You Write Every Day?

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5 Reasons Writers Should Be Playing Pokémon Go

With the news that the live action Pokémon Go movie has selected its screenwriters, I thought now would be a good time to share this fun piece from Bryony. Enjoy! As someone who grew up with Pokémon I geeked out massively when I heard Niantic were bring-ing out a smartphone app. I downloaded the app first thing that morning and I got absolutely NO writing done in my lunch break – I was too busy catching ‘em all. Looking back, that’s not the most convincing opening paragraph I could have come up with. For those of you who’ve had your… Read More »5 Reasons Writers Should Be Playing Pokémon Go

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5 Things Screenwriters Can Learn From Games

Some great food for thought for screenwriters today from WGGB’s Chair for Video Games Steve Ince!  Make sure you check out Steve’s book on writing for video games as well, since this is a great market for writers. Enjoy! I was recently at a conference in Rio when someone posed the following: “People say that film is a director’s medium and TV is a producer’s medium – whose medium is games?” I’d never been asked this before but my answer was almost immediate – “Games are the player’s medium.” Because they’re such an important part of developing games and interactive… Read More »5 Things Screenwriters Can Learn From Games

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5 Reasons Why Gaming Has Its Place In Literature by Christina Lewis

Video games don’t get much of a mention here on B2W, so I was interested to hear from Christina on her thoughts about gaming and literature, especially as they chime with our previous posts on transmedia. I agree mediums are NOT as far apart as writers might first think, which in turn enables a lot of NEW opportunities. Some good food for thought for Writer Wednesday … enjoy! With the world of paper books and print media crumbling all around us, it’s hard to believe that there will be an existing industry for publishing in a few years’ time. Everywhere… Read More »5 Reasons Why Gaming Has Its Place In Literature by Christina Lewis

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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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4 Ways Watching Football Helps My Screenwriting

We featured Alison Bond’s great book WE COULD BE HEROES which uses the footballing /sports management world as its backdrop a few weeks’ back; now an article from Jon on how football and screenwriting are linked?!? Like I say of Alison’s book, “I hate football, but I LOVE this!” and the same is true of Jon’s post: GET IN MY SON! Over to you … Football is the single greatest thing ever invented … … Except, perhaps, for penicillin. And sliced bread. But Football is also vastly underrated as a screenwriting tool and here are just four of the many… Read More »4 Ways Watching Football Helps My Screenwriting

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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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Writing For Games Podcast – Download it here!

Are you interested in writing for games, or interested in finding out about mediums outside your usual comfort zone? Then this is the podcast for you, free to download here on Bang2write! Tim Clague and Steve Ince both talk about their experience writing for games. It makes for fascinating listening. Play the podcast below… Download the MP3 file here for your iPod Don’t forget, you’ve still got time to apply to LondonSWF Script Labs, which includes a Lab on writing for games with Steve. With 3.5 days to go until the deadline, odds of getting into the @londonswf Script Labs: ESPECIALLY… Read More »Writing For Games Podcast – Download it here!

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