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6 Top Tips On Selling Your Screenplay

Selling Your Screenplay You have your finished (and edited!) screenplay in hand, so now it’s time to think about selling it. That’s the good news. The bad news: there’s a TON of other people thinking the same thing as you! While pitching a screenplay is as tough as writing a script, it’s not impossible. With the right tactics, it definitely can be achieved. However, most writers don’t know how to use these tactics. And they don’t know how to start selling their script … But that’s what this article is for! Check out my top 6 tips on selling your… Read More »6 Top Tips On Selling Your Screenplay

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Top 10 Legal Questions For Writers

Legal Eagles I’ve had loads of legal questions lately from the Bang2writers, so I thought it would be a good idea to round them all up here for everyone. So if you have a burning legal question, check out the below! Before I begin though, a quick disclaimer … DO remember B2W is not a lawyer or legal expert!! The below is based only my own experiences and the various deals and situations I’ve seen going round the writing block. If you require legal advice, then speak to a real expert ASAP. Let’s go … 1) What is an option… Read More »Top 10 Legal Questions For Writers

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How To Beat The Gatekeepers

Read Phil’s previous guest post on B2W, Is Your Screenplay Ready? AKA 12 Qs To Ask Of Your Writing, HERE. Many thanks to Phil Gladwin, head of Screenwriting Goldmine, for getting in touch with this eye-opening graphic on how to beat “the gatekeepers”, such as script readers, not to mention the MANY other people up the chain! Yikes! Over to you, Phil: “I get a lot of questions about the UK TV industry, and how it all works … So, after a few of those arriving all in one day, I sat back, just mostly for my own amusement, to draw… Read More »How To Beat The Gatekeepers

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6 Ways To Make Hollywood Fall In Love With Your Pitch

Pitching is just like being the nervous suitor asking for a date. Is she or he going to like you? Do you have an exciting or intriguing personality? Do you have passion? This is where initial appearances do matter. Here are 6 ways to make sure you go home with them at the end of the evening. 1. Google, Facebook and IMDB them. i.e. Do your research. How promiscuous are they? How many projects have they done and what genres do they like? Pitching horror to someone who does comedy is a sure way to go home alone. 2. Don’t… Read More »6 Ways To Make Hollywood Fall In Love With Your Pitch

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9 Wake Up Calls For The New Screenwriter

Wake Up Calls Here are 9 wake up calls I would like to have given myself years ago when I decided to pursue a career in screenwriting. Thankfully, life was around to deliver them for me. Do you need these wake calls too?? Then read on … 1) There is this thing called the audience   I remember waiting for a film outside the cinema. A thought occurred to me as I was mulling over the ultra-personal script I was working on. I looked carefully at the other people gathering, tickets in hand, and thought … ‘How many of them would… Read More »9 Wake Up Calls For The New Screenwriter

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2 Laws Every Screenwriter Should Know

Laws You Should Know There is a lot of legal groundwork to cover before writing a script – anything you create which goes into the public eye will come under scrutiny from a number of organisations, and any breaches could land you with serious legal and financial troubles. Of course, these kinds of issues may also prevent your work from ever being produced or may even inhibit screenings once a film has been made. Understanding the legal implications of screenwriting before proceeding is the best way to prevent any future issues. We know this sounds pretty daunting, but the pieces… Read More »2 Laws Every Screenwriter Should Know

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3 Reasons To Write A Low Budget Marketable Screenplay

Many thanks to Simon Meacock, who asks: “Is it best to concentrate on writing a KICK ASS screenplay and use it as a calling card for other work as well as it having a (slim) chance of getting optioned? And should the screenplay be a very marketable low budget feature or should I go for broke and just write a screenplay from the heart with no regard of budgets?” First up, two things: Naturally, you should always aim for KICK ASS when writing *anything* – the writing world has enough vanilla spec screenplays. The only way forward is by writing… Read More »3 Reasons To Write A Low Budget Marketable Screenplay

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12 Top Tips For Taking Writing Meetings

All About Meetings I’m delighted to say the hardcore contingent of the Bang2writers are taking meetings more and more often now. These writers getting meetings are most often those with … A specific writing strategy (more on these, HERE) Know ‘where’ they are in creating their own careers Stick to their writing goals, but also review and re-evaluate them too However, this also means these writers are asking me more and more often what is the “right” way to take meetings! With this in mind, I thought it was time for a post on the subject. First things first, it… Read More »12 Top Tips For Taking Writing Meetings

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The 7 Deadly Writing Sins

Many thanks to the marvellous Gill Kirk who suggested “The 7 Deadly Sins of Writing” as a blog topic! (If you have an idea for a topic or a writing question, then tweet me or leave a message in the B2W Facebook group.) 7) Lust No, I’m not talking about sleeping your way to the top … though whatever floats your boat! Under its old meaning, “lust” referred to the notion of DESIRE – and desire to succeed can cloud writers’ judgement in all kinds of surprising (and potentially career-kicking) ways. Obviously a healthy desire to succeed is good. But then… Read More »The 7 Deadly Writing Sins

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10 Lies Writers Tell Themselves, Pt 1: The Writing

Lies, Lies, Lies  Lies we tell ourselves as writers have a direct impact on our potential success. Don’t believe me? Fine, let’s put this idea under the microscope … Ten years ago, I was a young single Mum working out of my kitchen. I’d just finished uni; I had a few scripts in my portfolio, but I had no money – so little, in fact, I couldn’t even take the literary agent’s assistant job offered to me in London or indeed the otherwise unconditional MA offer I’d also received. In other words, the odds were against me and there were some… Read More »10 Lies Writers Tell Themselves, Pt 1: The Writing

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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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How To Maximise Your Screenplay Portfolio

Script Leads What’s in a screenwriter’s portfolio is very important. Most screenwriters know this, especially when they ask me for script leads. But there is usually a disconnect. The screenwriters often have the vain hope they MIGHT have *something* that magically ‘matches up’ with what producers and directors are looking for. Of course, 9 times out of 10 they haven’t. The writers in question will have written simply what they wanted to write. They won’t have done any research on target audiences, budgets, what’s in demand etc. In other words, they are throwing spaghetti at the wall. Sure, some might… Read More »How To Maximise Your Screenplay Portfolio

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