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Women In Film

Yes, Male Writers CAN Write Fantastic Female Characters

Not ALL Male Writers It’s true, male writers can get a bum rap when writing about female characters. As the headline of this article suggests, OF COURSE male writers can write great female characters. In fact, some of my all-time favourites have literally been written by male writers!!! From my time as a script reader, I’d venture there’s no correlation between gender and talent of writers. This obviously means there will be GREAT writers who happen to be female … But it ALSO means a female writer will not automatically write a great female character too. No one knows where talent comes… Read More »Yes, Male Writers CAN Write Fantastic Female Characters

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3 Quick Tips On Writing Diverse Characters

Want To Write Great Diverse Characters? Every day I hear from Bang2writers who want to write great female leads, characters of colour, or characters from the LGBT and disabled communities … but they’re scared of ‘getting it wrong’. If this is you as well, I have great news. It’s possible to write great diverse characters AND avoid the mistakes that worry you in advance. So let’s skip the fluff and go straight to those actionable quick tips that you can implement immediately. Quick Tip # 1: Avoid those ‘samey’ stories for diverse characters When writers want to attempt a diverse… Read More »3 Quick Tips On Writing Diverse Characters

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An Epic Rundown of the LSF365 Live Script Edit Pile

LSF365 Live Script Edit 2020 So, it was the B2W LSF365 Live Script Edit last night! I have been doing the Live Script Edit for the festival for years now. I’m never failed to be impressed by the plucky writers who offer up their pages for dissection in this session! Seriously, let’s all be upstanding for them … Round of applause! LSF365 is the first time I did the session virtually. This year, I got 52 submissions. This is not the most I’ve ever received for this session, but it’s definitely up there. This gave me a crazy idea … ‘What… Read More »An Epic Rundown of the LSF365 Live Script Edit Pile

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15 Awesome Tips For Cutting Down Your Page Count

All About Cutting Down Page Count Cutting down scripts is an essential tool of the trade for writers. Last week I had to cut a script down from 138 pages to the required 104. Losing 34 pages is no mean feat, but most of us will have to do this at some point … Some writers will find themselves cutting down even more! I’m a writer who continually overwrites (I’d rather have too much than too little). This means cutting down page count is a skill I’ve developed over the last few years. Here’s my top tips on how to do… Read More »15 Awesome Tips For Cutting Down Your Page Count

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No, Diverse Characters DON’T Have To Drive The Plot

Diversity Drive Calm down Doris I have not lost the plot! The drive for more diversity (*cough* variety) in all stories is still very much part of this website. Obviously B2W would never advocate ‘ignoring’ the politics of characterisation. It’s literally this blog’s remit … I wrote an entire book about this subject, FFS!  So, what am I banging on about? Well, there’s a common misconception writers have about diversity in storytelling … They think diverse characters can ONLY exist for **plot reasons**. I’m here to say NOPE. Here’s why.  A Quick History Lesson Not so long ago, diverse characters… Read More »No, Diverse Characters DON’T Have To Drive The Plot

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Brit Marling Is Wrong On ‘Strong Female Characters’. Here’s Why

All About Brit Marling I’ll confess I hadn’t heard of Brit Marling before last weekend. Like a good portion of blogging writers, the first I knew of her was her opinion piece in the NY Times, ‘I Don’t Want To Be the Strong Female Lead’. It’s fair to say this article really lit up social media. Since B2W is known for its own commentary on female characterisation, I thought I’d throw my own thoughts out on it. But first, credit where it’s due. Brit Marling is an American actress and screenwriter. She’s starred in films such as Sound of My Voice (2011), Another… Read More »Brit Marling Is Wrong On ‘Strong Female Characters’. Here’s Why

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10 Lessons On Writing Women From Phoebe Waller-Bridge

About Phoebe Waller-Bridge If you’ve never heard of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, my first question is where have you been???  She is, of course, the English actress and writer who created, wrote, and starred in the BBC tragicomedy series Fleabag. Phoebe was also the showrunner and executive producer for the first series of the BBC America thriller series Killing Eve. More recently, she signed on to ‘spice up’ the new James Bond movie, No Time To Die. So it’s fair to say this is a creative who knows her stuff! With all this in mind, Bang2write took a look at her thoughts on… Read More »10 Lessons On Writing Women From Phoebe Waller-Bridge

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How To Find Your Writer’s Voice

What Is Writer’s Voice? Wikipedia defines ‘Writer’s Voice’ as the following … ‘The writer’s voice is the individual writing style of an author, a combination of idiotypical usage of syntax, diction, punctuation, character development, dialogue, etc., within a given body of text (or across several works). Voice can be thought of in terms of the uniqueness of a vocal voice machine. As a trumpet has a different voice than a tuba or a violin has a different voice than a cello, so the words of one author have a different sound than the words of another. One author may have a voice that is light… Read More »How To Find Your Writer’s Voice

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Top 10 Badass Female Antiheroes You Need To Know

All About Antiheroes Lots of writers believe antiheroes ‘have’ to be protagonists, but this is not the case. Antiheroes are defined in the dictionary as the following … A central character in a story, film, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes, eg. “with the age of the antihero, baddies and goodies became less distinguishable from one another”. Myself, I love an enigmatic female lead!! With all this in mind then, I am going to look at some badass female antiheroes, plus what writers can learn from them. Ready? Let’s go! 1) Aunt Lydia, The Handmaid’s Tale Aunt Lydia in The… Read More »Top 10 Badass Female Antiheroes You Need To Know

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30 Quotes Writers Need To Know To Keep Motivated

Keeping Motivated Keeping motivated is hard … Whether you are stuck on the last chapter of your novel, or you’re just sitting down to write the first, a little motivation can go a long way. If you need a little extra help in staying motivated, this is just the article for you. Below are some of the best quotes from your fellow writers to inspire you to set aside self-doubt and just keep writing. 1) Anne Lamott “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” MORE: 7 Motivational Quotes From Shonda Rhimes  2) Mary Lee Settle… Read More »30 Quotes Writers Need To Know To Keep Motivated

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Why Theme In FRIENDS Is Better Than You Think

Theme in Friends It’s fair to say the internet erupted with news of a Friends reunion, recently. I’ve written about Friends a fair amount this year on this blog, so thought I would return to the show, with reference to theme. Theme refers to ‘an idea that recurs in or pervades a work of art or literature.’ Friends is about a bunch of young friends, all getting through life and love, dealing with whatever it throws at them. Being a sitcom, it’s about dysfunctional family too. Le duh. However, with theme we make our OWN meaning too. How each individual audience… Read More »Why Theme In FRIENDS Is Better Than You Think

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In JOKER, The Big Lesson Is There Is No Point

What’s The Point If you’ve seen JOKER (or even if you haven’t), you will be aware of the trillion articles, thinkpieces, tweets, statuses etc arguing about its point. I don’t think it’s unfair to say the reaction of the storytelling blogosphere and social media has been profoundly negative … Yet at the same time the movie has also reached dizzying heights of critical acclaim, also generating $290m in its first week. So what gives? Myself, I’ve never been a fan of the Joker as a character. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the poster boy for the stigmatising ‘psycho-killer’ trope in… Read More »In JOKER, The Big Lesson Is There Is No Point

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