I had a fantastic response last week when I launched this humble round robin, with direct replies from some of you reflecting on the challenges you face when striking a balance between your life and your dreams.
Thank you for taking the time to reach out. It’s always lovely to know these are reaching someone. And the same can be said for industry newsletters. In a recent mentoring session I had with Hayley McKenzie from Script Angel (among other things), she shared that she rarely, if ever, gets a reply to the weekly newsletter that is crammed full of resources.
Acknowledging the work others put into supporting you is a fast-track way to build relationships. So if you have any newsletters in your inbox, hit reply and say hello. You never know, they might just reply back.
“I don’t like to be a nuisance,” I hear you say. Well, the beauty of emails, as many of you have experienced, is we can choose to read them and respond to them or not.
Consider this one quick thing to do this week, even if it’s just to one person.
One thing to do this week: Send a follow-up to an industry newsletter you’ve received. Be specific and tell them what resonated with you.
Let me know if they replied!
Let’s dive into a fresh topic: Script Reading
I started script reading for myself and for companies six years ago, reading scripts for competitions and festivals, for students and peers. I’ve no idea how many I’ve read over the years, but it’s a lot, and it crosses all mediums: audio, TV, film, short, and plays.
First off, is it well paid? Not one bit. You can visit a site like Fiverr and pay for a script read for less than £20. Is it any good? Only you can decide. Is it worth your time as a reader?
A general rule of thumb for me is that to read a script critically, I need at least 1.5x the length of the script. If a 30-page script takes me 30 minutes to read, I need another 30 to read it again, and a contingency of 15 minutes for pausing and notes. But this doesn’t include time to construct written feedback which must always be carefully considered.
£20 for an hour and a half doesn’t seem so bad.
Until you scale it up. A 100-page feature will take me around four hours, still without writing up notes, which £20 suddenly looks pretty poor for.
Almost all festivals and competitions don’t pay readers. And the ones that do, it’s hard to get that gig, and the fee is still nominal.
That said, from a professional development point of view, reading scripts from the perspective of pre-production, and from writers at all stages, is incredibly valuable. You learn faster what works and what doesn’t, you challenge yourself more in your own writing, and you have a clearer idea of where your work sits in the market.
The Script Factory are one of many companies that provide courses in reading scripts led by Justine Hart, which I can recommend, but also their book, Reading Screenplays: How to Analyse and Evaluate Film Script by Lucy Schur.
If paying for a course is a little out of reach just now, pair up with another writer and meet regularly, and without fail, to swap scripts and give verbal and written feedback. It’s a muscle that needs regular flexing: use it or lose it.
I have started a podcast with the London Screenwriters’ Festival examining scripts with notable industry players, from writers to agents. You can find these on the LSF website and on the LSF YouTube.
There are lots of places to obtain free scripts to read including BBC Writers, Studio Binder, Script Slug, Script Hive… etc., and lots of platforms where you can read other emerging writer’s work: The Black List, CenterFrame, Scribe Lounge etc etc. Have a Google, start a reading group!
A note on AI… Yes, you absolutely could bung your script into a bot and ask it to critique your work. But that’s about as effective as painting abs on for Ryan Gosling in the movie Barbie. What do you truly gain? When you swap scripts with others, you learn important interpersonal skills that you will need when you are a working screenwriter. When interviewed by funders, and when you go for general meetings with production companies, they will always ask how you engage with feedback. It’s very important that you can demonstrate the ability to take notes.
Remember, there are no shortcuts.
Top tip: Reading scripts is a two-way street. You learn as much about your own work as you do about others, and you build connections and understand the market better.
So, what is on my horizon?
The BBC Comedy Collective has opened its submissions. I will be looking into this in more detail over the coming week, examining the website carefully for criteria, conditions, and what the opportunity entails, as someone who has a full time job and a pretty full on home life, I need to be aware of what I may need to put in place to support it.
One of the things I do before I apply to anything is consider: what are my chances of actually getting into it? I’m not taking part in this thought process as a form of self-deprecation or preparation for disappointment, but to do two things:
Manage my expectations. If I go into this believing “this is it! I will secure this, and it will be my big break, one more step closer to that personal chef!” then when I receive that inevitable rejection, the pain is far worse. Because I have not only lost a golden opportunity, but also never having to decide what to have for dinner, ever again.
Career Planning. You could look at most of opportunities and see them as lottery tickets, because you have to be in it to win it. But when researching previous successful applicants, you can often tell that perhaps you weren’t quite ready yet. Not quite at that similar stage. Applying repeatedly builds intention, momentum, and awareness. The teams shortlisting are often small, and if you’re lucky enough to make it to the final few, they might see your resilience and perseverance as a sign of just how much you want it.
I will also be reaching out to some successful applicants who might be able to tell me what their experience was and what they felt worked for them. And no, maybe that won’t make any difference, but you’ll have made a new connection by doing that.
Writing is not an isolated career. I’ll cover this in more depth in another issue.
But for now, happy writing.
Helen
Next up… No time? No problem! Right?