The Scriptwriter Blog is taking a permanent break. I don't have the time or energy to devote to the blog that is needed to move forward. Thank you to those who supported the blog, read it or contributed to it in the past... I love every single one of you. I'll be leaving past posts up for reference. Happy writing ..read more

I don't want to make any New Year writing resolutions this year. Not because I've lost my ambition along with my writing mojo but because I don't want to end 2022 with any unfulfilled goals. Unfulfilled goals lead to anger... anger leads to hate... hate leads to standing in a dark, damp cave with father issues and only a lightsaber as company... ahem... well, you get the drift. Basically, I don't want to make all these resolutions and/or goals and then end the year disappointed having not achieved some or all of them. Because, at the moment, the danger with failing to acheive the writing goal ..read more

2020 was a reasonable year. While I did battle depression for the most part I also landed a feature commission and had plenty of screenplay clients to distract me from the explosion of Covid. However, 2021 was a completely different monster altogether. 2021 sucked the life out of me. There were no commissions, very few screenplay clients and my mental health went terminal. By the end of the summer, I was done. I could barely string a sentence together in person or on the page and I was so broke I contemplated ending it all. It got that bad! But it's only when you reach rock bottom you realise ..read more

 Talk about how as a writer you have to experience pain to make your writing better ..read more

The static scene is one of the most common mistakes a new writer can make. Characters sitting around eating/drinking/talking isn't visually appealing and can be incredibly dull to watch, especially in feature films. 'But..,' I hear you cry, 'Tarantino did exactly that in his opening scene of RESERVOIR DOGS???' He did, but then he 'is' Tarantino... sadly, the rest of us are just mere mortals. Both TV and feature films are visual mediums and as such, the visuals take the lead, showing us character and moving the plot forward. If they're not interesting enough to hold the attention of the audienc ..read more

Here’s part two of my interview with legendary Hollywood producer Gary W Goldstein, where we’ve been discussing how it’s imperative to be bold as a writer… What was it about the writers you've championed that attracted you to them? “I'm looking for people who have personality and aren't afraid of telling their story and that they know how to tell a story. Not because they write a perfect script, there is no such thing. At the heart, I want to see there’s a very meaningful and worthwhile artist at work, who’s got a fresh perspective and is not trying to mimic others and be commercial in the m ..read more

This blog was first posted back in 2012 and although my work methods have changed slightly, the below is still relevant... Somebody asked me how much work I put into a second draft, which is a very good question as I may have over simplified the second draft process in my last blog. For me the first draft is literally just one pass on the story. I may go back a couple of times to make a few quick, minor changes, but mostly I just write from the start until the finish, with very little editing (I now edit as I go aiming to write five pages a day and edit what I've written the following day ..read more

One Page Pitches are an art form, difficult to write and get right and probably the most important and powerful selling tool at a writer's disposal. So how exactly do you write a great One Page Pitch? Here's how I do them. FONT: The font you use is just as important as everything else. Get it wrong and your pitch will be a difficult read, or at the very least not inspire much enthusiasm in the reader. I used to use FINAL DRAFT COURIER for everything I wrote until I came to the realisation readers spend their entire lives staring at that font. Your font doesn't need to be fancy, just clear e ..read more

I have now viewed all episodes of the first series of THE WATCH and below is my revised review and conclusions... As a whole, if you don't go in with expectations of THE WATCH being anything like the books, the show's okay, a solid bit of entertainment without being particularly memorable. After completing the series, I watched an interview on YouTube with creator and lead writer Simon Allen and one of the producers, where they kept going on about how great Sir Terry's novels were and what great characters he had created. This is of course true, but they failed to mention their adaptation is ..read more

The BBC's long-anticipated THE WATCH finally hit iPlayer this week but is it, as fans of Sir Terry's books feared, a complete betrayal of a much-loved series or is it actually quite good? I've watched the pilot episode twice over the last twenty-four hours and while there is a lot to like, the cyberpunkesque version of the City Watch, the ultraviolet/neon/graffiti covered interiors and exteriors and Richard Dormer's brilliant take on Captain Vimes, it doesn't quite have the depth of colour and uniqueness of the original. The show's opening title disclaimer 'inspired by the characters created ..read more