Once you’ve finished your script, put it away for at least a couple of weeks. Don’t look at it. Don’t think about it. After a holiday away from your script, return and read it, then re-read it again. This time go through a series of sweeps, each of which will look at a particular aspect of the script.
CHARACTERS
Work through your cast of characters one by one and follow their through-line and ask:
Does their particular storyline make sense for them?
Do they act consistently throughout?
Do they act naturally or do they act just to serve the plot?
Check their dialogue: Is their vocabulary and sentence structure distinctive? Do they sound like anyone else in the script?
Is your protagonist proactive enough?
Does a character change their behaviour? If so, is there a plausible catalyst for that change?
SCENES
Go through the script scene by scene and answer these questions:
Does the scene start as late as possible?
Does the scene finish as early as possible?
Does the scene move the story forward?
Is the scene visual? That is, does it show rather than tell?
Does the scene follow on logically from the previous scene and move on logically to the next one?
Is there conflict within the scene?
Has that conflict been maximized?
Does it change the direction of the story?
If you took the scene out of the script, would the script still make sense? If it does, cut the scene.
ACTION
Go through the script and read only the scene action, then ask yourself:
Does the story make sense visually?
Is the script visually interesting?
Is the script visually dramatic?
STRUCTURE
Read the script and ask yourself the following:
Does the script grab the audience from the beginning on an emotional level?
Are their sufficient and regular hooks?
Does the script surprise in its storytelling? (Have you seen something like it before? Is it too predictable?)
Do you have a strong and satisfying ending?
Have all the major conflicts been resolved?
More questions
Here are some more questions you should be asking as you re-read your script. The answers should come from the script in front of you, not from the idea of your story in your head:
Is the premise set up properly? Can it be understood?
Does the narrative flow? Is it an easy or difficult read?
What is going on? Do you understand and run with the story?
Is the story the one you wanted to write?
Do the events of the narrative reflect the script’s theme?
Are there scenes, sequences or dialogue that do not relate to your central story or theme?
What is your protagonist’s goal?
Does your protagonist and their goal drive the story? Does their progression make sense?
Does your antagonist have a dominant enough role?
Is the story told in a televisual fashion?
Could any of the scenes or the storytelling be better?
Are there any unnecessary elements in the script? A healthy script is a lean script.
Is there too much detail?
Does your story fulfil the expectations of the genre?
Now rewrite… and rewrite
As you go through all these questions, your answers will generate a desire to revise and rewrite. The purpose of the rewrite is to make your script better. Ultimately, someone you’ve probably never met will have to read this script and make a judgement on it. You want to impress that stranger, so you need the script to be the best it can be.
You will have to be tough on yourself and tough on the writing. You may have the best scene you’ve ever written but, if it doesn’t sit well in the script because it doesn’t push the story along, then cut it. If a scene isn’t working, rewrite it or reposition it. It may need to be supported by additional scenes.
Now go through the script word by word:
cut
rewrite
polish.
Once you’ve revised the script, put it away for a week and then return to it and go through the same process again.
You can revise as many times as you like but don’t slip into a permanent cycle of rewriting just for the sake of it. It will serve no purpose. In fact, it could end up being the reason why your script never sees the light of day.
Script feedback
Once you are happy with your revised script, it is now time to hand your script over to trusted people who will give you feedback. You want people who will be honest with you and who understand scripts. They may be fellow writers or actors or script editors or script readers but whoever it is – and you may want to pass the script to more than one person – you must be able to trust their opinion and integrity to give an honest appraisal.
There are a number of individuals and organizations who provide a script feedback service for a fee. The services they supply can vary from a simple written report on your script to more thorough advice possibly supported by one-to-one discussion. These independent eyes are valuable for an assessment of your script.
Do your homework about any service you pay for because the fees can be quite expensive and for the money you pay you want good-quality feedback. Ask for the individual’s or company’s credentials. Does the reader have industry experience? How long has the company been established? What are their success stories in the marketplace? Make sure you can verify the claims. Understand exactly what you are paying for and what you can expect.
Talk to other writers and see if they can recommend any particular script feedback service. Do not balk over the fees – just make sure the fee is worthwhile. If you don’t invest in yourself, why should anyone else invest in you? See the ‘Taking it further’ section at the end of this book for further information about script reading services.
FEEDBACK NOTES – ROUND ONE
Notes are part and parcel of the scriptwriter’s lot. Even when you have achieved your goal of a script commission, there will be notes on your script from various sources and invariably delivered to you by your assigned script editor (UK) or showrunner (US).
Remember: you are asking and/or paying for an honest appraisal of your script. Do not take the report or notes as personal criticism. You want to make your script better.
Sit down with a coffee (or other favourite beverage) and read the feedback notes. Then read them again with the script by your side. Go through the script and look at the notes. It will be clear that some things in the script will need addressing (this is especially true if more than one person highlights the same thing). It will be your job as the writer to choose how to address the issues raised: which changes need to be made? You may decide to embrace every note or choose to ignore some if you don’t agree with them. Both standpoints are equally valid. Remember: you are looking to improve your script. Not every note will be a good one and you will have to learn between the good and the bad (though the vast majority will be good).
FEEDBACK NOTES – ROUND TWO
Once you have rewritten your script in the context of the feedback received, it may be wise to go for a second round of feedback. Once again, pay attention to the notes and again address any issues. If you’re getting the same note as you did from the first round of feedback, then the likelihood is it will be an issue that you will have to address – so do so.
After the latest rewrite, see if you can have the script read aloud so you can hear what it sounds like. Check out any local acting groups who may be able to help you. Do not participate in the read-through – just sit, listen and make notes.
Finally…
Do another final polish of the script and then a proofread. Remember: you are a writer and the tools of your trade are words – make sure they are spelled correctly and you ha
ve used the right ones.
The essence of spec scriptwriting is to get it right. Generally speaking, you do not have to rush. You are writing a script to impress. There are exceptions, of course – if, for example, you are writing a script to submit to a competition. Deadlines are important to television and being able to write quickly and under pressure is a great asset and something you are going have to do. Not only do you have to write and rewrite a script within a given timeframe, the writing has to be of the highest quality. You will only learn the quality test by writing your specs.
Do-it-yourself checks
Here is a checklist of common mistakes to look out for in your script. Do take the time to make sure everything on this list is right.
Typos You are a writer, your tools of the trade are words and you should not be misspelling them. It never looks good.
Secondary characters Make sure they are involved where they should be and that they do not simply drift in and out.
Time Unless it is a time travel story, make sure time passes in a believable and realistic way.
Circumstances Make sure every aspect of the dramatic situation has a ring of truth to it.
Dialogue Make sure your characters sound distinctive and different from one another.
Intent Be clear about the story you’re telling. Is it the story you meant to tell? Is it the genre you intended? Are the characters right and/or consistent?
Exposition Remember: show, don’t tell.
Storytelling Make sure the script is primarily visual – remember the medium that you’re writing for.
Don’t direct There should be absolutely no camera angles!
Key advice
Try to read your own work as objectively as possible – using checklists like the ones in this chapter will help you keep focused on the nuts and bolts.
Don’t take a script reader’s criticism personally – their goal and yours is to improve the script.
Don’t rewrite for ever – learn to know when your script is good enough to go out into the big, wide world.
Industry interview 6: the scriptwriter (IV)
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: SALLY WAINWRIGHT
Sally Wainwright is one of the UK’s most successful scriptwriters and has been the creator and writer of an impressive list of original drama for both BBC and ITV. Her breakthrough series was At Home with the Braithwaites, which ran for four seasons. Since then Sally has written a diverse range of shows such as Jane Hall and The Amazing Mrs Pritchard to the Royal Television Society award-winning drama serial Unforgiven. Her female detective show Scott & Bailey has completed a second series on ITV in 2012 and on the BBC her drama Last Tango in Halifax also debuted in the same year.
Nicholas Gibbs: You are one of the nation’s top writers, by which I mean you are getting regular commissions of original work. How did you break into television?
Sally Wainwright: Well, I started writing dialogue when I was about 11. I wrote plays for me and my sister all the time and when I got to university I wrote my first full-length stage play. I was allowed to submit it as part of my degree. I had to do a performance of it and I took it to the Edinburgh Festival. I asked as many people from the world of television as I knew, which wasn’t many, but I invited everyone and I invited some agents, but nobody came at all. One agent said, ‘I can’t come but can you send me a copy of the script?’ and she became my first agent and she sent that out to people as a calling card and it was through that I got The Archers when I was about 24.
NG: The Archers is a BBC Radio 4 soap. Did you listen to the show?
SW: I hadn’t in fact. I’d heard it because my mum was a very keen listener which was really amazing for me because I’d always heard it in the background but I never followed it. It just washed straight over me. My mum was able to give me a crash course and she was so excited about me getting the chance to do it. I absorbed so much information from her very quickly. I was given a trial script and I made that work. They offered a week’s work and a contract. From that my Archers scripts became calling cards for other things, and I left to write Emmerdale, which didn’t work out. I only wrote six episodes. I didn’t like it and it was my early introduction to television and it was awful… it was terrible. It was all I wanted to do since I was 13 and my first introduction to it was appalling and my agent said, ‘Get used to it because this is what it’s like.’ For me it has been the only time it has been like that.
NG: Did that initial first bad experience of television put you off?
SW: No, it didn’t because I knew I wanted to write telly. I knew it was a crap programme so that wasn’t going to put me off. The reason I had confidence in myself was at the time I had a similar approach from Granada to work on daytime soaps like Families. It was brilliant because you were working with people like Kay Mellor and Peter Whalley and some fantastic writers. My ultimate ambition since the age of 13 had been to write for Coronation Street and the fact I got a foot in the door at Granada was amazing and I was working for Carolyn Reynolds who was executive producer of Coronation Street. I was working for her on things like Families, Revelations and Children’s Ward.
NG: So Coronation Street was a good experience?
SW: I had a fantastic time when I got on to Coronation Street. You were working with brilliant writers like Peter Whalley and Stephen Mallatratt. Amazing names I’d seen on screen since I was 13 and then you’re in the room with them once a fortnight. I never spoke for the first three years because I was in awe of everyone. Just being in that environment where you were learning how to tell cracking stories was extraordinary. On Coronation Street the writers were the most important element of the whole thing. I think even on a par with the actors; the writers were really, really respected. When I worked on Emmerdale script editors rewrote your scripts and that was partly why I left. I wasn’t having that; I wasn’t having my name on something that someone else had written. You come to Coronation Street and they don’t touch your script. You got notes and you did them yourself and you knew that what went out on screen was your work. There is a real pride in that and I’ve always been very insistent that the script should be respected. You’ve got your name on it and, if there’s something in there you’re not happy with, you don’t let it go out with your name on.
NG: So you reach Coronation Street. Did you know where you wanted to go then?
SW: Yes, I did because I worked with Kay Mellor a lot. Kay had very briefly written on Corrie, but by that stage she had done Band of Gold and she’d got a new series Playing the Field. She invited me on board for the second series and it was the first time I’d been asked to write a nine o’clock hour-long BBC1 drama. Kay was my role model at the time. I had always aspired to write Coronation Street and I thought I’d be on there for ever, up until meeting Kay. When Kay was doing big nine o’clock dramas I thought: ‘That’s what I want to do next. If Kay can do it, I can do it.’ She was really supportive. So my ambition was to get my own drama. I did have the experience of writing for Tiger Aspect on Playing the Field, which was a whole different ball game; so much bigger, more demanding, so many more notes about getting it exactly right and the timescale was different. I was just seduced by the better production values they have on bigger dramas.
NG: Were you working on At Home with the Braithwaites then?
SW: When I was writing Corrie I talked to Tony Wood about writing a sitcom about a family. Tony originally commissioned Braithwaites as a half-hour sitcom about this dysfunctional family. They hadn’t won the lottery. They were just a bunch of people who didn’t get on with each other. You couldn’t quite work out why they were all in the same house, other than they were related to each other. I wrote it as a sitcom and then Tony left and Carolyn inherited it and she commissioned it as an hour-long drama.
NG: Did she call you in and say ‘I’ve seen this but I think it would make an hour-long drama’?
SW: By that stage, anyway, I’d been doing other stuff. She’d had an idea for a drama about mountain rescue fo
r ITV. She’d ask me on board to do it. She obviously had a lot of faith in me and she knew I had experience on Playing the Field. She obviously thought I was becoming that calibre of writer. So when she inherited the Braithwaites project she said, ‘Why don’t we do this at nine o’clock but make it more serious.’ I don’t think comedy-drama had been invented! Braithwaites and Cold Feet kind of defined what we now think of as comedy-drama. So I rewrote…
NG: When did the idea of the lottery win come into it?
SW: I can’t remember at what point this woman winning all this money became a factor. Originally, it wasn’t to do with the lottery; it was to do with her getting a telephone bill where they accidently credited her account with a ridiculous amount of money. It was meant to be the joke of trying to ring British Telecom but never getting through to the right person. Eventually, she gives up and thinks, ‘I’ll keep the money.’ Then the lottery thing happened. ITV did this big lottery-related evening. I think it was the first night of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? so we had a fantastic inheritance. The audience went from Who Wants to be a Millionaire? straight into At Home with the Braithwaites. We got 9 million on that first episode.
NG: It must have seemed so easy?
SW: It wasn’t plain sailing. We sent it to Nick Elliott, who was in charge of ITV then, and we got all these notes back saying ‘I don’t get that’, ‘I don’t know what it is’ and we thought it was dead in the water. Apparently, David Liddiment leaned on Nick and said, ‘Just greenlight it,’ and he did. Nick was really proud of it when it came out. The thing is drama is subject to people’s whims and tastes and you’re never quite sure where you stand.
NG: Did you work to an end point? Did you know how it was going to end?
Writing Television Drama Page 12
