In case you missed it, there’s an article you really should read on negotiating tricks and how to get what you want. After all, as writers (and directors, parents, children, friends, customers, comrades, etc) we’re always…
If you want to pitch with power, here are two powerful ingredients that are often forgotten by script gurus although they are used to powerful effect in almost every successful TV drama or cinema film.
Despite what most writers think, most scripts fail to sell not because they are too different, but because they are not different enough. Many writers, including advanced writers, believe that their cinema or TV script…
If you want to write for film or TV, then treatments, outlines, synopses (the terms are interchangeable in the industry) are something you have to get good at. And to write good treatments there are…
Back from hols and the first thing on my to-do list is to go out and start selling the script I finished last month. Of course as a true artist I should have no truck…
Writing a good, compelling, readable treatment is tough. It’s difficult enough to write a script – but then to boil the whole thing down from 90+ pages to one or two…! However it’s a crucial…
Many people ask me if they should learn about selling and pitching scripts before they start writing, or after they’ve finished a draft. My answer is: either and both – and while in the middle…
Most people hate writing treatments. Not me, I love them. This is how I used a treatment to hook a top star comedian and the BBC in just five pages – and how you can…
Have you heard of Kelly Marcel? If not yet, you soon will. You’ll probably, if you’re like me, be deeply and painfully jealous. And something she said recently might teach us something important.
IS YOUR SCRIPT STUCK ON THE BRIDGE? Back from holiday, I’ve been thinking about a massive underpublicised reason why far too many writers don’t sell. If you’re a writer, then you want to sell your…
What is the key question you need to ask to sell your script? The right question follows soon. First here’s the wrong question.
Where do you fit the emotion into the cold hard-nosed job of pitching?
Few books on writing ever deal with the mental game of writing, but getting your mental game right is crucial. Today’s post gives you one of the most powerful and far-reaching tools I’ve discovered for…
You’ve finished your big “this will make your fortune” script and you start sending query letters to agents, producers, production companies, commissioning editors, all the biggest names you can find and… Well, maybe they aren’t…
Last night I got a call from a company who I’d bought from before. The previous time, I spent good money with them – this time I put the phone down after a minute. What…
Have you made a New Year’s Resolution? To start that script? Or finish it? To start selling the novel you finished? To get proper feedback? To write more? Or less? Do you really think you’re…
Today we have an attribute that I didn’t recognise for a long time. When great artists of all kinds are discussed we usually get a load of blah about originality and spontaneity as if great…
I see loads of well-written scripts (and a fair load of badly written scripts too) and I’ve seen just about every fault that writers have ever invented. But there’s one flaw that stands out as…