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10 APHORISMS TO WRITE BY: My #LondonSWF 2014

11/3/2014

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(First posted on London Screenwriters’ Festival Website on 31st October, 2014)
Creative Director Chris Jones and his amazing team did it again. They put on a superlative event that inspired, energised and empowered us to be the writers and filmmakers we want to be. This time it was bigger than ever: 800 enthusiastic delegates and 150 exceptional speakers. I’m surprised with so much creative talent concentrated in one place, we didn’t alter the earth’s magnetic field – it was that AWESOME.

An element of London Screenwriters’ Festival I particularly appreciate is the Scriptchat. This is a roundtable discussion held immediately after a session where the speaker sits and chats with those members of the audience hardy enough to resist the lure of the refreshment tent or the imperative of a nature break.

In his scriptchat, Robert Thorogood, creator of the popular TV series “Death In Paradise”, told us he loves aphorisms. As someone who is rather partial to them myself, his comment inspired me to pick out and share my favourites from this year’s London Screenwriters’ Festival.

ROBERT THOROGOOD
“Here’s the good news: you’re as good a writer now as you’ll ever be.”
Robert recently dug out an old script from his bottom drawer (we’ve all got one) and was surprised by how well-written it was. What’s the difference between then and now? Aside from dogged perseverance and doing at least one thing every day to further his writing career, he’s found his voice. That, he says, is the most important thing, as it’s what sets you apart from every other writer out there.

JULIE GRAY
“Think of your writing as something that allows you to give as well as to get.”
If anybody was in any doubt as to the value of storytelling and storytellers to the human race, Julie will have set them right in her uplifting session on writing with purpose. Julie reminded us to live and write purposefully, on purpose. It shouldn’t ever be just about the dosh. Being a writer is a calling, she says, you are a giver of hope, not a taker of money.

NICK POWELL
“A story becomes your story as soon as you start to tell it.”
Nick entertained and regaled us with stories from the filmmaking trenches in his extraordinary A to Z of Storytelling. He’s on first-name terms with just about every screenwriting god you’d care to mention and mixed up his own insights with gems from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Tom Stoppard, Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino.

LINDA ARONSON
“Storytelling is about truth and its different versions.”
Linda wowed us with her mastery of every imaginable permutation of non-linear storytelling. The theory was accompanied by lots of practical advice as to how to apply these tricky techniques to our own stories to energise and lift them. It’s crucial all writers realise that young audiences don’t take as long to “get it” as they used to, so we need to tell our stories faster and include more beats per story.

WILLIAM NICHOLSON
“A lot of story has no spoken words at all.”
This from the man who wrote one of cinema’s immortal lines, “what we do in life echoes in eternity.” (I can’t get over how great that line is. If I ever write one half as good, I’ll die happy.) William was of course referring to the old “show don’t tell” adage and extolling the virtue of visual storytelling.

TED TALLY
“Confusing the audience for three minutes is better than boring them for three seconds.”
Screenwriters invest a lot of time and trouble to learn the rules of screenwriting. Here’s more good news: once you know the rules, you can break them – if it serves your story. But there’s one rule you can never, ever break and that’s this one: don’t bore the audience!

JOEL SCHUMACHER
“We are most destructive when we don’t realise filmmaking is a collaboration.”
Besides being the most dapper man at the Festival, Joel Schumacher impressed us all with his wit, charm and generosity. From his script-to-screen session to the review of his career in film, he had us all wrapt and enchanted. It was touching to see him on stage with the real Philomena Lee, who graciously accepted the inaugural British Screenwriters’ Award for Best British Feature Film Writing on behalf of Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope for “Philomena”.

LEE JESSUP
“Never walk into a meeting unprepared. Approach pitching as networking.”
Lee Jessup’s structured, no-nonsense approach to making it in Hollywood had us all wishing we’d met her a year earlier, if not sooner… If you want to make it in Hollywood, no matter where you live, all you’ve got to do is get noticed. Lee then delighted us by giving us some very doable suggestions as to how to go about it.

AMMA ASANTE
“ ‘No’ is followed by a comma, not a full-stop.”
Amma’s story of being robbed of the credit for her words is heart-breaking, yet the way she overcame this set-back is inspiring. What struck me is how she defines herself first and foremost as a writer. (Yay! She’s one of us!) Had she known what would happen, she says, despite the tremendous benefits directing “Belle” has brought her, she would not have gone ahead with the project. Now that’s artistic integrity for you.

CHRIS JONES & JONATHAN NEWMAN
“The only failure is not doing something; everything else is a learning experience.”
“Free your mind,” says Morpheus to Neo in “The Matrix”. The Manifesting Success session was all about recognising that the person running us is our five-year-old self and that our inner voice, which tends to be negative, is not reality. Here again there is good news: we can choose not to listen. The ultimate reality is doing, so say what you are going to do and have the integrity to do what you say. That way success lies – whatever success means to you.

All that remains to be said after this whistle-stop tour of some of the highlights of my #LondonSWF 2014 is a heartfelt THANK YOU to Chris, the team, the volunteers, the speakers and the delegates. Let’s do it all over again next year!

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WRITER'S BLOG TOUR 2014

7/31/2014

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Remember that scene in Kenneth Branagh’s “A Midwinter's Tale” when the characters start listing what makes life worthwhile? “Brief Encounter”, says one. “Thinking of my son being happy”, says another. “Oh s**t. Do we all have to do one?” says Carnforth.

A screenwriter, it seems, has nowhere to hide. We may prefer to stay in our bedrooms, typing in our pyjamas, but when that invitation to participate in the Writer’s Blog Tour lands in your inbox, you’ve got to throw off your comfort blanket and “do one” – or in this case, four.

Thanks to the delightful
Cera Rose Pickering for inviting me to take a turn. Here goes…

What am I working on?

At the moment I’ve got my producer’s hat on and I’m spending most of my writing time working on marketing materials for the two projects I am currently promoting: adventure/drama "Africa As You Like It" and period ghost story "Dowl’s Mill" – two completely different genres, but both featuring strong female protagonists.

This summer I am starting a new screenplay called "The Erskine Double", a period comedy loosely based on scandalous events that occurred at the periphery of my family tree in the early nineteenth century involving Thomas, 1st Baron Erskine, Lord Chancellor of England 1806-7.


How does my work feel different to others of its genre?

This is the trick question, isn’t it?!! Everybody brings their own personal narrative to their work, and I am no exception. I’ve had a unique set of experiences, good and bad, that have made me who I am and shaped my world view. I can’t help but bring that to my writing.

Having said that, I believe my scripts are more relatable than the vast majority of Hollywood fare. Personally I’m rather tired of worlds peopled solely by men and where female characters, if they exist at all, are often cyphers whose sole function is making the male protagonist look human/manly/sexy/etc.

My scripts typically feature female protagonists, but I work hard to ensure any supporting characters, male or female, are well-rounded with an interesting story arc of their own. I think the idea that audiences should feel that every character in your script is the star of their own film in a parallel universe is great advice.


Why do I write what I do?

I honestly feel that the story chooses me. And yes, I do know how nutty that sounds! Let me give you an example. I was jogging past a row of beach huts of uniform appearance on Bournemouth beach, when I noticed the last one was completely different to the rest. I started to wonder about the owners of that beach hut. What drove them to dare to be different? The characters continued to grow and evolve in my mind, and the next thing I knew I had a screenplay called “The Beach Hut”.

Another example is “Dowl’s Mill”, which was inspired by an ancient mill I saw progressively restored from a ruin to a magnificent residence as I stared out of the window on train journeys between Bournemouth and Dorchester. My 5x great grandfather, Henry Parker, lived in the adjacent village and I’ve always had an odd fancy that he worked at that mill… Train journeys seem to be a great place for writers to find inspiration. It was on a train that J.K. Rowling dreamt up  “Harry Potter” and Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat first discussed “Sherlock” – but not on the same train, obviously!

The other reason I write what I do is because I tend to write about what I know. Growing up, one of my favourite characters was Jo in “Little Women”, and she was advised to write about what she knew. It’s when she took that advice to heart that she became a really good writer, and I’ve always remembered it. The great thing is, you can constantly learn about new things, so the store of what you know is continually replenished and never diminishes.


How does my writing process work?

It’s a mosaic. It might start with an image, or a character or a snatch of dialogue. I need to start writing to explore it. It is in the act of writing that the story begins to emerge. When I’ve got a vague sense of the story, I do my research. I write. I research. I write. I research. Once I have enough material, I create an outline.

From there I’ll write the first draft. It’s pretty much a stream of consciousness that often takes on a life of it’s own and deviates from the outline. But that's OK. Sometimes you need to write stuff that is never going to end up in the script because you, the writer, need to have that information about your characters and their world on the tip of your brain.

Writing is re-writing, so I will then write any number of drafts until I’m happy with it. One of the things I do when I’m re-writing is break the script down into sequences (typically eight, with possibly a ninth as an epilogue), to make sure I have a strong structure and appropriate pacing. My two favourite screenwriting books are John Yorke’s “Into The Woods” and Julie Gray’s “Just Effing Entertain Me”. They’re never far from my desk when I’m in re-write mode.


Passing the Torch

Many thanks to my three torch -bearers:


Screenwriter Annas Eskander who specialises in science fiction and whose personal courage inspires me to be a better person and a more dedicated writer.

Comedy writer Nick Boocock who wrote the screenplay (amongst others) of the forth-coming short, “Reply To All”, of which I am proud to be an associate producer.

Playwright, poet and screenwriter Mary Anstey who was a classmate on the "storytelling for the screen" programme at the Screen Arts Institute in 2013.

Thank you one and all!




 


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    One of my uncles calls me, “Kim the Intrepid”. Adventures include an African revolution, questioning by the KGB/FSB and being guest of honour at a Turkmen wedding.  What else would I want to do but write? 

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