A look back on my main writing achievements for 2018.
How Do You ‘Find Your Voice’ As A Writer?
On the destructive myth of a writer’s ‘voice’, and what ‘finding your voice’ actually means.
Speed Pitching! Things To Consider
The delightful Holly Lyons, screenwriting lecturer at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and maven behind script assessment service Screenwriting Scriptease, invited me along last week to a speed pitching session for her screenwriting students. Along with some fellow industry peeps, we lined ourselves up for an onslaught of pitches from emerging writers and filmmakers […]
5 Ways To Improve Gender Representation In Your Kids TV Concept
You can click here to jump straight to the checklist! As writers, we’re told to think outside the box. We strive to look beyond genre conventions, to make interesting connections so our concepts feel ‘fresh’ and ‘unique’. We scout for intriguing ways into our stories, and look to develop characters with traits and motivations that […]
Advice To New And Emerging Screenwriters (And Script Editors)
So, I write for television and I get paid for it. It literally pays my bills and keeps me fed. I don’t earn an outrageous living, far from it, but I earn enough to maintain independence and sanity. I don’t have to dig wells, sell shoes or wait tables* to keep myself afloat. AND I […]
Monthly Wrap-Up – February 2018
It’s been an up-and-down month, I’m not feeling great and I have no idea what I have written below – I hope it makes sense! Here we go: WATCHING a lot of daggy game shows on telly – Pointless, Think Tank etc – and daggily cheering for the return of Hard Quiz. I am such […]
Monthly Wrap-Up – January 2018
Inspired by Austin Kleon’s Ten Things, and in awe of Pip Lincolne’s Taking Stock blog posts, I’m going to give a weird hybrid of the two a crack. Here we go! Here’s what I’ve been up to this month: WATCHING the brilliant The Good Place, which I’m utterly THRILLED for (it’s perhaps the best thing […]
View From The Top (of the Book Pile) – January 2018
I feel determined to make more of an effort to read, watch and enjoy stories by women, about women, this year. And I’ve made a good start with these three: Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard I’ve had a bit of girl crush on Mary Beard for a while. A Professor of Classics […]
The Power of Predictive Poetry
It all started (for me at least) when I saw this tweet from J.K. Rowling: The tweet was in response to sports blogger Bradley Geiser’s (aka NBA Kurt Vonnegut @therealbradg) request for people to write their autobiography using only predictive text, starting with the words ‘I was born’. This blew my mind! How amazing, and […]
A Fun, Feminist Magazine for Girls? Yes Please!
A couple of months ago, a friend got in touch to let me know about her latest project. And my heart skipped a beat. Nicky Shortridge and her childhood best friend Vivien Jones are busy creating Kookie – a fun, feminist print magazine designed for girls, that they are looking to fund through Kickstarter. In their […]
Embracing My Inner Loser
I’ve been having a couple of those kinds of weeks. I’ve taken on work I really didn’t want to take on because, you know, dignity isn’t as important as paying the bills. I’ve had to put myself on a diet, not because I give a flying rat’s about my weight, but because I no longer […]
The One Difference Between Good and Bad Producers
Being a good producer takes a lot of guts. Generally speaking, I think film and TV producers get a bad wrap. We envision them as ruthless, mercenary sharks with no respect for the creative process, just the bottom line. But good producers couldn’t be further from that stereotype. (And that’s not to say there aren’t […]
