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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
What’s The Point (Of Scene)? How The One Liner Changed How I See Stories
If writing is re-writing, scriptwriting is script editing. And one of the most basic tools of script editing is the One Liner, which focuses you on POS (point of scene). As a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed trainee script editor, my boss assigned me some practise. After I’d mangled my way through a set of off-balance notes, […]
How Would You Describe Yourself? An Incidental Discovery
Towards the end of last year, I was in a bit of a state. I was still coming to terms with being a freelancer, I wasn’t being productive as a writer or as a filmmaker, and a couple of personal projects kind of fell apart. Things felt stuck. As someone who needs to always be […]
Ann Hood’s Top Ten Tips On How To Write A Kick-Ass Essay
I came across this fantastic podcast the other day via Tin House and featuring writer Ann Hood who shares her ten rules on how to write a ‘kick-ass’ essay. It is excellent and I urge you to listen to it immediately! The podcast is a recording of Hood’s lecture given during Tin House’s 2014 Summer Writer’s Workshop. Hood is […]
Finding Your Process (Is Hard)
In which I say, try it all at least once, no matter what anyone says, and go with what works right now. I remember being a kid and wanting nothing more than to sit down with a fresh new notebook, full of lovely, clean white pages, and fill every single one of […]
Judge The Work, Not The Audience
In which I get all a bit hot under the collar about people who dismiss youth media (or any genre storytelling) because of their own prejudices about the intended audience. When we think of ‘ageism’, we generally think of a bias towards the young over the old. We see it everywhere as we are […]
Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again?
In which I discover ‘The I.T. Crowd’ properly and also discover Graham Linehan’s awesome approach to writing sitcoms. I clearly have been living under a rock for some time (not an unusual feeling for me I have to say). I recently picked up the box set of The I.T. Crowd, the British sitcom […]
