WHAT THE SCRIPT FACTORY SAYS ABOUT SCRIPT ADVICE:
“We can heartily recommend Yvonne’s workshops – she unravels television like no one else!
Find out if I can help you with your current project@https://scriptadvice-co-uk.stackstaging.com offering writers mentoring, training and script editing services in order to develop their work and talent. Please pass on this link to your fellow writers.
Or you can join SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM @ https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237330119115&ref=mf
SAWR is all about writing and writers. Here you can share your thoughts about writing, the creative process, the highs and lows of it all. You can also access this group for information about writing workshops that I am currently running, also script editing and mentoring services that I offer. My expertise lies in Television drama but any writer is welcome to share their experiences and their aspirations here.
Or to see my newsletter online, access my
Blog here: https://scriptadvice.wordpress.com/
AND INTRODUCING MY NEW BLOG; GEORGE, THE BLOGGING WRITER. Read all about her rocky journey towards television writing enlightenment here – https://yvonblog.wordpress.com/
* HELLO
* WRITING COMPETITIONS
*WHAT YVONNE DID NEXT…
HELLO
As a natural curly haired sort, this rainy Summer has rendered me an unhappy cross between Merida (the fiesty red head from Pixar’s ‘Brave’) and Catherine Tate’s Nan. However, the lack of sunshine made it easier to ward off the pervading damp depression that threatened Script Advice Towers, to read and report on your scripts, write my blogs, facebook and twitter postings, and with my free hand, try to prevent my four and a half year old from breaking up the house while the rain drips off the roof and his pre-school shuts it’s doors for Summer. He goes to Big School in September – I feel my writing wings will be finally unfurled with the space and time his admission to Grown Up World will afford me. Part of me can’t wait (this creative chrysallis has been stuck to the same old branch for a long time) but the other part, the scared mother part, is dreading it. Onwards dear reader to more interesting matters….
WRITING COMPETITIONS
There’s a lot out there. Not all of it good. Not all worth entering, but a fair amount, possibly enough to keep you all busy throughout the year, is definitely worth getting in shape for.
The key element I think to look for when you are considering entering a particualr competiton, is the list of judges/evaluators they are using. Check out their CV’s before you whap off your baby to be pulled apart and analysed by them! Reading and reporting is a minefield of subjective opinion and personal taste coupled with vastly varying amounts of professional experience and acumen.
In my case, I think I have earned the right to read your work because I have been around a fair bit, read a ton and developed, analysed, discussed, argued, planned, produced and delivered for transmission a big fat wad of television drama hours – so all that talk and all that actual hands on script editing and drama producing experience is what you are getting when you hire me to read for you.
Do a bit of research before you commit your work to a competition. The people setting themselves up to read and assess your ability must in my view, at the very least, be passionate and empathetic about storytelling and writers respectively. You can glean if this is the case by the tone of their website and the calibre of people reading/assessing for them. Check out endorsements and if at all possible, chase up a few personal recommendations too.
Here are some of my favourite sites that offer script competitions and literary based prizes and incentives:
SCREENPLAY FESTIVAL:
From the US but don’t let that put you off – this is an accessible and user-friendly site and as far as I can tell, a good script competition to enter https://screenplayfestival.com/
INTERNATIONAL SCREEN WRITERS ASSOCIATION:
US again, but a very useful site and a mine of information – they regularly run competitions and workshops which you can access online https://www.networkisa.org/
BLUECAT SCREENPLAY:
No, I am not totally obsessed with America (although my husband is one of them!) but this site is a corker and regularly runs webinars and competitions worth noting. Here they’ve extended their repetoire to include good old Blighty https://bit.ly/QGcvfY
BAFTA ROCLIFFE NEW WRITIING FORUM:
This is a great site and worth keeping bookmarked because of the regular screen writing opportunities and general good writer related info. https://www.bafta.org/about/supporting-talent/rocliffe/
CIRCALIT:
Great website for writers wanting support and information and they reguarly run new writing opportunities and have interesting people talking about writing https://www.circalit.com/screenplay/competitions/list
EUROSCRIPT:
https://www.euroscript.co.uk/competition.html The competition currently running is sadly closed to submissions now, but worth keeping an eye on this website and the man who runs it Charles Harris. Always a good source of opportunity and training for writers.
THE LONDON SCREENWRITERS FESTIVAL:
https://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com/a festival worth attending (not least because yours turely will be speaking there!) but also because the peeps that run this marvellous festival also hold interesting writing competitions like the recent 50 Kisses Screenwriting Competition – keep this link bookmarked, you may have missed the deadline for this competition, but I think there’ll be more to come!
BBC WRITERS ROOM:
a steady, quality website offering consistently good advice and competitions worth entering https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunities/
SCREENWRITERS GOLDMINE:
The competition that Phil Gladwin has been running has now closed for new entries, but worth checking out this website for future competitions and for screenwriting tips and info https://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/
WHAT YVONNE DID NEXT
Those lovely folk at The London Screenwriting Festival have asked me to talk at their upcoming BREAKFAST CLUB at The Pheonix Arts Club London on September 3rd. It’s an early start. 8.15am – 12.30. I will be giving a talk entitled: TELEVISION – HOW TO GET IN AND STAY IN, designed to help you navigate some of the writery minefields that scatter across the television drama landscape.
I aim to be direct, informed, practical and entertaining. I aim to give you something to take away to think about further and hopefully to focus your mind (if you need it) on honing your skill base to get you across the threshold and on to a television drama. I can not, obviously, promise doors will open – but this talk will hopefully give you some enthusiasm for writing for television and some pointers as to how to enjoy and thrive as a writer once there.
Here is the all important link: https://www.londonbreakfastclub.com/upcoming-breakfasts/september-2012-yvonne-grace/
And later on in September 26th – 28th is the LONDON SCREENWRITERS FESTIVAL. I have been asked to speak there too. Details not confirmed but suffice to say, the website is updated regularly so when I confirm the who the why and the what, it will appear here: https://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com/
I hope to see some familiar faces there and to meet new writers (and future clients naturally!) If I have read a script for you or if you have used one of my services from my website and we have spoken over the phone, then please come up and say hello – I love to put faces to names and voices!
Many of you will either know of, or be a member of SCRIPT ADVICE WRITERS ROOM on FACEBOOK, but if you haven’t yet joined, please do, it is a vibrant lively community of writers, trainers, learners, moaners, growers and doers and I would love to see you there!
Here is the link again – so get clicking! https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237330119115&ref=mf I hope I can help you with your writing; be it a television script, short or full length film or screen play, treatment or outline, novel or radio play, I read and script edit them all and can definitely help improve yours. Drop me an email@ Yvonne.grace@scriptadvice-co-uk.stackstaging.com and let’s get working!
BYE FOR NOW AND HAPPY WRITING. copyright Yvonne Grace and Script Advice August 2012