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How To Guides

by Don Webb

Don Webb is a former Thames Television Theatre Bursary winner and was resident writer at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. His television scripts include Rockliffe's Babies, Juliet Bravo, Casualty, Joint Account and Byker Grove.

1) Know your subject

It is essential to know your subject. If you want to be a television writer, then you will have to spend a lot of time watching television before you start. Study popular shows like EastEnders and The Bill. Video them and watch them again. See which particular episodes stand out in your mind and try to identify what it is about any particular piece that pleases you. Watch how the action is made up, see how the scenes are cut and dovetailed, watch what the writer is trying to do and see if the effects he obtains make the story believable and how the narrative drive is maintained.

Take a scene from one of the shows and see if you can rewrite to make it better. See if you can alter the emphasis and tell a different story, changing the climax and arriving at a different outcome.

2) Character

Next study the characters and their motivations. Devise backgrounds for them, if you don't know them intimately. Study the way they speak, their attitudes to one another and the personality clashes that occur in the course of the story. Take two or three characters at random and think of a situation that you can imagine them in and write a short scene to illustrate one of them changing a set of attitudes which seems to be ingrained. Show one of the people persuading another one to make a leap of faith. Read the script out loud to yourself and tape it. Written dialogue sometimes doesn't 'come off the page' and the only way to find out is not to read it but to listen to it. False notes will stick out immediately. Practice all the time.

3) Breaking in

Once you're satisfied you can handle this bread and butter work, start to get in touch with programme makers. This is the hardest part of the work, getting somebody to take notice of you right at the start. Don't give in, even if at first you think everything you do is like dropping your work down a deep hole in the ground. Watch the credits of the programmes you'd like to work for and make a note of the script editors. Don't write to the producers or the directors. They've got other things on their minds. Don't write to the script supervisor. That's the person that runs the typing pool. The BBC will often send out a script layout pattern if you write and ask. Otherwise, there are web sites you can download from. Always be polite, upbeat and cheerful. Don't expect instant replies. You won't get them.

Another way of breaking into television scriptwriting is to write for radio. Radio is a very rewarding medium. It's almost like writing film.

One way or another, you ought to try to build up a body of written work to show to people. Make alliances with fringe theatre groups, even amateurs and offer to write plays for them. Keep working, keep writing, keep practising the craft. The only way to get better is to do it and keep doing it. If you get a piece performed in a fringe theatre, try to get it reviewed and invite people to see it.

It's probably better not to spend any money by joining societies that promise to teach you how to write but want money upfront. The Arvon Foundations runs writing courses and you can find out about them from the Writers' Guild. Buy the Contacts magazine which is available from Spotlight, 7 Leicester Place, London WC2. This has got all the addresses and telephone numbers of television broadcasters and independent production companies.

Good luck! Persevere. I didn't sell a word for two years after starting. I make a good living now, though.