ONE DAY INTRODUCTION TO SCREENWRITING – London Saturday February 14th 2026
Guest speakers – KATE LEYS (one of the UK’s foremost story editors with a glittering CV) and screenwriter NATHANIEL PRICE (credits include Mr Loverman, Noughts & Crosses, The Outlaws, Tin Star).
Both a celebration of and an introduction to the craft of screenwriting.
https://script-consultant.co.uk/one-day-introduction-to-screenwriting/
SCRIPT READING & DEVELOPMENT Q&A Wednesday February 18th 6 – 8.80pm on zoom (for a max of 8 people)
I try to answer all your questions about the world of script reading, script editing and script development – whether you have no industry experience and are looking to find ways to break into this area; or if you have a lot of experience but (for instance) are finding that next career step from in-house junior development executive to production script editor tricky.
https://script-consultant.co.uk/script-reading-development-qa/
Hi There,
This fortnight, 4screenwriting 2026 script reader and shadow script editor, KAREN FEATHERSTONE, gives her feedback on the experience of reading 300 scripts.
Karen’s bio – Karen has read thousands of scripts, including for the BFI, BBC Open Call and BBC Comedy Unit. She’s also a script consultant specialising in disability representation, for which she’s represented by the Casarotto Ramsay agency. She has written for film, TV, theatre and audio.
‘It’s been a thrill and an honour to see a snapshot of the UK’s loves, hates and preoccupations by reading hundreds of examples of your work. I doff my cap to every one of you who completed a script.
I’ve read screenplays, stage plays and audio dramas. I’ve laughed out loud, formed a lump in my throat by page 2 (no, you’re crying) and frequently forgotten to breathe while scrolling through some of the most extraordinary pages I’ve read in ages.
That said, by the end of the reading process, certain patterns emerged. Many of the observations I’m about to make were shared across the reading team, but I’ll caveat this by saying I would never claim to speak for everyone. And many fine observations have been made by readers in previous years, which still stand, so I’ll try not to repeat them here. (Check out Philip’s wondrous vault of newsletters from former years for a complete picture.)
It helps to note first-off that my over-riding want as a reader is immersion in your script, to the point that I forget I’m reading one. I want to be so deep in your characters’ world that I forget to assess the piece, and instead of counting to 10 pages or 20 pages when I feel I can justify stopping reading, I want to look up when half-way through, surprised to find I am halfway through. That’s the dream.
With that in mind, here are some craft choices that pull us readers out of immersion in your scripts. I’ve included exercise suggestions for anyone willing to give them a go.
And we’re off:
Starting with a black screen
I don’t know why, but a lot of screenplays fade up/open with a black screen. This is not the strongest way to start your script. If you fade up/open to a black screen, why are you making that choice? With all the images to choose from in the world (and not of this world) you’re opting to have your reader picture essentially nothing at the start of your script. My brain seeks a first image to anchor me, so please write one!
Over which a voiceover is heard…soon to be followed by a flashback
Voiceovers and flashbacks are the twin mischievous imps of early career screenwriters. They stall your story to dump exposition, and rocket your reader back into the past, when all I want is for the story to move forward.
If you do use voiceovers/flashbacks, try playing around with them more creatively e.g for voiceovers, you could juxtapose words heard with what can be seen onscreen, rather than duplicating it.
You could challenge yourself to try something new with flashbacks, as allegedly the wonderfully-named screenwriter Waldo Salt did when he wrote Midnight Cowboy. Refusing to use conventional flashbacks, Salt integrated exposition into scenes by having characters from a protagonist’s past walk and talk through the protagonist’s present. This did the work of exposition without the need to stop the story in its tracks and take a reader back in time via a clunky, traditional flashback. We could all be more Waldo.
Dialogue marathons over multiple pages
Playwrights, you are loved, but long dialogue seems especially rife when reading screenplays by theatre writers making the move to screenwriting. Screenplays are a visual medium, so you could break up page after page of two-handed dialogue exchanges with effective visuals, or even better, consider if the length of your dialogue is really adding to the quality of your script. Could it be lighter on its feet if you simply cut out a lot of it? Are there other ways to move the story forward/reveal character/give exposition rather than through speech (and apart from using flashbacks)?
A ‘deserted’ street which, it will turn out, has a character in it doing something
I cannot describe the micro-betrayal when you’ve asked me to imagine an empty road and then, surprise, it’s not empty! The same goes for anything described as ‘featureless’. It’s impossible to imagine anything with no features at all. This may sound incredibly fussy, but imprecision in writing adversely impacts the reading experience. As an example: one writer described a lifeless body. A few lines later, a detail was added about the freaky position the head was in. I’d already imagined the body and it wasn’t with the head in a freaky position, so I had to rewind and reimagine that body with a completely new image. This backwarding and forwarding, as images are corrected due to inconsistent drip-feeding of info creates friction to immersion.
Capitalised WORDS in scene actions
This has become common practise. And it’s not all bad. Capitalised words help a writer suggest emphasis, but if anything, capitalised words are best used sparingly, when highlighting sounds, or to spotlight a small detail that needs to be taken in (such as a dropped KEY falling into DEEP SNOW) that will become important for a reader to remember later. At their worst, randomly capitalised words over-direct the reader and make for an uneven reading experience, which is not what you want for your script.
Making assumptions about your reader
This Karen will not miss having to read Karen jokes in a script ever again, which is to say…You don’t know who will read your script. They may be old or young. Disabled or non-disabled. They may be a straight, white male. But they may not be. I lost count of the number of times a female character was described with words along the lines of ‘voluptuous’. There’s nothing wrong with having voluptuous females in a script, but these details were almost always redundant to the story, and in the same scripts male characters barely got an adjective. Be intentional and able to account for your choice of every word.
Reasonlessly US-set scripts
There were quite a lot of US-set scripts. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but it’s an odd choice given that we’re trying to find screenplays that align with a Channel 4 (a UK broadcaster) sensibility. With some of these scripts there was no obvious reason for the US setting, so that was a bit baffling.
The problem with very good scripts
I’ll get to my main observation. I’ve left this point till last because it’s the hardest to articulate (and I’m hoping if you’ve read this far, you’re onside to see this through to the final biggie).
It’s easy to assess a script in need of revision because what could be improved upon jumps out. And those rare scripts with ‘voice’ also stand out (for reasons I’ll try to explain). The trickiest scripts that I spent the longest time on assessing were the scripts which were… very good. The words impressive, clever, and competent frequently came to mind.
Could the writers of these very good scripts have careers as working screenwriters? Probably. Are they going to get picked for 4Screenwriting? Not necessarily.
Here’s the kicker: There were many well-written, correctly-formatted scripts with some promise in their loglines. The writer had been diligent, had obviously applied learning of structure and characterization. They had paid attention to making a strong first 10 pages to hook a reader in. These scripts were polished, even slick. It was all there on the page, except… it didn’t make me feel anything. Objectively, the writer did everything right, so it felt unfair to not put a script forward as they’d followed all the advice.
The scripts that grabbed me immersed me. I was in the story world, forgetting where I was, feeling with the characters.
The moment a camera angle was specified, or a sophisticated observation made about the setting/character that hinted at the cleverness of the writer, but which was extraneous to the story, it pulled me out.
So my last, most brutal tip is: Get out of your own way
Stop trying to impress readers. Just tell the story you’re a little worried about telling. If a moment makes you want to cry, have a little weep. If a line feels too vulnerable, raw, or weird, try keeping it in. I’m talking about taking risks. To my mind, ‘voice’ emerges when a writer notices something about people/the world which is not being noticed and said elsewhere. They don’t ‘professionalise’ this out of their script.
It seems a contradiction: ‘How can I remove myself as the writer from my script so that the story and characters are front and centre, while trying to stand out as having written a script unique to me?’
It’s incredibly frustrating to fathom, but if you blinker yourself to a desired outcome (in this case getting to be one of the 12 selected for 4Screenwriting) and forget how much you want this, your script may thrive.
Be ready to feel a little exposed because you may be writing something so important to you, you’re not sure about saying it. You’re not certain if it’s the sort of thing that will get you selected. Say it anyway because if not many others are saying it, it could be a seam of gold. Be bold and (within emotionally safe guard rails) sit with discomfort if you have to.
Full disclosure: with my other hat on, I’m a writer (as many readers are). My most recent spec script received little traction and I see now through this process that I too fell into the trap of wanting to impress. So, I’m looking at a complete overhaul. I will be with some of you in the development trenches, having another go. Is it true that writing is hardest for writers? And that a good writer depends on a good reader…? Time for me to wrap this up.
I really hope this has been helpful to some. Best of luck!’
A huge thank you to Karen for her brilliant insights. IMO this is not just helpful – it’s deeply insightful and gets to the heart of what good writing is.
The next newsletter will be on Friday February 6th,
Best wishes and all strength to your writing,
Phil
PHILIP SHELLEY
www.script-consultant.co.uk
Friday January 23rd 2026