Hi There,
This fortnight, some reader feedback from the excellent MATT MCNALLY, who covered 280 of your script entries for the 2025 Channel 4 screenwriting course –
‘I thought I’d write something for the unlucky writers. The ones looking for explanations, enlightenment, encouragement or just reasons to feel even more cheesed off. So here is a series of baffling contradictions, tortured analogies and rehashed clichés. I hope you find them helpful.
1.) You are not Andre 3000
You’re not. You did not release the timeless hit single Hey Ya! in 2003. You are not sitting atop a stockpile of artistic goodwill so healthy you can disappear for two decades then resurface with an experimental wood flute concept album and expect people to care.
You have not yet broken through. And you want to break through. Your best chance is to come up with your own Hey Ya! – a script that’s hooky, fresh, unputdownable and undeniable.
Of course, if wood flute is what you feel deep down inside, do that. Really. But remember this is a competition to find the next writers of Channel 4 drama series, so think carefully about the kinds of shows they make, ie undeniable, hooky, fresh as monkey’s breath.
And keep the flute. You never know.
2.) Be arrogant. Be humble. Repeat.
Your script is up against thousands of others. You have to believe yours is special. You have to believe you’re funnier, cleverer, deeper, sexier and more talented than all those other bums. You have to have the courage of your own peculiarities; believe that your own weird little daydreams possess genius and universality in equal measure. Get them all down.
OK now forget all that. Re-read and scrutinise every line, every word. Ask yourself why any of it matters and why anyone should care.
Are the first ten pages an offer that’s too good to refuse? (do I hear wood flute?)
Is every beat of the story another harpoon in the unknown reader’s abdomen?
Of course not, keep working on it.
Rinse. Repeat.
3.) Formatting doesn’t not matter
Imagine three people are given the task of making you a cup of tea. Same kettle, same teabags, same milk, same kitchen. But when the drinks get placed in front of you, one is in a normal cup, another is in a chipped mug with a missing handle and the third is in the plastic screwcap of a leading brand of laundry detergent.
This is a scheme for new voices. Professional screenplay formatting is not used as a snobby, gatekeeping ‘secret handshake’ type trick here. But think of your reader and do what you can to improve their experience. They want to like your script, but their brain is tired and their eyes hurt. Find a cup, wash it up.
4.) Open up and isolate.
You know how it’s pretty much impossible to come up with a viral video from scratch? Sometimes big brands try to do it by ripping off a recent hit and it’s just gut wrenchingly embarrassing for everyone who comes anywhere near it? This is a bit like that.
Yes there’s a lot of stuff on telly that feels a bit like FLEABAG or CATASTROPHE but the minute you try and make your script more like those shows you are toast (the food not the tv show). Just write the show you want to watch. By all means learn from other stuff, be inspired, but do not imitate because there’s nothing easier to put down than a knock-off.
5.) Your rejected script probably was quite good.
Most of them were. The general level of competency and craft was surprisingly high. It’s clearly very, very difficult to write something that stands a bit taller, shouts a bit louder, goes the extra mile. And that’s not me telling you to write a ‘noisy’ show, whatever that means. I think the thing is, you absolutely can not stop trying for even one second. You can not phone in the writing on page 24 because you wrote something sublime on page 19. Being funny, profound even, doesn’t mean you can forget to tell us a story. And coming up with an original story does not excuse you from all the hard work on character.
If your script is a football match, you have to run your socks off for ninety minutes plus injury time. Leave it all out there. We readers are not on the sofa watching the highlights, we’re watching the whole thing on a wet Wednesday night in Stoke with a cold cup of Bovril.
6.) Be cruel (to be kind) to yourself.
If you’re any good at this at all, you already kind of know what’s wrong with your script. You were just hoping all the good bits were so good we’d give you a break on the duff bits. Would that we could. Get back in there and fix up the parts you’ve been skimming for months.
7.) Keep going.
Just keep going.’
Matt McNally is one of the shadow script editors on 4Screenwriting 2025. He’s a writer and script editor, who previously worked at a high level in creative marketing for features. He has a postgrad in development from NFTS and recently co-script edited a BBC funded drama pilot. He works regularly with StudioCanal.
Thank you so much Matt for your brilliant insights.
The next newsletter will be on Friday May 2nd,
Happy Writing, Reading & Easter
Phil
PHILIP SHELLEY
Friday April 18th 2025
