Hi There,
SCREENWRITING THE CRAFT AND THE CAREER by PHILIP SHELLEY
Please excuse this 2nd newsletter about my book, published yesterday Thursday January 23rd – it’s important to me and I hope will be very useful to you. In two weeks time I will move onto other matters!
It was very exciting to finally get my hands on a physical copy on Wednesday having spent so long with it in less complete forms. Enjoying the immense thrill of having the book in my hands has made me think about the professional journey that has brought me to this point.
Back in the early ‘90’s I was struggling very badly as an actor and at somewhat of a career crisis – a young family, minimal income and a pretty profound lack of professional self-confidence. I began to scrabble around for other career possibilities. Script Editor seemed like a reasonable ambition – even if I didn’t really know what this was. But I have always loved TV, film and theatre. So I started looking at books, reading around the subject (this was way before the internet!) I read many books and a few had a big effect on me – really made me excited to think about the way stories were created, constructed and found their place in the world.
If my book has a similar effect on someone dipping their toes for the first time into the joys and challenges of screenwriting and script development as a couple of those books did on me (Richard Walter, William Froug, William Goldman – all excellent), then I will feel very gratified. If you’d told me as I read those books that I would be writing one of my own on the same subject thirty years later, it would have blown my tiny mind.
I hope that my long and ongoing experience at the industry coalface is one of the things that will give the book credibility. It’s written in the knowledge that while enormously fulfilling, screenwriting is hard and the process of writing a good script somewhat mysterious – there certainly aren’t any magic structural formulas that are going to solve every storytelling problem! This book was written from my UK perspective but I reminded myself throughout the process to try to make it as universal as possible and not exclusive to the UK. I have tried to make sure that both the craft and career advice, while specifically based on my own experience, is about broader principles that will apply in any screenwriting market.
This is a book that I have been thinking about for very many years. I have worked in the world of TV and film script development, script editing and producing for longer than I care to remember. My initial work was as a script reader and then alternating between script development – working with writers to develop new shows and pitching them within companies and to broadcasters – and as script editor on productions; then as a producer overseeing the whole project; and in the last 15 years as script consultant working with so many different writers and production companies and running the Channel 4 screenwriting course and the Greenlight Screenwriting Lab in Ireland.
For several decades I have worked with so many different writers on their ideas, outlines and scripts. All of this work on a daily basis generates different thoughts about story and how it works. As does watching shows on screen – both TV and film. I never stop learning and thinking about brand new ideas – it’s important that we all acknowledge that none of this is set in stone.
For instance, only last week I went to a screening of a new yet-to-be-released film – which was excellent and thought-provoking. One of the central narrative ideas of this film was the late reveal that the bulk of the action had only happened in the protagonist’s head – that the ‘reality’ of the story was actually very different ie none of what we watched had actually happened. As a general storytelling ‘rule’, I am suspicious of this device. In general it seems to me that this pulls the rug out from under the audience’s feet, it feels like a bit of a cheat. But in this instance, it made real story sense and actually resolved everything in the film in a way that felt poignant and emotionally rewarding for the audience. An example of how virtually everything I watch and read, every writer I work with, teaches me something new about story and how it works.
Similarly, I was on a zoom call to another writer about their almost excellent feature film script and, without thinking about this in advance, I found myself illustrating a point by talking about the crucial difference between plot and story – that plot is the mechanics and facts of the events; story is these mechanics and events with emotional meaning. ie plot becomes meaningful story through its context. Plot is just about the events, story is about the events and their consequences.
My experience in the industry has also taught me so much about screenwriting careers – the interface between writer and industry. I have read so many CVs, conducted so many interviews and both observed and talked to so many writers who have come through 4screenwriting and been launched into the UK TV and film industry, seeing many of them do spectacularly well, some less so. I have learnt so much from all of these writers and observed the commonalities with the successful writers. And have tried to communicate this in the book.
I feel so pleased to be able to refer in the book to people who have helped me so much – particularly those all-important people who helped me onto the first rungs of the ladder – the start of any new career is the hardest part – where potential employers have to take a real leap of faith. I will always feel a debt of gratitude to these people who gave me my first breaks.
https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/screenwriting
NICK HERN BOOKS: THE PLAYGROUND BLOG
This is a link to a blog about my book from the excellent Nick Hern Books ‘The Playground’ blog (a great resource for dramatic writers).
This blog is an edited excerpt from the book – a taster – about presentation – presenting your script on the page – not just about formatting and layout but also about conveying your story on the page as effectively as possible within the parameters of screenplay formatting.
SCRIPT READING AND DEVELOPMENT Q&A
I am now taking bookings for the next SCRIPT READING & DEVELOPMENT Q&A which will take place on zoom on the evening of Wednesday March 5th (6-8.30pm). (Jan 28th is now fully booked).
This is an opportunity to look deeper into work as a script reader, development executive, script editor, etc and to discuss your plans for getting or increasing work in this sector – as well as a chance to meet other like-minded people in an informal setting.
https://script-consultant.co.uk/script-reading-development-qa/
Best wishes
Happy Reading and Writing
Phil
PHILIP SHELLEY
Philip.shelley@script-consultant.co.uk
Twitter / Bluesky: @PhilipShelley1
Friday January 24th 2025
