Hello writers and those of you who are thinking about writing. Have you always wanted to write a script, but don’t know where to start, how to finish, or indeed what to do in the middle bit either come to that? Or have you been having a go at bashing some scripts out, but you’re concerned that you found yourself a little bit lost and needing a map to guide you? Or do you just enjoy my voice murmuring away in the background while you do something else and don’t really pay attention to what I’m saying. Then I have I got the podcast series for you. That’s right, season three of the Thinking About Writing podcast is officially Thinking About Writing: How to Write a Script. A themed series! How specific.
Over eight glorious episodes - setting the bar a bit high there - we’ll be going over a step by step process of how to put a solid script together. And in order to whet your appetite, here’s one of those popular internet lists. Everyone loves a list.
Episode one - What Do You Want To Write - Figuring out the medium and genre you want to write in and which is the best fit for your concept or vice versa, as well as beginning to form the premise which will guide you as you write.
Episode two - Character creation - Since characters are what make a script sparkle, how do you begin to understand who your characters are and what their personal stories may be.
Episode three - Plotting - Revisiting our old friend structure so you can figure out the potential arc and direction of your plot.
Episode Four - The Anatomy of a Script - A practical look at what all of the elements of a script are and how to use them effectively. From action lines to parentheticals as well as the kind of software that can be useful for script writing.
Episode Five - Finding Your Voice - Looking out how to write memorable dialogue and within that either discover or hone your own voice as a writer.
Episode Six - The First Ten Pages - Considering some of the qualities you might seek to include in your opening ten pages which can hook in your audience from the very start.
Episode Seven - Writing and Rewriting - Going over the kind of discipline and thinking you can apply as you write and then edit your early drafts
Episode Eight - Finishing Up - Pondering how to know when a script is done and what you do with it next.
Alongside this, I’ll be making up an original concept as we go to see all these ideas in action, and there will even be tasks that you can do at home each week to encourage you to work out your creative muscles, should you be so inclined. They are entirely optional. I’m not going to say that by the end of the series you’ll have a script of your own, because you might be too busy to manage that, unless you’re going on some Stephen King style 16 hour cocaine fuelled writing binge, which I’m not encouraging, but at the very least you’ll hopefully have a solid idea of what you want to write and how you want to write it. So it’ll be all of that plus the usual humorous bits, bad singing bits, and some fun little new jingle bits too.
So if that sounds appealing, follow the podcast if you’re not already, and if it doesn’t, stop following it, I guess? No don’t do that, well you can if you want, it’s your life after all. You can also check out my website, robinleetaylor.com to find out more about me, Robin brackets Lee Taylor, and maybe even make an enquiry about getting some help with your script for a thoroughly reasonable rate of pay what you can afford. I might even try to be more active on social media this season, yay, and you can find the show on instagram and X (So stupid) @writing_pod, look for Thinking About Writing on Facebook, and do I have to join TikTok? I’m too old for this. There’s even a patreon, in a desperate bid to claw back some of the money this project has cost me, with some potential benefits for you, that’s patreon.com/ThinkingAboutWriting. Links for all this nonsense will be in the episode information.
I hope you’ll all join me soon for season three, and in the meantime, think about the script that you might want to write once you’ve learned how to write a script. I mean “How to Write A Script”.
See, new jingles!
