Tim Clague - The UK Scriptwriters Survival Handbook

(or How to Earn an Actual Living as a Writer)

BY TIM CLAGUE

& DANNY STACK

Plus quotes and insights from other writers weve met, or heard in talks and conferences

Foreword by Tony Jordan

Illustrated by Emily Gilbert

http://emilygilbertillustration.com/

Tim Clague & Danny Stack 2015

All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilised in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, uploading, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright owners.

By Tony Jordan

Beco ming a screenwriter is as tough in the UK as it is everywhere else in the world, maybe even more so. Our film and television output has a well-deserved reputatio n for quality, both in its writing and in its production values.

As in every industry, the toughest part is getting your first break, your foot on the first rung of the ladder; only once thats happened can you learn how far your talent as a writer can take you. Yet, even once you get on the ladder, the journey to your first BAFTA is still a difficult one, learning to navigate your way through the industry, whilst trying to hold on to the most important thing you possess as a writer. Your unique voice.

In this book, Tim and Danny have put together some great tips for surviving the process. Good luck!

Tony Jordan

Writer/Producer

Former Head Writer on EastEnders

Writer/Creator of Hustle

Co-creator of Life On Mars

To make it as a scriptwriter, a working writer, a writer who gets paid, you need to have the right attitude and approach. This handbook is going to break down practical and proactive techniques to help you get started, and show you how to maintain a career once youre up and running.

Its a book thats less about the craft of scriptwriting and more about being a working scriptwriter. A writer who earns a crust day-to-day. A writer who pays the rent and still finds time to work on new ideas, and that next amazing spec script.

There are lots of books about rare occurrences of someone selling it big. This book is about being part of the hard-working majority, not a one-off fluke. If you picked up a book about investing your money, youd be rightly disappointed if the advice inside was win the lottery. Therell be no sell a script for a million dollars on your first go nonsense here. This book is about long-term success through graft.

We work in the UK and this book refers to a lot of advice that is UK-based. But the underlying ideas work anywhere. If you follow the advice in this handbook, were confident youll see better results in your writing career. It will influence not only what you achieve, but also how you achieve it. No rules, no formulas, just a lot of common sense and a full commitment to the cause. Were going to flip a clich and reinvent it: its not necessarily who you know, its what you know, and how you use it.

Theres a secret easy path to being a successful writer. All you have to do is to work really really hard, write good stuff and keep sending it out and keep rewriting and keep learning. And it only takes five to ten years!

James Moran

Writer

Doctor Who, Torchwood, Severance, Cockneys Vs Zombies

Were not big famous writers. Were not academics either. Were a couple of writers and filmmakers who make a living out of what we do. We both feel weve taken some wrong turns in the past, mainly because things worked differently to how we were told or how we thought they would turn out. This is why we feel this book is essential, to expose some misconceptions and be honest about what the process is really like.

Tim Clague wrote the BAFTA-nominated short film Eight, the story of a young boys quest to find out about his dad. Since then he has written and directed an array of short films that have screened at international festivals and won awards. Tim also has broadcast credits with ITV and BBC.

His focus is on new techniques and new technologies across a range of formats and genres. He created the popular comedy web series Mr Vista. He was Senior Creative Designer (senior writer) on the large-scale PC game APB. He has written and directed corporate films, adverts and e-learning material, with budgets of up to 300,000.

As a team, Tim and Danny have worked on the UK Scriptwriters podcast, screenwriting talks, adverts and corporate films. They have taken their collaboration one step further by co-writing, producing and directing the live-action childrens film Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg?

Visit the films website

http://www.nelsonnutmeg.com

Twitter - @nelsonnutmeg

Visit the UK Scriptwriters podcast

http://ukscriptwriters.podomatic.com

Twitter - @ukscriptwriters

Dannys TV writing credits include EastEnders,Doctors and high-profile childrens shows such as Octonauts and Roy (both CBBC), and Thunderbirds Are Go! for CiTV. He also writes and directs. His supernatural thriller, Origin, won Best Horror at the London Independent Film Festival in 2012. He script edited the feature films The Man Inside and Kings, and for many years was a story analyst for film companies such as Working Title, Path, Miramax and UK Film Council. He writes the popular blog, Scriptwriting in the UK, which inspired him to set up the Red Planet Prize, a scheme to discover new writers, with writer/producer Tony Jordan.

If youre going to take anything away from this handbook, then these 7 cornerstones of survival will see you right. Understand these principles and you can cope with new and unexpected events as they arise.

Writing a feature takes time. Writing a TV episode is a lot of work. Even a good short film isnt something you can just bang out. It normally takes four or five pieces of work before a writer finds their original voice. Becoming a good writer isnt a fast process. Were talking about years, not months. It takes time to build your network, to get experienced at pitching, to weave excellent loglines and outlines. Whichever way you look at it, becoming a good, profitable writer in a short space of time is unlikely. The advice we share in this book is simple. You can start using it straight away, today. We know it works. Yet we also know that the best writers get better at using these ideas over time.

Im not that clever, but what I am is unbelievably tenacious. Its my tenacity that has allowed me to have a good career.

Lord Puttnam

Producer and Studio Executive