Breaking In - Inside the writers circle
So, you're thinking you might want to be a screenwriter, but you're struggling to find how you're going to get your name heard. Have you thought about looking at it from another angle? What if you started by trying to break into a script department first? Now, that's not to say that jobs in script development are easy to come by, but there are more titles that fit under development than just 'writer'.
I spoke to Hannah Durham, who has most recently been a script editor for Good Karma Hospital, and a script secretary for Casualty, about working within that writers circle and how she felt it had helped her own development...
What was your route into the industry?
I used to work on Casualty where we’d take on new writers from a scheme that the BBC did called the Writersroom Shadow Scheme, which is designed to help source new writers for BBC continuing dramas - EastEnders, Casualty, Holby City, River City and Doctors. Writers can apply to be on the scheme which then runs a series of lectures and workshops to inform budding writers about writing for this particular format, and exactly what writing for a continuing drama involves. At the end of the process, normally two or more writers are taken on by the show and commissioned to write an episode.
My involvement in this was quite limited, but when I was story assistant at Casualty I wrote some storylines to make up a story document, to replicate what writers on the show would normally receive when they are commissioned to write an episode, which the Shadow Scheme writers then used to write their episodes. This document is a couple of pages simply outlining the stories that we would like the writer to cover in their episode of the show, to ensure smooth continuity of the serial.
So where did you go from there?
I was story assistant at Casualty, and then when I was script editor at Casualty I also took on a couple of shadow scripts, which involved reading them and giving constructive feedback as I would with any other writer. I got the role of script secretary in a bit of a roundabout way - I applied for and interviewed for the roles of Production Management Assistant and Team Assistant, and although they found other people to fill these roles, they ended up offering me the script secretary role.
What would your role as a script secretary involve?
Being a script secretary is certainly an entry level administrative role - for me at Casualty it involved formatting, printing and distributing all drafts of scripts to relevant cast and crew, and I was also responsible for arranging all travel for writers and visitors to the department, and generally answering any queries about scripts from people outside of the department. You don't really get involved in the creative process officially, but it's definitely a good way to get into scripts because you can so easily find yourself dragged into conversations about stories when a script editor or story producer is looking for help with an idea. You still go to meetings with the rest of the department, and there's nothing stopping you offering your own ideas here and there if you have the initiative to do so. And you should offer your help, so you're not just seen as the script secretary but as a valuable member of the script department.
Hannah's next steps are more focused on script development positions than writing ones, as she's found that she particularly enjoys this work. However she does have an itch to write that needs scratching, and when I asked her if she thought her work in the script department would help her achieve this goal, she said that it certainly would: "From being script secretary specifically I don't know if I gained tons of knowledge as it was mainly an admin role and you weren't involved creatively, but you could spend your spare time reading scripts which would give you more of a sense of what makes a good script and what doesn't. But just being in the department allows you to better understand the drafting process and how it all works, which I'm sure would all be useful knowledge for a writer."
The beauty of writing is that you can pursue it at your own leisure, whether it pays the bills or not. Working in the script department will teach you what works in a screenplay (as with script reading which we talked about last time), but also how to plot a gripping story within the constraints of budget and schedule, and it's those considerations that go into commissioning decisions.
Now of course this is quite a narrow perspective, from just Hannah's point of view, and both the beauty and the curse of writing is that there's no right or wrong way to go about the 'breaking in' process. Doing work like this can gain you valuable insights whilst you're writing as much or as little as you can make time for. And maybe a lot of this will seem like I'm repeating myself, because the situation is somewhat the same. Writers should take every opportunity they have to learn from their experiences and script development is the best place to learn from other writers, whether that be directly or indirectly. And who knows, maybe the budding writer in you will find that elsewhere in the storytelling process is where you really shine. But you won't know if you don't try!
I spoke to Hannah Durham, who has most recently been a script editor for Good Karma Hospital, and a script secretary for Casualty, about working within that writers circle and how she felt it had helped her own development...
What was your route into the industry?
I used to work on Casualty where we’d take on new writers from a scheme that the BBC did called the Writersroom Shadow Scheme, which is designed to help source new writers for BBC continuing dramas - EastEnders, Casualty, Holby City, River City and Doctors. Writers can apply to be on the scheme which then runs a series of lectures and workshops to inform budding writers about writing for this particular format, and exactly what writing for a continuing drama involves. At the end of the process, normally two or more writers are taken on by the show and commissioned to write an episode.
 |
| BBC's Casualty |
My involvement in this was quite limited, but when I was story assistant at Casualty I wrote some storylines to make up a story document, to replicate what writers on the show would normally receive when they are commissioned to write an episode, which the Shadow Scheme writers then used to write their episodes. This document is a couple of pages simply outlining the stories that we would like the writer to cover in their episode of the show, to ensure smooth continuity of the serial.
So where did you go from there?
I was story assistant at Casualty, and then when I was script editor at Casualty I also took on a couple of shadow scripts, which involved reading them and giving constructive feedback as I would with any other writer. I got the role of script secretary in a bit of a roundabout way - I applied for and interviewed for the roles of Production Management Assistant and Team Assistant, and although they found other people to fill these roles, they ended up offering me the script secretary role.
What would your role as a script secretary involve?
Being a script secretary is certainly an entry level administrative role - for me at Casualty it involved formatting, printing and distributing all drafts of scripts to relevant cast and crew, and I was also responsible for arranging all travel for writers and visitors to the department, and generally answering any queries about scripts from people outside of the department. You don't really get involved in the creative process officially, but it's definitely a good way to get into scripts because you can so easily find yourself dragged into conversations about stories when a script editor or story producer is looking for help with an idea. You still go to meetings with the rest of the department, and there's nothing stopping you offering your own ideas here and there if you have the initiative to do so. And you should offer your help, so you're not just seen as the script secretary but as a valuable member of the script department.
 |
| Some of the titles fed by the BBC's scheme |
Hannah's next steps are more focused on script development positions than writing ones, as she's found that she particularly enjoys this work. However she does have an itch to write that needs scratching, and when I asked her if she thought her work in the script department would help her achieve this goal, she said that it certainly would: "From being script secretary specifically I don't know if I gained tons of knowledge as it was mainly an admin role and you weren't involved creatively, but you could spend your spare time reading scripts which would give you more of a sense of what makes a good script and what doesn't. But just being in the department allows you to better understand the drafting process and how it all works, which I'm sure would all be useful knowledge for a writer."
The beauty of writing is that you can pursue it at your own leisure, whether it pays the bills or not. Working in the script department will teach you what works in a screenplay (as with script reading which we talked about last time), but also how to plot a gripping story within the constraints of budget and schedule, and it's those considerations that go into commissioning decisions.
Now of course this is quite a narrow perspective, from just Hannah's point of view, and both the beauty and the curse of writing is that there's no right or wrong way to go about the 'breaking in' process. Doing work like this can gain you valuable insights whilst you're writing as much or as little as you can make time for. And maybe a lot of this will seem like I'm repeating myself, because the situation is somewhat the same. Writers should take every opportunity they have to learn from their experiences and script development is the best place to learn from other writers, whether that be directly or indirectly. And who knows, maybe the budding writer in you will find that elsewhere in the storytelling process is where you really shine. But you won't know if you don't try!
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