Intro:
Have finally got my diploma from the Film-making course I did last year! It was delayed due to various reasons, but now I have the diploma I can frame it and stick it up on the wall.
So on to the update!
Scripts Update:
I have sent two scripts – The Trojan War Diaries and The Last Witch in Swanage to two different agents now. The first one got back to me – it was a no, but a rejection is better than being ignored! I have put LWIS into the Scribe Lounge competition and as of March I will be downgrading my membership back to the free version to save money, unless I can find new work before then.
I have also applied to a job posted on Scribe Lounge to be a Vertical Drama Writer for an upcoming project. Though I vaguely knew about these, it was the first time I had tried writing one myself. I had to submit four pages for the application and am waiting to hear back.
Though they are different from how I like to consume my media, I can see the appeal. Short form content, that you can watch in segments, so you’re never going to be late because you’re finishing an episode. From a writing persepctive, I think they have a lot in common with writing for soap operas and as that is becoming harder and harder these days. Vertical dramas might well fill that gap.
Why? Well, with a soap opera, if you are a staffed writer, you have to write a certain number of episodes a week on an ongoing basis, you have a quick turnaround time and certain things, plotwise, have to happen at certain points in the script. The same is true of vertical dramas – just on a much quicker scale. With only a minute or two in each episode, there is no room for anything but plot. From the ones I have watched for research, it seems that a good way of looking at writing them is to presume half your audience is only watching – on mute – and the other half is only listening. This means if you say a character’s name, you should also caption it for the watchers, and if you show something, you should speak it also, for the listeners. This is a difficult but vital thing to learn in screenwriting. We are of course asked to show not tell in writing, but the audience does have to know what you’re showing to stay engaged.
It is similar to writing for radio – or a podcast, like mine – where you have to help the audience paint the picture you have in their own minds, so they can follow the plot. No, you shouldn’t say exactly what’s happening, but if, for example, your characters are watching a dragon fly through the air, one of them must acknowledge the dragon or the audience can’t.
I haven’t heard back from the company yet, but it’s been a useful writing exercise regardless and one I think I will continue going forward.
Things Learnt:
Aside from learning about vertical dramas, I’ve been thinking about those agent emails I’ve written and how really they are not too different from writing a cover letter for a job! You find the agent you want to write to, explain why you’ve chosen them, a bit about your script and why they would like to read it, then thank them for their time. Submitting to agents can be seen as just another job application, and that has taken some of my fear away from doing it!
ChristyESWriter 