A real writer is one who sits down at his computer and actually strings words in to sentences, sentences in to paragraphs and paragraphs in to pages of text, and does it on a regular and occasionally brain sizzling basis. A writer isn’t someone who sits at his laptop, gets up, makes a cup of tea, plays computer games, puts some music on, does the washing up he’s been avoiding for days, pops to the shop, watches daytime TV and generally avoids actually putting the words down. A writer writes.

A good script writer is exactly the same. A good script writer gets on with it. As a script writer, I find that making up the dialogue is relatively easy. I’m lucky that way. It’s an enjoyable thing to put words in the mouth of characters that have been created and exist only in my head; at least until some actors get their hands on it.

The hard part is what happens before you begin to write it, the preparation. That’s the bit that burns the brain and tests the ability of the author. First, and this is the hardest part of all, you’ve got to have an idea. Simple? No. Ideas are occasionally like car keys; you know they’re there somewhere but sometimes they’re irritatingly impossible to find. Stumbling upon them is pretty tricky so when ideas come, write them down in a notebook. I guarantee that the best ideas arrive when you least expect it, probably when you’re out shopping and by the time you get home you’ve forgotten them again. I always carry a little jotter in my pocket.

Ok. You’ve been inspired in the cheese section of Sainbury’s, an idea has smashed you in the face whilst staring at the Baby Belles. You wrote it down, you got home, you sat down and began to write. STOP.

I think it was Frederick Forsythe the novelist who called it ‘the rookie’s mistake’. He meant that it is only inexperienced writers who just sit down and start to write with only the basic idea in their head. If you do that, the chances are that as you write and the idea evolves, characters and plot may change as you go along and you will have doubled your workload having to go back to the beginning and correct it all the time.

Meticulous planning is the key. Sit down and write out your idea in prose. From the beginning, through the middle and all the way to the end. Write down what happens in each scene so as you know for sure that the beginning will match up with the end. It’s far easier to slave over that process than to have to keep on correcting your errors. It’s very hard to do but it will help you no end.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll realise that you have learned so much more about your characters than you first imagined that the words they speak will flow far more easily on to the page.

Further reading:

How do I get my play read?

What job should I get as a budding playwright?