 Eastenders is one of the three most popular television dramas in the UK. In this special, extended length, audio interview, Richard Lazarus talks about his journey from own label baked beans to being a core writer on this four times a week slice of urban naturalism. (Er... that's a technical term for "kitchen sink drama" - the sort of thing that we Brits do so well.) He gives the inside story on how the whole writing process works. Serial dramas like this, with their 200 + episodes a year and their constant hunger for new writers, often act as the gateway to the industry, so if you have any ambition to work as a screenwriter you could do worse than to put aside an hour and listen to this in depth analysis of how he does what he does.
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The Screenwriting Goldmine system is a simple, concise, focused, professional scriptwriting method that leads you step by step from the blank page all the way through to a finished first draft screenplay you will be proud of - and that other people will be desperate to read. Find out more.
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If you've downloaded your copy of the Screenwriting Goldmine and you want a short cut to setting out the spreadsheet for the beat sheet and the character breakdowns you might be interested using my own spreadsheet as a template. Find out more.
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My blog covers a lot of ground, from screenplays wanted notices such as the Hollynorth project, through the smartest way of pitching, articles on how screenwriters get hired, and stacks of other related matters.
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One of the more active screenwriting forums on the internet - among the many, many options, you can get free opinions on your writing, network with other writers, debate new movie releases, and generally get masses of free advice from the many experienced members. Get debating.
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 Paul Ashton runs the team who act as the first line of defence for the BBC as they endure the constant seige of scripts from hopeful screenwriters. In their search for new talent they receive, consider, and respond to around 10,000 screenplays every year. Can there be many people in the world with such a wide experience of the pitfalls committed by new screenwriters? And Sally Brockway asks him all the questions you would ever want answering about that. If you've ever sent a script off anywhere, this 40 minutes+ downloadable interview is simply unmissable.
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It’s not too surprising that many people start to write a
screenplay without ever having read any. We’ve all seen thousands of hours of
television and thousands of movies, so it’s easy to assume that has given us an
instinctive understanding of the form. That is true for some lucky people
– but even they can’t have an instinctive understanding of how a screenplay
looks on the page – there are certain conventions you must follow if you don’t
want to get your screenplay filed in the laugh-and-junk-pile. (And, you know,
just reading free screenplays isn’t enough. You should be working on them too.)
Here’s a guide to where you can get masses of free screenplays – and what you should be doing with
them when you have them.
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 Boy Meets Girl is a new four part drama that charts the progress of Veronica and Danny after an accident which causes them to swap minds. We have an exclusive interview with the writer, David Allison, in which he talks about his route into writing, his specific writing process, the startling reality behind the tag of New Writer that the press have given him, and the inside track on how to make networking A. Less fearful and B. More productive.
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 This is Samia Smith, who has played Maria O'Connor in Coronation Street for nine years now - and who is just one of the newer faces in the show's tradition! 'The Street' is a legend in British Television. With over 7,000 episodes broadcast it's less now less than two years from being able to celebrate its 50th year on screen. At the moment it runs at five half hour episodes a week - and regularly slugs it out with Eastenders to be seen as THE top soap in terms of awards, audience figures, and general national esteem. Can you imagine thinking of enough stories to write 52 long movies a year? Me neither. But Stuart Blackburn can. He heads the story department, and in this completely exclusive interview Stuart tells Sally Brockway how they come up with the stories that drive the behemoth that is 'Corrie' to the top of the charts. It's fair to say you WILL learn a trade secret or two.
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Dialogue that is over real can kill your script stone dead – which is
just about the opposite of what you think when you start out.
This article explains the difference between bad real dialogue and
great ‘realistic’ dialogue.
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Giving up your day job to become a full time screenwriter may be a daunting prospect until you've sold that first script (and even after that) but it can be done. At the Cheltenham Screenwriters’ Festival 2008, a panel of writers shared advice on how they have been making that switch to screenwriting as their main occupation while paying the bills - and gave up a bundle of tips and ideas on how everyone can do the same.
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 This is a fascinating audio interview with Ged Maguire, who is a highly experienced director of British TV. In over 55 minutes of full and frank conversation with top UK media journalist Sally Brockway, Ged talks about a vast range of screenwriting matters and comes up with some incredible advice, all given from the perspective of the guy who actually has to stand there with your script, the actors and the crew and make the darn thing play!
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 The odds are high that your chosen script exec/producer/director will want to see a treatment before they will go anywhere near your screenplay. There are many different ways to write a treatment, but if you follow these 10 simple guidelines you can't go too far wrong...
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