Let's cut to the chase.

How will paying for my - not inexpensive - advice help you sell your script?

I absolutely understand why you might be concerned. But this is just one of these 'no worries' situations. The feedback I give you will definitely help you move your script closer to a reading like the output of a professional writer.

Yes there are no guarantees.

Yes, selling a script is a complete lottery, and even the most established writers in television and the movies get their work knocked back on occasion.

HOWEVER, by getting me to help you, you are buying the – usually utterly unavailable - time of a very, very experienced writer and editor, with extensive experience of sitting on both sides of the process. 

I've been an editor, looking for writers for my show, and guiding writers from initial treatment right through to production draft, and I've been a writer, battling the system from the other side to get my own vision to screen in the best possible way.

A script plucked from the slush pile and turned into a Movie?

I'll tell you a story. When I was a script reader I would sit in a tiny office in the corner of the BBC in White City in London (the view from the window looked out over a dairy, which I always thought was incongruous for central London). I spent six months in that office, reading unsolicited scripts, writing readers' reports, and recommending pass or fail for each.

At the time it felt like a crazy place to put someone with no experience of the industry. There were just a few of us acting as gatekeepers to the hundreds of scripts that came into the BBC every week from hopeful writers.

But let me tell you something. In that six months I DID spot a script that I thought had considerable potential. It was a great bit of work by a writer I didn't know called Richard Hawkins. I passed it on up the line, and people agreed. One after another people nodded their heads, and said, surprised, 'yes, this is a good bit of work'. They brought the writer in for a conversation, and an experienced script editor and producer began to work with him - and to cut a long story short, they eventually turned that script into a movie called The Theory of Flight. It ended up being directed by Paul Greengrass, and starring Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter.

A slush pile script actually going into production? Not bad!

And not bad for teaching me to trust my own judgement.

You see, this was back in 1995, and no-one in the BBC Drama Department could remember an unsolicited script being lifted out of the slush pile and put into production like that. As far as people could remember, this had just never happened before. The story became a little legend in its own right for quite a number of years after.

You know why? Let me be blunt. We script readers were really nothing more than a political gesture. We poor, hopeful, innocents were put in a holding pen, a kind of Darwinian editor stew, and those of us who managed to finagle a renewal of our contract after the initial six months was over were deemed to have enough of the right stuff to be taken seriously as trainee editors. I suspect this is true right across the industry.

The reason this could happen is that the vast bulk of scripts that came through the door were – let me blunt - really, really hopelessly bad. There was such a gap between the professional scripts that were actually being taken seriously, and the scripts that the ordinary hopeful sitting at home would put together, that the high ups in the BBC could happily put us down there and know that the chances of them missing out on something good were minimal.
I hear that's not so true any more; that writing classes, online tutorials, the mass of screenwriting books available, have had a real impact. There are far, far more competent scripts floating around. Yet, of course, that has increased the competition. It's raised the bar you're jumping for when you're coming in cold from the outside. If you aren't going to be completely wasting your time, you really, really need to have your script in shape if you are sending it in to be read.

If you don't know what you are doing, then, well, you'd better be connected to the Vice President of the company you're approaching. That'll work. At least for a while.

But that eye for a story, that sense of what makes good writing, well, I think I've still got it. Which means I really do feel able to judge other people's writing/ And of course, I've since had 12 years experience editing, developing, writing, re-writing, for many, many different producers, on both some of the most cerebral, obscure never-to-see-the-light-of-day projects, and some of the most mass market shows in the UK.
When you hire me to look at your script, you get that experience, in whatever form suits you.

Basically, if I can't help you improve your work, and lead you towards a more marketable product, then I don't know who can.

That might sound swollen headed. I guess I certainly am sure of what I can do. But that can only be good news for you.

I'm going to help you:

Let me take you through your options.

• The First Ten Pages Report
• The Readers Reports
• The Two Draft Consultancy
• The Full Script Consultancy

The First Ten Pages Report

When I started out, the idea of junking a script without reading all of it would have seemed ludicrous - and almost immoral. I’ve known professional writers take 20 pages to get off the ground in a first draft. But times have changed. Many, many of the studios and the agents in the USA currently, and openly, operate a system whereby the first 10 pages have to impress, or the script gets rejected. The BBC Writers Room, one of the only ways into the BBC these days, does the same thing.

I don’t agree with it in principle, but, you know, the BBC alone deals with over 10,000 scripts a year. They HAVE to employ some crude tools to bring that pile down to a manageable level.

This means you could have the best script in the world, but if your first ten pages don’t convince, then people will simply never know about it.

I’m offering you that initial feedback.

The deal is simple. You send in the first ten pages of your screenplay. Plus your outline for the rest of the script.

I read the first ten pages, and then I decide whether you’ve managed to hook me - or whether if I were sitting there with a growing pile of unsolicited scripts I’d be itching to drop it and move on to the next hopeful.
Then, and only then, I'll read your story outline. If I see you have made obvious mistakes, or, by a simple rearrangement of what you've got I can make massive improvements to your opening, then I'll suggest what I see.
I’ll write you a couple of pages of notes giving you my reasons. It’s impossible to be specific about what will be in these notes, as every situation will be different, but be assured, I’ll be thorough.

YOU NEED TO SEND ME:

• The first 10 pages of your script.
• A summary of the rest of your story. (Absolutely no more than six pages.) It’s important that you include some idea of how the story ends, and what happens to your lead characters throughout.

YOU GET BACK:

Two or three pages of notes detailing why your opening works or doesn’t, plus suggestions on how you could improve it to make it more exciting, appealing, or just generally go with more of a bang.

The next option is:

The Readers Report

This is the sort of process your script will go through whenever you send it in cold to a studio and it lands on the desk of one of those fiendish Script Readers.

Obviously I'm going to bring my own tweaks to it, but it's essentially this:

I pick your script up, and read it once. I go away and think about it for a while. I make a few notes to myself. I browse through it again. I write a one or two page report on it which includes the following elements:

Logline. This is a one or two sentence attempt to summarise what I have read in a way that will do the essence of the story justice. It’s the script in an absolute nutshell. It’s not a marketing aid, it’s not (usually) the sharpest high concept sentence, but it should boil down all those 100 pages into what actually happens.

Summary. Two or three paragraphs to summarise the story at the heart of the script. The lead characters, all the major events, obvious act breaks, and so on. This apparently pointless process (you wrote the thing, you know what the story is, right? Well, actually possibly not.) is actually a truly revealing process if you do it right. It uncovers just how strong the thread of story at the heart of the script (the 'spine') actually. (Trust me, scripts without a spine generally don’t get made.)

If something in the script isn’t part of this spine, then it tends to get left out of this summary.

This stage can be quite shocking, as you can find pages and pages of beautifully written dialogue melting away as clearly having no place in your story.

General Comments. This is another few paragraphs where I give my entirely subjective take on the quality of the script, the quality of the writing, themes, tone, pace, generally how well it’s working in its own terms. (If I were working for a studio this is the place where I might flag up how well it matches the studio’s current strategic targets, but I’m not, so I won’t!)

Recommendation. The verdict. Do I advise the studio to reject this outright, or do I advise them to give the script further consideration?

YOU NEED TO SEND ME

• A full screenplay. Upwards of 60 pages, less than 140 pages, in standard screenplay format. Don’t send me a short story, or your novel or autobiography you are wondering whether to dramatise, or half a screenplay, or parts of a screenplay. I can’t judge your writing on any of those things.

YOU GET BACK

• A one or two page Reader’s Report, as detailed above, variants of which will be seen in every tv and movie studio in the world.

For those of you who want the quick answer to: ‘Can I write, or should I go back to the day job?’ this might be the best option.

But then there is:

The Two Draft Consultancy

Now we’re getting serious. This is a much more detailed affair. This is a little slice of the real development process. It’s much more open ended, and involves real back and forth communication between you and me. It’s very much aimed at people who are really committed to their writing, and who are prepared to go the extra mile to get to a vastly improved version of their script.

You start by sending in your full screenplay. Any length you choose, though I recommend it’s over 60 pages of standard format - if you are going to get the full benefit you ought to be aiming at a movie length story.

I read it. I think about it. I read it again. I break the story down into its beats. I write those up, I divide them into plots, and sub plots, and see how they all play out.

I think about it some more, work out where it’s going well, where it’s not happening, where it works on its own terms, where it could do with cutting, or nudging sideways, or more story developing, or clichés removing.

I write up a mass of notes. Pages of the things, moving from general assessment of all aspects of the writing and the story, down to more detailed notes about where the story races along, where it flags, where it sparkles, where it’s as dull as river water and crucially, suggestions for you to think about to fix all this.

I mail the notes to you. You read them, and hit the roof. How can I be this stupid? How can I have missed the point so fundamentally? Why am I trying to turn your script into something you never wanted it to be?

If you feel like it, you email me and say ‘OK, Gladwin, I want to talk.’ I call you at a time of your convenience, and go through the notes and explain why I’ve written what I’ve written.

After a while you calm down, and you start thinking, ‘Hmmm, that Gladwin, he’s got a point. In fact he’s got several. Dammit…’

You start to really think about the points I’ve raised and suddenly you get what I mean. You start to see your script from the viewpoint of the fresh reader. You start to see just why you weren’t doing your brilliant idea real justice, how, in fact there were quite a few holes, how your perfect structure was falling into pieces behind your back.

And, crucially, you start to have brilliant new ideas on how to fix the holes and strengthen the structure…

You do a rewrite. Taking as much time as you need. Coming back to me for more advice as and when you need it.

Emailing me as much as you like.

Eventually you finish. (Within one year - my one restriction on the process.) You send it to me again. And the whole process starts again.

I read it, break it down, think about it, write my notes, and fire them back to you.

Hopefully the structure is working better now, and the notes are more about niceties of plotting, plus trims, nips, tucks, comments on your dialogue, notes on formatting, layout, etc etc. All the notes that you should get when you are getting closer to having a finished version.

I mail this second set of notes back to you, you read, rage, digest, speak to me, hate me some more - and eventually come round. We say goodbye, and you’re free of me and free to set to work on your third draft, this time secure that this third draft will be immeasurably closer to being a professional product.

YOU NEED TO SEND ME

• A full length (60+ page standard format) script.
• A second draft of that script after you’ve reworked it according to my notes.

YOU GET BACK

• Full notes and phone consultations on both drafts.

Time limit one year between first and second submission.

And then, finally, there is:

The Full Script Consultancy

This is the ultimate Gold Standard, for someone who has total commitment to their chosen path of being a screenwriter. This is a full immersion process, with no limits on access.

It’s the same process as the two draft report above, except that there are no restrictions on how many drafts you do, and there’s a two year cut off point. (Any more, and this isn’t a writing project, this is a lifestyle choice!)

Simply put, I’d be in this with you for the duration. Our goal would be to make your script the very best it can possibly be.

The one thing is, this would be a very involved process, so I would need to know that I can really help you, that I felt in tune with your writing and what you were trying to do - and that we were both happy we could have a working relationship.

Therefore I’d need to read your script, and we’d need to talk before you paid any money to me, and before I took the commission.

If you’re seriously interested in this, then the first step would be to email me and we can arrange a time to talk. (I’ll call you when it’s convenient.) If you like what you hear, then you’d send me your script.

I’d read it, and get back to you within a couple of weeks with an opinion on whether I think I could help you.

At that point we can talk more about how we would structure the work, whether it might even be possible to meet, and generally how best to proceed. (I do travel to consult, but I’m afraid you’d pick up the tab for the fares and the accommodation.)

What Does It All Cost?

Finally, the bottom line.

• First Ten Pages Report £67 (Paid in advance.)
• Readers Report - £249 (Paid in advance.)
• Two Drafts - £1,786 (Broken down into two payments, one of $1,200 on submission of manuscript, the balance of £586 upon submission of your second draft.)
• Full Consultancy - £6,320  (Broken down into an initial payment of £3,160, then staged payments of the balance throughout the process. Various mutually agreed cut offs will apply on both sides, so either party can leave if it’s not working out. More details on application.

That's quite a price. Especially for the more high end services. Are you thinking you might be better off without?

If you’ll excuse me, let me tell you a bit more about how I failed utterly as a writer for an entire decade.

Back in the mid 1980’s I sold the first short story I ever completed. It was runner up in a big national competition.

Bang. Just like that. I thought I’d got it made.

Over the next ten years I spent all my spare time writing novels, short stories, the very occasional poem, an even more occasional film script.

What happened? Fame? Fortune? Yeah, right. I sold just a handful of short stories.

No more than four.

In ten years!!

So something was going wrong. I had talent (well, I thought I did) but I clearly didn’t know how the heck to apply it. I even started wondering whether that short story had been a fluke - a real life version of enough monkeys hitting enough typewriters.

I read all the books I could find, I went on several dubious courses locally, I joined local writers groups, I made all my friends read my writing till they started changing pubs to avoid me.

I still didn’t sell any more.

Mid nineties I was about to give up on the ambition of writing for a living when I lucked into a free seat on the Robert McKee story course.

For three whole days I sat there scribbling notes while light after light came on in my head.
It was a turning point. It was my Road to Damascus, whatever you’d like to call it. Having his expert analysis and deeply experienced understanding of what was really going on under the skin of a screenplay started me thinking. If you ever get the chance you should definitely go and hear him talk.

But you probably can’t get to see Robert McKee that easily - most likely you’d have to travel thousands of miles, and he doesn’t lecture terribly frequently. And even then you wouldn’t be getting the one-on-one attention you’d be getting from me.

You see, even after seeing him talk, having it all made clear, it still took me years to put the pieces together enough on my own to make my first script sale. Losing my bad habits and gaining good ones without anyone I trusted to bounce off felt like trying to make an ocean going oil tanker do a 90 degree turn.

I did it in the end. And look, if you keep trying, you too can do it on your own. A lot of people do.

But just how long have you got?

Are you prepared to risk months, or YEARS of your life on a trial and error proces with no real map or compass through all the wrong turnings?

Or do you want to cut through the nonsense and get a professional opinion and guidance on your writing?

Important - If You're Still Undecided

If you're serious about wanting to know how to write better screenplays, but have still not ordered, you could well be hesitating for one of the following reasons.

Reason #1: Price, Price, Price.

It's just worryingly expensive. And you can get similar sounding things round the corner for just a few dollars.

Now, is the service expensive, or is it reassuringly expensive?

When it can take several days to do really detailed work on a script, would you really expect me to charge any less?

Or would you really respect me if I did?

If you find someone working for a few dollars an hour, well, what could that say about the level of experience they will be bringing to bear on your script?

Look, if you don't have that kind of money to spend, I can absolutely respect that.

For many people writing is a pleasurable hobby, and they are not that serious in the long run.

But if you do have have the serious intent, and you do have the money, and you're hesitating because you don't know if it's worth it, all I can say is that learning from an expert can take years off your learning curve.
What's that worth to you?

Reason #2: You somehow just don't believe you can make it as a screenwriter. That's for the other guys.

Every screenwriter I've ever met has been different. Different social background, different age, some have no education, others have loads.

Some have a solid instinct for story, and the right ideas flock to their fingertips - and some (like me) struggled for years to put the pieces together before it all fell into place.

The point is you too can feel that moment when the light goes on - and it could be nearer than you think.

Reason #3: You don't believe there can possibly be a magic wand that can simply improve your writing.

There are definitely some people who should NOT buy any part of this program. No offense, but if any of these describe you, well… you probably shouldn’t be on this web page.

• Please don't buy a place on the program if you're looking for the Holy Grail of screenwriting. There IS no button you can press that will turn your script into the hottest thing in Hollywood. Anyone who promises that is not to be trusted.
• Please don't buy if you’re looking for absolute rules that you will be able to follow forever and ever and which will magically mean everything you ever write from now on will make you millions.
• Please don’t buy if you think I will be doing the writing for you. The focus will be on YOU and YOUR writing. Though I will be advising you to the very best of my ability, it will remain your voice coming through into your story, and that’s exactly how it should be.
• And, finally if you think making it as a screenwriter is completely out of your reach, is only for a mysterious elite, the pre-destined few, then you should just click away from this page right now.

P.S. You CAN Be A Better Writer!

This isn't a fairy story – all sorts of people make it as working screenwriters and the studios are crying out for writers – but only those writers who can deliver. 

This is an opportunity for people who are serious about their writing. It’s for people who are prepared to expend serious time and effort on challenging their old patterns of working, and who are prepared to realise why what they have been doing hasn’t been working.

That realisation can be difficult – in fact sometimes I can’t think of anything more difficult – but, for those that stick with it, the rewards can be immense.

If you are willing to put in the effort to deal with the more challenging aspects of growing as a writer without giving up and walking away, then I’m MORE than happy to help you!

Comments

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Carole Zucker  - Night Dreams     |2010-05-06 02:13:34 I'd like to do the first ten pages option. Carole Reply | Quote 0   0

Phil Gladwin     |2010-05-07 10:46:35 No problem Carole, Just follow the Click Here to Order link above and you get taken to a page that details all your different options. All best, Phil Reply | Quote 0   0

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