What Do You Want To Write? (How To Write A Script)

A new season begins, dedicated to how to write a script. And it's all about beginning the journey of deciding what it is you want to write.

We'll think about the medium you might want to write it, the core of your concept, how that can expand into a premise, ensuring there's enough substance to maintain your script, and most importantly, why an idea excites you. All of this plus the origins of a brand new concept we'll develop across the series and a chance for you to do some creating of your own alongside the show. Interaction!

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Music by Chris Stamper
Illustration by Matt Miles https://www.instagram.com/datmattmiles/
Design by Adam Smith

Transcript

Hello writer types and podcast listener types! Robin Taylor here, back once again to engage in some more thinking about writing. And if you’re new to the show then this is a great place to start, if you don’t mind not getting my stupid in jokes. And I’ll explain why.

You see, as I travel this funny old world I often ask folks, what would you like from a future episode of the thinking about writing podcast. And if we discount the responses of “The who about what now?” the most common answer is simply breaking down how to write a script. So that’s what we’ll be doing this time around. Who am I to deny the will of the people? But for such a fundamental question, one episode doesn’t seem enough, no no. So we’re dong a whole flipping series on it!

That’s right, over the next eight episodes we’ll be going through the writing process from the very beginning to the bitter, or hopefully sweet, end. Basically it’ll be a much more forensic coverage than previous episode Thinking About Process. Indeed, there will naturally be quite a bit of overlap with previous episodes which I’ll refer you to throughout if you want some more detail on particular topics. But if you want a comprehensive checklist approach to writing a script, from formulating your concept, to planning your plot, and even how to construct a scene or write dialogue, then this is the place for you! Get comfy, make a little bed out of cushions or something. I’ll also be proving I’m not all mouth and no trousers by creating an original concept as we go through the series, and you can do something similar too, with weekly challenges or, if you prefer, optional exercises that you can try out in your own time.

So come on you writers in the making, dust off your notebooks, sharpen your pencils, and then recognise that you don’t use those items and mainly tippy tap on your computer instead, and let’s get thinking about how to write a script!

Thinking About Writing a Script. How To Write A Script. Part One. What Do You Want To Write?

Hi, I’m Robin Taylor, writer and script editor unextraordinaire, and this is Thinking About Writing, the podcast which aims to explore and demystify some of the techniques and terminology involved in script writing. It’s for anyone who is currently writing, or thinking about writing for TV, film, audio and theatre, as well as any infinite numbers of monkeys being chained up to typewriters, expected to produce the complete works of William Shakespeare and worrying they just don’t know where to begin. A big ooh ooh to you. Just have some witches chatting on a hill.

So yes, before we begin our journey into how to write a script, the usual disclaimers apply. I’m not saying this is THE way to write, it is a way, which will naturally be influenced by my personal methodology, which as you might expect, includes a lot of thinking. But we’ll also considering variations in approach, since the old edict remains that it’s about finding what works best for you. Hopefully you’ll get some ideas or help in the logic of how you write, or it might just let you say “That sounds terribly inefficient, Robin Taylor, I much prefer the way I do it” We love a bit of inadvertent validation. But this is all stuff I’ve learned across my eighteen year career as a writer, script editor and general lover of the arts type person. So I’m not just making stuff up. Well maybe sometimes.

Right then, as the opening jingle suggested, in this first episode we’re going to be considering the big question of what you want to write, why you want to write it, and beginning to turn that ethereal idea floating around in your brain into something manifest

What Are You Writing

Of course, an obvious starting point is figuring out exactly what it is you want to write. The big idea, yeah? Well hang onto your horses there, because there’s a few practical considerations which can be thrown into the mix which may influence the overall direction you’re going to take. One of those is deciding which medium you are thinking of writing, our old friends TV, film, audio and theatre. Now you may have a clear preference for the world you want to write for, which will give you a natural inclination. But it may also be you want to try out something new, meaning your creative brain can start to think in certain parameters. Something very visual and action packed will better suit film or television. Audio obviously requires a script which can make use of sound, but may also allow more conceptual ideas or elements which could be impossible or financially demanding in other mediums. Theatre may allow for a thoughtful and slower approach and offer creative challenges and opportunities. Of course, none of these are fixed, but certain features could inspire different approaches. 

And immediately we can also see how interconnected such thoughts are and how they may come in any order. It may be the idea you come up with which determines the best fit for your vision. And within this there are also possibilities around duration, be that a feature or short film, a one or three act play, a thirty or sixty minute TV script, and how many episodes or series that may produce - something we’ll think about a bit more when we get to the story element of the idea. It isn’t vital to know which medium works best before writing, it may be something you figure out as you write, again, things can change - you might suddenly realise your TV concept doesn’t work as it is, but it could make a great play, which a BBC exec later sees in a fringe theatre and suggests you rewrite it for TV. Adapting is possible, but challenging, and that’s another topic coming down the track, But if you can begin to attune your creative process to thinking about the different mediums available that can start the cogs of inspiration whirring, as you imagine what would be effective choices for your script, recognising how to work with or around the opportunities, expectations and limitations certain mediums bring.

It can also be useful to recognise your intention with a new script. Are you simply writing for fun and creative expression? In which case it’s all quite carte blanche to do as you want, but also recognising you may want to improve your style so you are expressing yourself as well as possible. If it is a spec or sample script, then there is still a level of freedom to write in a way which captures who you are as a writer without needing to necessarily be an expert. But if you are putting it forward to opportunities or producers you will probably want to work on it to a level that it is a best showcase of your potential. It may simply be a calling card and the means to put your work out there and garner interest rather than a project you’re expecting to have produced. If it is a script that you are hoping to have made, then the requirements will be higher and involve different ways of thinking, such as commercial viability, whether it has an audience and possibly longevity, if it feels strong enough to warrant developing, or even possibly ready to go. Now that doesn’t mean that impulsive flights of fancy can’t end up being viable for production, obviously passion can be a compelling force, but it may have lower odds if you’ve gone into it without a clear vision and intention. On the opposite side of this, a script which has been written purely because it might sell may struggle to feel like authentic artistic expression (Not that stuff like that doesn’t get made) But this will be a recurring point across this series, as I’ll point out approaches which may be more relevant for professional rather than recreational writing. So, with these considerations ticking away in our brains, it eventually all relates to the idea that you are aiming to write.

What’s The Big Idea?

Of course for many writers the origin of a new script is the idea itself and everything else like medium and goals may fall into place off the back of this. Now, the very first episode of series one of this podcast was all about idea generation, and the qualities which may or may not be important in a concept, so that’s available for listening to. Though, obviously I’m now much more experienced and professional as poo caster… I mean podcaster! I’ll have to cut that. One major point raised in that episode though is that an idea can come from anywhere, it may be a particular place or a character who pops into your head or interests you, it could come from real life experience or be a complete flight of fantasy. You might want to explore a particular topic and then think what is the best situation in which to do that. Sometimes it’s just a little fragment or seed which then needs significant growth, other times a fairly well formed story quite naturally comes to mind. And this early generative stage is an opportunity to basically explore the idea and its potential and start to flesh it out. So if you want to write about an amateur volleyball club, for example, it’s good to start to ask why is that an interesting world? what would be happening there which would generate drama or comedy, what kind of characters could you create and what journeys would they take? If your starting point is more conceptual, like thinking you wish to write about loneliness, how would that manifest and play out, what kind of scenario would allow you to delve into that state of being, who would helm such a story, and what kind of things would demonstrate a sense of isolation with variety and progression?

One big question is how much substance is actually there. You may think up a character, place or setup and think “That’s interesting!” but the question then becomes what will you actually do with that start point. If the answer is “Ohh, I’m not sure” then do you think you’ll be able to figure it out. With this in mind, we can ask how much story is there, which requires imagining a possible trajectory for the idea, and while this would be properly developed when planning the structure of the plot, do you have early ideas for where the story could go? Continuing the theme of interconnectedness, this could be determined by the medium you’re writing for. If there are inherent limitations to the story, it probably makes more sense as a one off play rather than an ongoing series. It might even be a short film. If you are hoping to create a series, are there sufficient plot points? Do episode ideas naturally pop into your head or are you struggling to picture what would happen down the line? This is another consideration which is a bigger deal when trying to sell an idea to a production company, as they are often looking for the golden egg laying goose of a series with multi-series potential, so if you’re hoping to indicate six, twelve or even more episodes worth of material, it helps if you know off the bat that this could be achievable. If five episodes come to you quite easily, you’re in good stead, if you’re stuck around two, that’s a bit of an uh oh.

As already alluded to, it also helps if you naturally feel there are dramatic or comedic opportunities, as befits the genre you’re writing for. You might be hoping you’ll figure those out as you go along, but what if you get there and don’t find anything, or it’s a full on struggle? Every now and then it can actually be beneficial to recognise that an idea you have may well be interesting, but there’s simply not enough substance there to forge a strong script from. This is one of those difficult editorial decisions, I’d say don’t dismiss something too readily, think about ways that you could make it work or reshape it. But be prepared to accept maybe it’s just one of those imaginings that doesn’t fully warrant your time and effort, or is potentially a bigger challenge which would benefit from a bit more time stewing in your mind. I don’t want to quell any ambitions, but sometimes tackling a script which comes to you more easily can be a better first step in practicing your writing, whereas something overly ambitious could be a bit too challenging and put you off or be too difficult to realise in practice, taking years of reluctant blood, sweat and yes tears. Of course some people thrive on more of a challenge, so you do you. Equally some people stress test more than others, making sure there’s no lingering doubts or issues, deciding if it’s commercially viable or simply interests them enough to write, as well as checking there’s enough there to dig their teeth into.

This is possibly one of the trickier aspects of the imagining process, envisioning where a project could go when you’ve not even written the first scene or episode yet. But it doesn’t need to be precise or planned out at this point, it’s more about the sense that there is potential there. Ideas can ping out of nowhere or have knock on effects. “What if the main character was an astronaut? What if their spouse was an alien? And they lived in a house boat! What’s the got to do with anything? I dunno, but I quite like it”. And maybe when you get to that future point of cementing the concept you might realise those ideas aren’t right for you, hopefully because you’ve thought up something even better, but they gave you the push and enthusiasm to get to that point. And while this first blue sky brainstorm is fun and useful, further on in the process it may actually be a case of simplifying and paring back some of your ideas to create a clearer streamlined project. 

Still, it’s beneficial to have a feeling that there are possibilities which stimulate you. Even if you’re writing for fun, if your script runs out of steam or road, to mix some metaphors, you’ll potentially end up abandoning the project, when it’s always nice to finish it instead. And to reiterate a point I’ve made in the past, if you’re trying to excite someone to read, make or be the audience for your writing, it always helps if you’re excited about it yourself. A lot of that excitement comes from potential, so identifying and then utilising that will give an idea vitality and urgency. So if you can find that at this early stage it naturally improves your odds. But it’s not all just pie in the sky imagining, it will come to the point where you begin to give your idea form.

Concepts, Premises and Plot.

At this point it’s worth pointing out the difference between concept, premise and plot. Or at least how I find it helpful to think of them, Samuel Johnson might take umbrage with some of them, but he’s long dead, so what you gonna do about it Sammy? Eh? That’s what I thought. The concept is the idea in its purest form, what it’s about basically. So the concept could be it’s about an amateur volleyball team. It encapsulates but doesn’t tell us too much. As hinted at, concepts can be more… conceptual, it’s about what happens when a mother is pushed too far, or a high concept, such as a world where otters are the deadliest predator and humankind their prey. The premise takes this basic idea further by suggesting the setup, situation and story elements. So here we might say “Suburban mother Alice struggles with raising her wayward children, but when her son is hospitalised in a hit and run, Alice’s maternal instincts bring about bloody vengeance.” I’m just making these things up, by the way, so apologies when they get daft. So in this premise we have a sense of the lead character, their state of being, an inciting incident that causes upheaval, and perhaps most importantly a sense of trajectory, that the story is going somewhere. The plot will then fill in the gaps of this broad overview, and we will come to that in episode three. But having a firm grip on the premise and starting to formulate the plot and indicate that there will be a story with some meat to it is a strong place to start. These kind of log lines or elevator pitches may be requested when submitting scripts or generating interest in a project.

A premise which is simply “A sleepy seaside town is rocked by a series of murders”, while a clear concept, doesn’t actually have much depth or detail. There’s not a lot to get your teeth into, whereas indicating who is investigating or what effect these murders have gives the story additional aspects. Indeed this element of identity, distinction and even originality can be very important, because you want your script to feel distinctive, so starting to cement that in as soon as possible is very beneficial. This can influence the idea shaping phase. So for example if you wanted to write about a family business, that’s a reasonable starting point, but needs more detail. If it’s about who takes over the family business, there’s a stronger story, but perhaps a little familiar. If it’s about three siblings squabbling over who inherits their foul-mouthed father’s media empire, that is nicely specific, but it’s also Succession. As ever, pure originality isn’t necessary, but being aware of explicit similarities is important, particularly when selling an idea. This requires an awareness of the cultural landscape and the ability to adapt an idea to give it a desirable level of individuality so it isn’t simply a copycat. And while it’s smart not to worry that something vaguely similar was made once in the history of humanity, people are going to be conscious of something very similar made very recently, which will dampen the distinctiveness of essentially the same concept being pitched in its wake.

For all these reasons, having a clear sense of the premise and actually writing it out can be a highly beneficial way to focus your idea as well as your mind and keep you on track when adding in all the extra details across the process of figuring out your script. It may be early doors for that at this stage, as you sit in the midst of brainstorming, but we’ll begin to figure it out as we add more details, particularly through figuring out your characters and plot. Indeed, shaping the premise may be something you do during or after the plotting, or it may influence how you plot, but either way it’s still useful to jot it down before you write the script. It’s tempting to think you wait until the end and then summarise what you’ve written, but that may result in realising that the premise isn’t particularly clear. Realistically what you initially imagine may change as you write, and you could end up needing to write an altered premise, but we’re talking about a couple of sentences here folks, so, ya know, it’s not that demanding. Sometimes it’s useful just to see an encapsulation of the idea in front of you and think, that’s what I’m trying to write. Because it’s true that writers can lose sight of their original intention, not quite seeing the woods for the trees, and forget why they are making choices as they write or going down unrelated tangents. Indeed at this point it can be wise to go beyond the question of what you are writing and asking why do you want to write it.

Why d’You Want to Write This

Now I know what you may be thinking, here goes Robin Taylor talking about meaning and substance and all that gubbins when all I want to do is write a bodacious script about sexy surfing detectives. And indeed, an idea may just come to you because it’s fun or exciting and you just want to write it and shouldn’t have to blooming well justify your life choices by bluffing that it’s all a diatribe against commercialised narcissism in the post-modern globalised landscape. But realistically there’s a chance that someone will ask you why you wanted to write that particular project, be that a producer, a director, an audience member, or a journalist with incredibly bright teeth on the red carpet of your Hollywood premiere. And a bit of passion and purpose can be incredibly alluring - it can indicate a clear vision and intention, which will hopefully promise a story which will be well told and has enough to it to maintain interest and frankly, duration. And indeed, if you do know what you’re trying to do with your script, that’ll influence your approach, focus and priorities. Ultimately it’s about finding what excites you and why you want to tell this story.

It could be inspired by personal events which have given you a certain perspective that you want to share so as to enlighten others. Of course, just because something happened to you or you have experienced a situation, it’s still necessary to find the story within that. Not to get too self referential, but one of my early side jobs to support my writerly dreams was working for a mail order…adult emporium. And friends would say to me, that must be so funny, you could write a comedy about that. And I’d say “No.” It was a really miserable workplace, there weren’t any particularly fun characters, nothing exciting ever happened, and apart from the fact that the stuff we were selling was amusingly rude, it was pretty much the equivalent of working in any old packing facility. That being said, later on in life I was writing a character who I wanted to have a self-made little business empire, and the idea that it was selling adult items made sense with the character and was more fun, but it was a detail rather than the crux of the script. What’s the message there? I guess take from your own life, but only when it’s worth or makes sense to do so.

So those lived experiences can be informative or inspiring, but it’s helpful to analyse whether they actually provide another material and narrative drive to inspire a script. The same thinking can apply to stories your friends may have told you of their lives, or historical figures you’ve learned of. If there’s something there that intrigues you then explore it and discern whether or not there’s a full story to be told. Of course something may be completely imagined, and therefore you may be less restrained by reality and can create any events you wish, and again, if there’s a strong intention that will influence those creations. Once more it can tie back to the concept - while the premise may give a sense of the story, the concept can capture that core of the idea, be it about love, loss, friendship or ambition.

You may wish to think what are you trying to say, or what concepts are you looking to explore. Do you have a strong message in your writing - for example Jack Thorne’s drama Help starring Jodie Whittaker was about a care home worker in the Covid pandemic, but clearly Thorne wished to make a strong comment on the underfunding of the care sector. Do you want to throw some moral quandaries up in the air and allow the audience to think about them? In which case what are those quandaries? What are the themes within the idea which get your blood pumping and your brain sparking? Because if you know that, you’ll approach your characters, scenes and dialogue with a purposeful aim, such as incorporating a character who represents a certain point of view or creating predicaments which challenge their morals or perspectives. 

A note which can come up from producers which you may or may not find useful is “Why now?” Why is this particular project relevant to the contemporary world and audience. You could say that the Last Of Us feels more pertinent in the wake of Covid 19, while something like The Handsmaid’s Tale hits harder because of real life restraints being put on women’s bodily autonomy, and it arguably wouldn’t have as much impact if that wasn’t the case. Of course we could say a good story is always interesting, or speaks to the universal experience at any time, but it’s also true that a writer demonstrating a sense of urgency and vitalness in their writing can be very appealing and infectious. Everyone loves the zeitgeist! But even if a script is contemporary and original, if there’s little passion behind it, it may ring hollow. If someone asks why you’re telling this story and the answer is “Because no one else is writing about this right now.” that should arguably be followed up by “And they really should be because of x, y and z.” rather than purely cashing in on a gap in the market. But this does not mean all scripts must be thoroughly worthy social commentaries, the driving force could be the potential for entertainment and amusement, which of course then ensures delivering on this, which again ties back to that early sense that there’s a lot of good stuff you can do with the concept.

And this isn’t to say that all writers should know what they want to do with their script before they start writing. I’m certainly not instructing you to not write a damn word until you’ve figured out every god damn detail of the project. In fact you might write a little scene or some snippets of dialogue, maybe even do a monologue to explore a character’s voice and mental state, and who can say if you’ll end up using those or not. Once you do begin the script proper, there’s still room to discover as the writing process takes place. Best laid plans can still shift when you recognise there are more interesting opportunities or effective ways to do something within the writing. Indeed being too rigid in your vision could prevent chances for unexpected, exciting writing. Often things slide into place during the writing, or after several drafts as the vision becomes even clearer to the writer. And this is all valid and understandable. But that can mean a more laboured process, as efforts have to be made to reshape or retrofit the script, which some writers find more challenging than others. It’s better to have something strong in mind as you start so you have something to fall back on if the idea doesn’t evolve, rather than hoping you’ll find some reasoning and purpose later on. So this early, exploratory, pre-writing phase is an opportunity to make things hopefully easier, because you can go back to that original kernel which got your creative juices flowing, you can look back to your premise to keep you on track when you potentially lose your way, you can look at the concept and stay true to what the script was intended to be. Maybe you embellish or alter, but having that foundation can make what can be the daunting, confusing or overwhelming experience of writing a bit more manageable.

Now this has all been rather theoretical up until now, hasn’t it? So let’s make it a bit more practical. In a hypothetical manner.

Putting this in practice

So here on the Thinking About Writing podcast, we love a practical example to tie all of the thinking together, and in this series we’ve got the opportunity to actually carry that across all the episodes, I think, as we’re going to create an idea and apply the principles we’ve discussed to see how they’d play out in reality. It might not work as we get further in, unless I actually end up writing the thing, and it could be a load of old rubbish, but let’s find out!

So I’m just going to pluck any old idea that came to me out of the air and put that through the ringer. And for some reason the first thought that came to me was something set in a launderette. Perhaps this t-shirt needs a wash. Do I think picking some random location and building a story from there is the best route to script creation? No, personally I’d normally have a character or a emotional state that interests me, and then build things up from there, but let’s just go with this for now. Now straight off the bat it’s quite interesting to think that in terms of the type of script this idea would suit, it feels like it could work in most options - TV, film, short film, you could imagine a stage with a couple of representative washing machines on it, there’s a natural soundscape for radio, not that an audience would necessarily want an hour of drama with a rumbling tumble dryer in the background, so a bit of variation there might help. And the environment would suit comedy, drama or a combo of the two, so it’s a bit of an open playing field which would be a best fit for whatever story comes to mind most strongly.

When it comes to my reasoning for writing about this, obviously it’s not an act of passion. I have never worked in a launderette, I don’t have ancestors in the clothes cleaning business as far as I’m aware, so there’s no natural drive to write that story. I have used launderettes, mainly when I was a student, though I don’t recall anything particularly eventful happening there. I remember collecting some washed duvets once and ringing a bell for a slightly surly woman who emerged from a back room and I wondered what she got up to back there all day. So that’s at least a modicum of interest. But I am slightly nervous about the rather limited knowledge and experience here! Thinking about the location in a bigger sense, it is quite interesting - it is a potential social hub, but at the same time with strange limitations, people aren’t generally meeting up with their pals over a spin cycle. It speaks to a less affluent class, people who don’t have a washing machine at home, it can be a place of warmth and shelter for those without a home, and it is perhaps a struggling business model, often they’re quite empty and you wonder how they stay running. So this does lend itself to interesting characters, with potential hardships and struggles. Do I feel comfortable writing this kind of working class depiction? Kind of. Money was tight while I was growing up before we made it into the middle classes. If I’m conscious of avoiding slipping into poverty porn or gross characterisation, that could work.

So is there a story which comes to mind? Well if we were to go down that struggling business route, that generates a predicament. What would they do to keep going? Because I’m a sucker for a pun, my brain quickly goes to money laundering, haha, so we’re linking into crime and potentially drugs. Does that mean the lead character is willing to break the law to protect their business? It’s all getting a little Breaking Bad isn’t it? But maybe they’re initially a patsy who when they discover the truth behind where the money’s coming from finds redemption by shutting these crimes down. Then with something like this, the story has the potential to expand and escalate, but that also may take the focus away from the launderette. Which could be fine if we’re just thinking in terms of a jumping off point, but if the concept is supposedly about a launderette, straying too far from that could create an identity crisis. Still, there’s the beginnings of a dramatic idea with some series potential which could sit quite happily in the mainstream, as long as there’s enough substance and a bit of a hook.

The idea of the surly woman working a rather solitary job with some occasional interactions speaks to me quite a bit, there’s an interesting character there and it’s tempting to imagine the kind of story that might happen to them. Another pun based thought that comes to mind is people washing dirty linen in public. Not all of my ideas are based on puns, honest. But there’s a certain intimacy in someone washing your clothes, going through your pants and so on, which is curious - this sort of unintended insight given to someone doing their job. So does she feel an attachment to someone she does service washes for? Is there an interesting love story, or an obsession there? My mind’s slightly rushing ahead and thinking, what’s an unexpected insight in that world? Well what if she falls for a customer, then sees blood on his clothing? What happened there? How does she respond? Is she in love with a killer? Already a little voice in my head is thinking about the logic there, would a serial killer really take their blood stained clothes to a launderette? If they wanted to brag, or saw her as an accomplice or future victim, maybe. Or if it’s an innocent misunderstanding which goes off the rails. The other consideration with an idea like this is that it has restrictions, unless it becomes a series of her investigating a potential crime, there may only been a limited story there. That’s fine, it just means it’d be better suited to a one off, so a play, feature, or even a short if there’s not much room for exploration.

A third option would be to go for a traditional sitcom, that’s something I’ve experience in, so it sort of makes sense. It fits the standard practice of a regular location, it sort of makes me think of Desmonds which was set in a barber shop but several characters just used it as a social setting. As stated, I don’t know how much a laundrette honestly imitates that, and a bigger concern is that stories don’t immediately come to mind, when you’re going to want six episode ideas minimum. You could cannibalise that murderer idea, turning it into a comedic misunderstanding, but I don’t know how many more washing based plots there could be, and then events would be driven by the characters rather than the setting, which some might say is better writing, but if the setting isn’t offering much of anything it is logical to ask, well why is it set there then? Desmond’s barber shop is a realistic setting where different people from the black community would regularly get together and socialise, but a launderette doesn’t feel like a truthful place for characters to be long term and interact with one another, which means it’d potentially feel phoney and forced, I’m just using it because a sitcom hasn’t been set there before. So while it’s not beyond the realm of possibilities, it feels like a harder task to make it work and it doesn’t have that same instinctual excitement as the other ideas. So trying to force it through when I’m not really that into it doesn’t seem like the smartest use of time.

Now I might want to think about other cultural works which have featured a launderette. The one that comes to mind straight away is My Beautiful Launderette, what with launderette being in the title. There are some interesting themes in there about running a small business as aspirational, but it is essentially a love story, and it’s got themes of race, class, culture and sexuality all tied together, which goes to show that the setting doesn’t need to fully dominate, it’s not like all the plots are about fabric conditioner and missing socks. Yet the setting does give it identity and distinctiveness, much more than the love story would be without it. So that’s interesting to take as inspiration. I also think about the launderette in Eastenders, and particularly Dot Cotton working there. Now I’m not saying let’s just copy Dot Cotton, but if we were going for a character driven piece then she’s interesting to study, a bit of a gossip, but also a comforting ear, a deeply religious woman with a ne’er do well son. It makes you think about the layers to a character, and while it can offer inspiration, also awareness of making sure there’s differentiation. I also think of Everything Everywhere All At Once, where the central family own a laundromat and are struggling to keep it running with dodgy accounts. Again, this story goes in a very different direction and the launderette is more of a detail than the core of the idea, but we’d want to avoid any overlap if we went down the business on the rocks route.

If we’re getting really into the practicality of selling an idea like this, well a little googling shows there was a non-broadcast pilot in 2022 set in a launderette. Evidently a comedy, so maybe they managed to get past the story limitations we were worried about before. This is interesting, because we don’t know if it may still get picked up and go to series, if it was turned down, or why. If you were being really investigative you might find out the production company and where it was pitched to, so as not to end up pitching to the same people who may not need nor want such a story. But with such things it’s worth recognising the drawn out nature of development, that it could be a couple of years until it appears on TV, and indeed that as much as you’re bursting with excitement to crank your script out, it may well be a couple of years or even more before yours is up for consideration.

So where does this leave us? Well, there’s a couple of possibilities stewing, either a dramatic series about a business on its knees making desperate choices, or a more character-focused play about a launderette employee and her relationship with a customer, which frankly could be a thriller or a farce. And there are some interesting aspects in each of them. It’s not necessarily screaming out to be developed and written, which would be the ideal, but for the sake of this thought experiment, let’s pretend we’re feeling up for it, and if nothing else, it’s the most prominent idea we’ve got right now. We can also recognise that sometimes in the writing life you may be working on someone else’s idea, it’s not your passion project, and you’ve still got to make it work, so there’s a bit of the application here. It could turn into something special, or at the very least be a sample script to work on and show off our writing skills. And you may be thinking “Robin Taylor, didn’t you just say it helps to have a clear vision of your intentions” well yes, fair point, okay, let’s make some firm choices, even though in reality I’d probably spend a few weeks mulling it over. It’s going to be useful for us to think in terms of a TV series, I think, and I’ve never written a crime drama before, so let’s go with that. It’s about the duality of a legitimate business as a front for a criminal orgnisation, and the people who get caught up in that, with a perspective on money, class, duality and work, it seems. So that is something to go on. Really the devil is going to be in the details, as we figure out whether there’s compelling, stories and a general world that we want to write about. And arguably most importantly, are there interesting characters there who we want to bring to life and believe an audience could care about, and how will they influence the direction of the concept. And that’s exactly what we’re going to be thinking about in the next episode. And by referring to the next episode I am indeed suggesting the end of this one. Well done everybody.

Outro

So the journey begins! Idea formulation is potentially one of the most fun aspects of writing, and I’ve just sucked all of the joy out of it. Well, hopefully not! Really at this point, from a physics point of view we’re in the gaseous state of things. Anything goes, ideas can pop out of nowhere and you can give them a think, see how much you like them, swish them around in your brain like a wine taster doing their weird drinking thing, and spit out anything you don’t fancy. Indeed, ideas will soon take more of a liquid form, with more substance, but still completely capable of shifting shape. This first period is your chance to start to get really enthused about what you want to write, seeing the possibilities. And yes, maybe that does involve identifying issues and concerns, but that allows you to start thinking over and finding solutions and work arounds. Going into your story forearmed with a decent sense of what you want it to be, to look and feel like, can sharpen your focus while still leaving room to explore and discover, but within tighter boundaries so it doesn’t become a wild unmanageable script which needs more rewrites than is possibly desirable. But even if you do end up with a script which is a little jumbled, we’ll be looking at how to hopefully remedy or rescue it. See, there is excitement, woo!

So I’m going to make one of my naive attempts at audience interaction, if you want to use this series as a creative exercise to basically come up with a trial run of a script, then your homework for this week is to think over and ideally write down the core concept and thus figure out why you think it’s an idea full of potential. If you really want to get involved then you can share the essence of your idea via Twitter or Instagram, @writing_pod, through my website, robinleetaylor.com where you can also make an enquiry about getting some notes from myself on a script you’re working on , or there’s now my Patreon, where you can leave a comment or also support the show and access exclusive content, that’ll be patreon.com/ThinkingAboutWriting. Links for all these will be in the episode description. If you don’t want to do any of those things, then simply join us again next time where we will take the core of an idea and begin to fill in the details in terms of the world, particularly how to create and develop characters. Follow the pod if you don’t want to miss it, and while you’re there leave a rating or write a review too. Catch you next time, and until then, think about writing a script! Okay take care, bye bye.