Which means the first thing it has to survive is a reader in an industry that receives thousands of them. Format, structure and pace are not presentation: they are the whole first impression.
Two things bring people to a screenwriter. Either the script is half-written and has stopped moving, or it is finished and is not doing what it needs to do. Both are ordinary, and both are easier to fix with someone who has finished scripts before.
Writers here work in standard format and are used to taking notes from directors, producers and the rest of a production team without losing the thing that made the script worth developing. What we will not tell you is that we can place it: nobody honest can promise that, and the offer should make you suspicious wherever you hear it.
Five, each with its own structural expectations. A comedy and a thriller are paced by entirely different clocks.
- 01
Action
Dynamic fight sequences, stunt set-pieces and climaxes that escalate, plus the tactical and science-fiction variants, where the rules of the world have to hold up under pressure.
- 02
Drama
Heartfelt dialogue and complex character development: family drama, psychological drama, period and social-issue work, handled with the nuance the subject requires.
- 03
Comedy
Witty dialogue and comic timing built into the structure. Romantic, satirical, slapstick, dark and ensemble comedy, where multiple storylines have to be juggled and land together.
- 04
Thriller
Psychological, crime, action, paranormal and political. Unpredictable turns, intense pacing and the tension that keeps an audience forward in their seat.
- 05
Animation and cartoon series
Adventure, educational, comedy, fantasy and character-driven series, a form with its own storytelling grammar and a humour that has to work for children and for the adults watching with them.
Four things to expect from a screenwriter, and one thing not to.
- 01
Craft, not just format
Story structure, character development, dialogue and pacing. Correct formatting is the entry requirement rather than the achievement, and plenty of correctly formatted scripts do not work.
- 02
Your vision, developed
The approach is collaborative: your input is carried through rather than absorbed. A script doctor who returns their own film is not doing the job you paid for.
- 03
Notes taken properly
Writers here are used to working with directors and producers and incorporating feedback from several directions at once without the script losing its spine.
- 04
No promises about placement
The house writes scripts. It does not represent them, does not have a route to a studio, and will not imply otherwise. Anyone who suggests a writing fee buys access to the industry is selling you something else.
Eight steps, and the outline is where the film is really made.
Initial consultation
Your vision and the specific requirements for the screenplay, including the practical ones, which shape the script more than anyone expects.
Concept development
The concept built out into something that can carry a feature or an episode, rather than a premise that runs out at the end of the first act.
Detailed outline
Major story beats, character arcs and key scenes laid out. Problems found here cost a conversation; found at page ninety they cost a rewrite.
Script writing
The screenplay written in standard format, with the focus on character, dialogue and a structure that holds under a cold read.
Feedback
Your notes, worked through with the writer. Revisions happen here rather than being resisted here.
Refinement
The dialogue, the pacing and the coherence of the whole polished once the shape is settled.
Finalisation
Proofread and checked against formatting standards, so what you send out is presentable to someone who reads scripts for a living.
Delivery
The completed screenplay delivered to you, ready for whatever you do with it next.
A few of the people the house has worked with, in their own words.
I had eleven years of notes and no book. What I got back read like me on a good day, my turns of phrase, my arguments, and none of the padding I would have added myself. The first chapter arrived and I stopped worrying.
Marianne ElleryIndependent author The structural edit was not comfortable reading. It told me the second half started in the wrong place, which I had suspected for a year and nobody had said out loud. Moving three chapters fixed a problem I had been trying to solve with better sentences.
Devon AlukoIndependent author What sold me was being told I did not need half of what I had asked for. I came in wanting the full package and left with a cover, a proofread and an honest explanation of why the rest would not have helped yet.
Priya RaghunathanIndependent author Three cover directions, all of them plausible, none of them the thing I had described. The one I picked worked at the size that actually matters, I could recognise it in a list of forty other books, which is more than I can say for my first attempt.
Tobias HearnIndependent author I own the book outright and that was written down before I paid anything. After two years of being quoted percentages by people who would not put them in writing, that was the whole reason I stayed.
Cecile MarchandIndependent author The audiobook took longer than I expected and they told me why each time rather than going quiet. The narrator they cast got my grandmother's accent right, which I had assumed would be the thing I had to let go of.
Nathan BoakyeIndependent author
The craft and the format, answered plainly.
Learn the craft first, read produced screenplays, not just books about writing them, because the gap between the two is enormous. Use proper screenwriting software so the format is never the thing standing in your way. Then concentrate on characters with depth and dialogue that sounds like speech, because conflict between people is what carries a script. If it is stalling, a professional writer can bring a perspective you cannot get from inside your own draft.
A strong central idea; three-act structure with a setup, a confrontation and a resolution; well-rounded characters with clear goals, motivations and conflicts, each with a distinct voice; dialogue that reveals character and advances plot without exposition; and correct formatting throughout. The structure is the load-bearing element, a brilliant scene in a script that does not hold together is still in a script that does not hold together.
To industry standard, without exception. A title page with the title and contact details, a logline, and then scenes that each open with a scene heading giving location and time of day. Action lines describe what is seen; dialogue is centred under the character's name; parentheticals are used sparingly. Correct margins, font and spacing throughout. Use dedicated screenwriting software rather than fighting a word processor, and proofread before it goes anywhere.
Give each character unique traits, desires and a backstory, with goals and conflicts that drive what they do. Make sure their voices are distinguishable, a useful test is covering the character names and seeing whether you can still tell who is speaking. For dialogue: every line should reveal something, advance the plot, or deepen a character. And pay attention to subtext, because what a character does not say is frequently the most powerful thing in a scene.
Overlong action description that slows the read. Characters without clear goals, so nothing is at stake. Dialogue that is clichéd or states the obvious. Ignoring formatting, which makes a script look amateur before anyone has read a line of it. And not seeking feedback, you cannot see your own blind spots, and a script only gets one first read from any given person.
You do, completely. The author holds 100% of the rights to their work, in every format, for its whole life. The house is paid for the work it does, not with a share of the book. That is the arrangement the house reopened in 2008 to offer, and it does not change with the tier, the price or the point at which you come to us.
Yes. Your name is on the cover and in the record. Everyone who works on the book (writer, editor, designer) works on your book, and none of them is credited on it unless you ask for them to be.
Yes. Your story is yours, and nothing about the project leaves the house. We will sign your NDA before you send anything, or supply ours if you would rather use one.
No. Six disciplines are available and you take the ones you need. Authors arrive here at every stage (with an idea, a half-draft, or a finished manuscript that only needs a cover and a shelf) and the work starts where you actually are.
It depends on the work: length, how much research is involved, how much of the book already exists, and which disciplines you need. There is no list price for a book, and any firm who gives you one before reading your material is quoting something other than your book. Tell us where you are and we will price the actual job.
Move the marker. You do not need to know what to call it: you only need to know where you are.
Tell us where your manuscript is, where you want it to go, and we'll show you what's possible.