Practical advice on writing TV scripts, novels, short stories, stage and radio plays, and screenplays.
Writing Stories
This small website is based on
my own experience of writing TV scripts.
The same basic principles apply to writing stories, stage plays, screenplays, novels, radio drama, and any other fiction.
My aim is simple: to cut through all the hogwash found in books on ‘How to Write’!
Writing a story doesn’t require a mountain of complex techniques.
In my experience there are some basic creativity techniques, and about half a dozen essential ingredients which create a compelling story.
The only other things you need are passion and practice.
So this site explores those half-dozen basic ingredients that feature in all good novels, plays, TV scripts and screenplays.
Additionally I’ll pass on creative writing techniques which I use for developing story outlines, writing scenes and so on.
Above all, this site will be practical, with lots of advice on writing stories.
I’m pretty busy with other stuff, but every so often I’ll try to add another page of ‘things I wish someone had told me before I started’ — and I hope you may find some of them useful in your own writing.
Disclaimer: Please note that pages on Story Insight are my own personal opinions, and other people are likely to disagree with me! None of it should be relied upon as professional advice. All I know is how it worked for me.
Good luck!
(If you want to contact me, please click here.)
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Starting Out
- The Golden Rules. Essential advice for story writers if you want to stay sane.
- Writer’s Appetite. The essential quality that makes good story writing stand out from all the rest.
Creative Writing
Writing a Story
Writing for Different Media
- BBC Checklist for TV Scripts. An extremely useful checklist of ingredients for writing good TV scripts and other stories.
- BBC Notes on Radio. Some of the best guidelines on how to write radio plays I’ve ever come across.
- Aspects of the Novel (E M Forster). Summary of a book by successful novelist E M Forster in which he discusses the craft of writing stories.
The Business of Writing
- Breaking into Script Writing. To become a professional TV script writer (or any other kind of fiction writer) you start at the bottom and work up.
- Networking for Writers. A dozen ideas on how to network successfully and build your career as a professional writer.
- Script Layout. An introduction to standard script layout for screenplays, TV and radio plays.
- Script Formatting Software. An introduction to script formatting software for computers.
- Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000. Detailed review of Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000 (ScriptThing) script formatting software.
- Sophocles. Detailed review of Sophocles script formatting software.
Further Resources