First day frenzies and confused faces:

Jessica Mayne

Well it’s Day 1 at this festival and a bit of a manic morning! This is my first year as a volunteer but I've been paired with Holly Wicks (Professional Writing MA alumnus), which works for us as we’re both representing the course at UCF and have similar aspirations. Holly can talk about the films she's written and produced since completing the masters and leaving Falmouth and I can talk about the present and how I’m developing as a writer.

We asked to be placed on the information desk – the hub of the festival – and most of the delegates have passed by with questions, so we’ve managed to grab them to record some sound bites, advice and top tips for potential screenwriters. We'll be adding these to the site as the week progresses. My confidence usually grows as festivals progress. Day one tends to be a ‘finding my feet’ day – this goes for all the organisers, delegates and volunteers from my observations. I usually scope out the delegates I want to speak to early on; but I’ve learnt to wait until the best opportunity arises to approach them rather than be impulsive and unprepared.

Two of the delegates I’m keen to corner are Simon Van De Borgh – one of the UK’s leading teachers of screenwriting – and Kate Leys who teaches script development to postgraduates at the National Film School. So watch this blog over the next few days...

Location location

The location for this year’s festival is stunning. Cheltenham Ladies College has been hijacked by the SWF for four days and the immaculate gardens and long marble monochrome corridors remind me of Enid Blyton’s Mallory Towers. I can almost imagine the little darlings scurrying down the huge staircases, nighties flowing, for a midnight feast. The old building oozes character, unlike the sterile seminar rooms some media conventions employ; the festival itself however, hasn’t quite ascertained what vibe it wants to set. Everyone is strangely cagey – I’m curious what tomorrow will bring.

Advice from Janice Day

Vibe aside, the two seminars I attended today were insightful. The first, “How to make a living as a writer” with Janice Day was probably most relevant to all us aspiring writers. “It’s validation from peers that keep you motivated,” she told us, which I can relate to, especially doing a Professional Writing MA, in which you support and scaffold one another’s learning with crits, peer evaluations and reading group sessions. I'll paraphrase another few gems that resonated with me:

Have a writing routine. Don’t write when you feel like it. Get into a working structure.

Do a little every single day – the tortoise always wins, and never the hare.

As a screenwriter multi-submissions aren’t necessarily a good thing. If you send off four things at the same time, or pitch four things on the same day you’re dividing yourself, thus 25 per cent of your motivation is going into four projects rather than 100 per cent into one

Don’t jump from genre to genre – KNOW one genre and do it well. If you do have to divide your writing day by switching from one project to another, clear your artistic palette by doing a short activity on you own, like a walk in the woods. Try not to engage in conversation in order to stay in ‘the zone

Utilise social media, because as soon as your website gets enough hits you’re not only getting noticed by agents but you can potentially sell advertising

Advice from Esther Wouda

The charming Esther Wouda, a producer and script editor who worked on the Oscar-winning Antonia’s Line, chaired the second seminar; her relaxed and encouraging style kept the hour lively. She talked us through  various ways of overcoming ‘development hell’ and how to re-draft work effectively without loosing either your original vision or the film’s ‘heart.’

What's going on out there?

As an MA writer I’m aware that the industry is depressed – every time I hear the phrase “current economic climate” I start choking on cliché – but paradoxically we’re being given conflicting advice left, right and centre. I recently interviewed Hannah Sim, who commissions factual entertainment for TV. She was refreshingly positive about being an emerging writer. We’re new, we’re cheap because we’re new and we have clean slates – a commissioner’s dream apparently….

Then another tutor tells me it’s harder than ever to get commissions. I get to the festival today and there’s talk about abandoning screenwriting – you can only sell it once – and embracing prose. Four days earlier I was told non-fiction sales are up and novel sales are down. Is anyone else’s brain scrambled?

It’s a funny time, but I’ve realised that everything is subjective and, statistics aside, I think everyone has their own agenda and their own perspective on beating the recession. Riding it through by gluing themselves to the medium they know best, they seem to be rounding up the bright young things to do the same! I’ve now been given so many conflicting nuggets of advice that I don’t think there is a right or a wrong – so until I’m dragged off it by my ankles, I’m sitting firmly on the fence. See you tomorrow!