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COACHING

Refine your script with professional coaching

Sharing your work with a reliable reader before entering crucial competitions, or festivals, or sending it to agents or producers is crucial. Having a qualified and experienced tutor review your work can raise essential questions, encouraging you to improve your writing and guiding you toward a more polished final draft.

Likewise, if you seek feedback on your spec script or play, numerous online script-reading services with anonymous reviewers are readily available. As an accomplished writer and published author with qualifications in screenwriting and playwriting from prestigious institutions in London and Los Angeles, I'm pleased to offer private writer coaching services to fellow scriptwriters.

Private writer-to-writer script development meetings

I'll read your script and make notes ahead of an online development meeting. During this session, I'll provide feedback, highlighting areas of your script that are working well, and pointing out where I think work might be required. We'll discuss the premise, key themes, dramatic structure, plot, and turning points, as well as overall characterization and dialogue. To close our session, we'll identify the key areas to address in your next draft. I'll also leave you with some follow-up questions to consider.

Rates
$350 (USD) Feature screenplays / Full-length plays (one-hour meeting, up to 100 pages*)
$300 (USD) Half-hour TV pilots / One-act plays (forty-five-minute meeting, up to 35 pages*)
$200 (USD) Short films / Short plays (thirty-minute meeting, up to 20 pages*)
50% discount to re-read subsequent drafts.​

Please note: Script Surgeries include my time to read your script and prepare notes ahead of our meeting, as well as the meeting itself. No written report is provided, though an audio recording of the meeting can be made for reference. This is not a proofreading service and as such formatting, grammar and spelling issues will not be addressed. *Additional pages are charged at $5 per page. Please see full terms and conditions of service.

SCRIPT SURGERY

Professional coverage for your screenplay or play

As a working story analyst, my script coverage service will provide you with the same professional report (comprising title page, synopsis, and comments) widely used by production companies and film studios. As a fellow writer, I promise to be objective in my feedback, putting aside my personal writing style and preferences to provide sensitive and constructive coverage.

In reading your work and providing a three-page coverage report, I'll consider the following criteria:

Premise: Is the premise original and relevant? I'll assess the essence of the story, looking for an original point of view, while considering the potential of the themes or issues at the heart of the script. Focussing on clarity and execution, I'll highlight key strengths or weaknesses here.

Structure & Plot: Is the required dramatic structure present? Does the plot build to a satisfying climax or resolution? Do subplots advance the story and develop the characters? Are external conflicts strong enough and are the stakes high enough to effectively support the premise? I'll analyse the structure of your script, looking for any underlying problems.

Characterisation: Is the protagonist active or passive? Is their journey significant enough to effect meaningful change? Are their goals and desires clearly defined? Are romantic subplots and secondary character arcs written effectively? I'll provide an overview of the key strengths and weaknesses of the central characters, looking for interesting character flaws and highlighting contradictions.

Dialogue: Do characters speak with their own voices, or do they all sound alike? Is the dialogue subtle, or too “on the nose”? I'll assess the underlying goals and themes of dialogue, looking for effective subtext.

Rates
$300 (USD) Feature screenplays / Full-length plays (up to 100 pages*)
$250 (USD) Half-hour TV pilots / One-act plays (up to 35 pages*)

Please note: Script Coverage includes my time to read your script and provide a professional three-page report. This is not a page-by-page margin-notes service. This is not a proofreading service and as such formatting, grammar, and spelling issues will not be addressed. *Additional pages are charged at $5 per page. Please see full terms and conditions of service.

SCRIPT COVERAGE