Andrea Mann

Andrea Mann is a British screenwriter

I Set Up A Write-In In My Hometown. Here Are 5 Things It’s Taught Me

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If you build it, they will come (on the first and third Wednesdays of each month)

For just over a year now, twice a month, every month, I plonk myself down at a big table in a cafe in my hometown at 10am and stay there for two hours. The reason I always bagsy a big table – and why I always stay there for two hours – is that I go to this café with the specific purpose not just to write, but to write alongside others. I called it the Ilkley Write-In, and as well as being one of the biggest sources of caffeine in my life, it’s also proved to be one of the biggest sources of joy. Here are five reasons why that’s the case – or to put it another way: five things I’ve learned setting up and running it for a year.

1. If you create something inspired by a need or want in you, you will probably be fulfilling it in others too

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On Imposter Syndrome, And Getting Out Of Our Own Way

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I put myself forward for a writing gig this month that I almost didn’t put myself forward for.

I’d seen the call out – asking for CV submissons – and immediately dismissed it as not something I would be good or experienced enough for. It required a writing muscle that I’ve not exercised in years and I feared would now be too out of shape.

But then my agent asked me if I was going to put myself forward for it. I said no, and gave my excuses reasons. And then – being both a good person and a good agent – she told me that I should.

Old me would have continued to resist. New me a) realised I was resisting, b) knew my agent was right, and c) submitted my CV.

And while I knew that it was an extremely long shot, I also knew that the point, really, wasn’t whether I would get the gig or not. The point was that I had just got out of my own way.

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The Myth Of The ‘Undeniable’ Spec Script

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My debut spec screenplay was optioned by a Golden Globe-winning producer, and later Oscar-nominated actors were attached. Was it ‘undeniable’? No.

No art is perfect (although Moonstruck comes pretty close)

Screenwriting bros (who are like screenwriting gurus, but spend more of their time on social media) are fond of saying, well, many things. Some of which I agree with (eg ‘link your story beats through cause and effect’), others (eg ‘never put songs in your scripts, are you CRAZY you total AMATEUR’) less so.

Into the latter category falls one piece of received wisdom about spec scripts which always has my eyes rolling so far back in my head that… well, according to Google’s AI answer, I’d have to seek help for nystagmus. (Google AI isn’t very good at expressions. Or much else, to be honest. But I digress.)

Spec scripts – ie a screenplay you’ve written speculatively, as opposed to having been hired to write it – are the scripts that often launch us writers into the film/TV world. They’re the ones we’ve crafted (usually) on our own, in our own time, for free – with a hope that they will then get attention/be produced/serve as a calling card script. Or hopefully all three.

And the piece of screenwriting/industry advice about spec scripts that really gets my goat (I’m not going near Google AI with that one) is this:

‘Your spec script has to be undeniable’.

Now, I’ve been lucky enough to have two spec screenplays taken on by producers – the first one did indeed launch my career (and has served as a calling card script); the second was a movie musical I wrote a few years later.

I can tell you right now that neither was ‘undeniable’. Indeed, both of them were very much denied by various producers.

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