The First Ten Pages

There can be a host of reasons why unsolicited scripts do not make it past the 10-page sift stage to a full read at BBC writersroom. We take every script on its own merits as a calling card of a writer's talent and potential. In the end, getting through the sift means doing all the important things well enough to make the script stand out.

Be passionate about the story you are telling. Write about something that keeps you up at night and gets under your skin - that you feel compelled to write. Don't write to be expedient and don't try to second guess what you think readers want. If we can see your burning desire to tell a story, then it is more likely we will want to engage with it.

Hook a reader's attention and make sure you do so from the outset. You need to compel the reader to read on just as a piece of drama needs to compel an audience to keep watching. TV and radio in particular are easy to turn off or turn over. So give us every reason to keep reading. Make sure you know what story you are telling - and make sure your script tells that story.

Get your story going as soon as you can. Don't preface your story with setting up the world and introducing your characters first. Show your characters in action. Hit the ground running. Don't describe who they are, what they think, how they feel - show it in what they do. Try not to submerge your script in exposition and overwritten action/directions. Show don't tell.

Your characters need to be strong, vivid and compelling. We need to want to spend time with them on their journey through your story. We need to care about them, engage with them and connect with them - particularly on an emotional level. We don't have to like them. But we do need to want to see what happens to them. So give them a journey. Give them a goal. Put obstacles in their way. Give them dilemmas to face and decisions to make. Make them an individual. Tell the story from their point of view. Make them drive the story forward from the very beginning rather than simply react to events around them.

Engage us on an emotional level. Scripts that are predominantly cerebral and intellectual can leave a reader and an audience cold. Make the story matter on a human level. Make your script about the characters from the outset rather than about an idea or concept. It's the characters that we engage with - and it's the characters that will make a story stand or fall.

Engage with your medium. Make sure you are using the right medium, genre, and format to tell your story. Be clear about the kind of story you are telling and how it will work for the medium. Try to explore, challenge, and play with the medium if you can. Be bold and intelligent. But most important of all, be clear.

Surprise us with your characters, stories and ideas. Cliché and predictability won't get the reader past page 10. Many stories will ultimately derive from a finite source of archetypes and genres. The joy of great new stories is in offering a fresh take, a unique perspective and an original touch. So make yours fresh, unique and original.

Structure is key. Make sure you are starting your story in the right place. Make sure that your story feels like it is going somewhere and that there is a story imperative to keep us reading. Make sure each sequence, story beat, scene and moment has a dynamic place in the story. Set the pace, tone and energy from the start.

Be coherent. Know your world and story and give us a focused way into it at the beginning. Don't try to do too much - don't be distracted by ideas, dialogue, scenes and characters that aren't integral.

Beware of obvious exposition. "As you know, Jean, since our mother died almost three months ago, things have gone from bad to worse. We may have to sell the farm." Real people don't tell each other things they already know. Neither should your characters. Use dialogue to express your characters rather than to relate and explain the story.

Format your script correctly. Take the time to read produced scripts and understand how and why they work as they do. If you are writing a screenplay, make sure you tell your story visually; if you are writing a radio drama, make sure you tell your story using sound and acoustic. And make sure you say what you mean and mean what you say. We don't know what the writer intends unless the script shows us. Don't tell us things - backstory, opinions, feelings, thoughts, subtexts - that an actor can't show in a performance.