Michael Levine

Michael Levine is a graduate of the 2008 BBC Drama Writers Academy. The 2009 Writers Academy is now open for applications.

How did you get started as a writer?

It was rather convoluted. My original ambition was to be a comedy writer. I began by writing gag material for a couple of TV shows about 10 years ago. At the same time, myself and my best friend (who is also now a TV writer) penned a short film, Dead Air, which we managed to get produced, and which got nominated by the BBC in their "Short films produced by two small Jewish men" category.

We didn't win.

From this, myself and my friend were able to talk our way into to get a writing gig on a film script at a company called Renaissance films. Not long afterwards Renaissance went bust. I am certain the two events were not linked.

As this was going on, I was also writing a pilot for a sci-fi drama series which took the fancy of Tony Garnett at World Productions. It was a supernatural holy blood/holy grail style religion/science code-based thriller and was very exciting until about nine months into development when this book came out called The Da Vinci Code. It taught me to hate the term Zeitgeist.

Anyway, from this, I managed to get a wonderful agent. Having an agent is extremely important as it opens up a doorway to the industry. Suddenly you feel a bit more plugged in. It doesn't guarantee you work - you have to do this with your writing, but it does open doors to get your writing out there.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to write for a living?

This is easy. Write, write, and write some more.

The more you let yourself go with it, the more likely you are to hit on something great. The problem with writing is that it's not linear. You might be lucky and come across a great idea quickly. More likely it will take time and a few false starts. It is trite, but it's true - the more you write the better you get and the closer you will come to finding your voice.

In terms of writing for TV and finding an audience for your work, this is where I truly believe the BBC has the edge over pretty much everyone else. The BBC runs some great schemes which offer new writers a chance to be heard. The Writers Academy is one, but each of the shows also runs a scheme.

It's a brilliant way to have someone from the industry read your material. They will give you a completely objective opinion of your work. They are more interested in your voice than they are in your structural knowledge or how well you understand the shows (this is what these schemes are there to teach you). They want you to be brilliant. It's in their interest, so don't be afraid.

What's your writing routine?

I work from a little office in my house. I get up with my little boy about 6am, play for a bit then head into my office. I normally stare out the window or look myself up on IMDB for about three hours, then set to work. My most prolific writing time is during school hours and then from about midnight until 5am.

How does your writing process work? Do you break stories beforehand, or go directly to script?

For the continuing drama series you absolutely have to break the stories down. Typically there are three major stories in each episode, but sometimes as many as six. You have to create complete arcs for these. Even if they form part of a much larger character journey over many episodes, each of these stories must have a beginning middle and end in your particular ep. In the case of shows like Casualty, you also have to create guest stories which can run into these stories and resonate with them. This is the fun part, but it can take a lot of time and a lot of planning to fit everything together.

When you break story, what tools do you use?

There are lots of tools that we learned on the Academy. For me, the most useful is something called the paradigm of change. It's essentially a really interesting approach to a character's movement and change across the five acts. It's not a blueprint and I don't use it to create story, more to structure it once I've had the idea.

You're a graduate of the BBC Drama Writers Academy - what made you want to apply?

My sci-fi idea had gone flat and I had turned my attention to a couple of ideas for plays when my agent called to say the BBC were looking to commission a strand of eight individual one-hour plays all from new writers that would air as part of a strand called The Evening Play. I think it was intended to be a kind of homage to Play for Today.

When I heard this, my eyes almost popped out of my head. This series was a complete inspiration to me and so I spent the next four days and nights putting something down. The producer, Sally, liked it and invited me in. Everything looked great and after a year of being whittled down from like a thousand ideas to just eight, Sally called to tell me that for budgetary reasons, the strand ended up being canned. After a year of hope and excitement, that was a pretty bleak day.

About a month after this, I had a very lovely note from John Yorke who said he really liked the play and would I consider applying for the Writer's Academy... I hadn't ever considered writing on continuing drama. No prejudice, it just never really occurred to me, but it sounded really exciting - a way to go script to screen on shows I had grown up with.

I went through the interview process one stage at a time, gradually becoming more and more excited by the idea. The day I was told, it was one of my best days.

What was the training like, and what did you get from the experience?

It was three months of incredibly challenging exercises, all designed to channel your voice into the structure of the four shows. I've never worked so hard. What was inspirational (and this is going to sound a little creepy) was that John Yorke was taking the course. John's experience made the course real.

With almost every example from the shows we watched John finished off with "I worked on that..." Through John we were introduced to heroes of ours like Ashley Pharoah, Jimmy McGovern, and Tony Jordan who'd cut their teeth on continuing drama. We even met Alan Plater!

The course has given me a channel for my writing and the tools and confidence with which to write for TV. Working on the four shows is pretty incredible. Part of being a writer is getting your work out there. The Academy has done that. It's a fantastic and unique experience.

You trained as an actor. How does that affect your writing?

Acting teaches you to profoundly respect dialogue. It doesn't matter if you're Boleslavsky, if the dialogue is poor, you're knackered.

I was a rubbish actor, actually, but I do think it's improved my writing. There's no substitute to reading a script as if you're about to perform it.

What's the best thing about writing for a living?

This I could talk about for hours. The best part of my day is when an idea comes into my head and I know it's good. From a creative point of view, it doesn't get better. When I put the idea down now, knowing it's going to one day be acted out by great actors in front of millions. For me, there's nothing better than that.