The Perfect 10

When we head around the country for our BBC writersroom roadshows, one of the team will give a little talk about The Perfect Ten.

We read the first ten pages of every script that gets sent to us here at the BBC writersroom, and The Perfect Ten is a list of ten ways in which you can make those ten pages count, and make us want to read on.

Last year our development manager Paul Ashton wrote ten blog posts about The Perfect Ten - so now even if you can't make it to a roadshow, you can find out what will help your writing shine when it reaches us.

Part One - Form and Function
Know your medium and format.

Part Two - Get the Story Going
Hook our attention from the outset, and hit the ground running.

Part Three - Coherence
Know your world and story. What are you writing about?

Part Four - Character is Everything
We need to engage with your characters.

Part Five - Emotion
If we don't feel emotion, we don't feel anything.

Part Six - Surprise!
Cliché and predictability kills story.

Part Seven - Structure
Story is structure. Begin the story in the right place, and know where you're going.

Part Eight - Exposition and Expression
Or in other words: Dialogue.

Part Nine - Passion
Don't try to guess what people want - tell the story you want to tell.

Part Ten - Be Yourself
We try to find original voices and writers we believe can go on to great things. And the best way to demonstrate this in your script is to be yourself.