Just one Zoom meeting this month — on Wednesday, 21st — and we’re taking a fresh approach with our first Pitch Night. Find full details below.
Follow these four simple steps to sign up for the session:
- Tap or click the ‘I’m attending’ button in the meeting listing below (find the button on this newsletter’s webpage). A panel headed ‘I’m attending on…’ will appear.
- In the ‘I’m attending on…’ panel, tap or click the PayPal logo and follow the instructions to contribute your £2 subs using your debit or credit card.
- When you’ve made your payment, check your email inbox for a message from Southwest Scriptwriters titled ‘Thank you for your subs payment.’ If you don’t find this email with PayPal’s payment confirmation and you’ve checked your spam and junk folders for it, please be sure to get in touch using our ‘Email us’ form to let us know it hasn’t arrived.
- The ‘Thank you for your subs payment’ email includes the Zoom meeting ID and password. If you’re unsure how to use these to log in to the meeting, follow our handy guide.
Wednesday, 21 April at 7.30pm on Zoom: Pitch Night
Pitching ideas is an important sales and development process for writers aiming to place scripts with theatre, film, radio and television producers. Tonight is your chance to try out your next scriptwriting project in an online pitch.
To take part, you’ll need a logline plus a 500-word (or thereabouts) pitch.
A logline is a one- or two-sentence summary of your script. It’s a really pithy statement of the who, what, why, when and where of your story. Learn more about creating one at bang2write.com and scriptadvice.co.uk.
You get to flesh out your idea a bit more in your pitch, but keep it to broad brushstrokes to snag the interest of those who hear it — location, conflict, character and the stakes. You need to put in enough attention-grabbing story detail without describing the whole plot.
If you’re unsure about contributing this evening and want to see how the session goes before piping up, come prepared with a logline and script summary, and let us know when you’re ready to pitch in.
Wednesday, 5 May at 7.30pm on Zoom: Open Workshop
We’re planning another themed evening featuring sitcom scripts in September, so if you’re situated to turn out some serial comedy this summer, we’d love to hear from you! We’re open to offers for our first May meeting, though — get in touch using our ‘Book a workshop slot’ form.
July deadline for Women’s Prize for Playwriting
The Women’s Prize for Playwriting is open to all writers who identify as female in the UK and Ireland. It seeks to celebrate and support women playwrights, discovering the best new writing talent at all levels of experience.
The Prize imposes no restrictions on the nature of acceptable scripts, so you can write the play you want to write with the goal of creating ’vivid, exciting, and brave new work for the stage.’
The competition is open for submissions now until 5pm on Monday, 12 July, with shortlisting in the autumn and an awards ceremony next January.