Is there a career ladder that writers can move up on anymore? It used to be that you would start on regular 'soaps' and then move into ongoing drama and then onto your own shows. Is that even possible anymore? Experienced TV writer and WGGB rep for the South West, Martin Day, talks about his own career. It's had ups and downs of course, but most interestingly, what has changed most has been the business of TV writing.

See more about Martin at www.martinday.co.uk and find him on twitter - @sirdigbychicken

This episode we talk to Joe Martin about something a bit different - documentaries. Although Joe's latest film (Us and Them) is fiction he has previously created many documentaries, including the doc feature "Keep Quiet" about far right politician Csanád Szegedi. So he is ideally placed to talk about drama-docs and the increase use of story consultants within the doc world.

His IMBD = http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5630563/

This episode we interview Peter Stanley-Ward and Natalie Conway from Treehouse Digital. A couple of writers who are also an actual couple!

They made their way via a low budget horror feature into launching a production company and making fantastic shorts.

How did they do it? Who helped? What lessons have they learned? Is it better to make a feature and learn that way, rather than go to Uni? And we compare our self / crowd funded movie with their one funded via Creative England - which way is better?

LINKS FEATURED:
Treehouse Digital: http://www.treehousedigital.com
Litterbugs (their short): http://www.litterbugsthemovie.com

This episode is in two halves. In the first half we talk about how we are extending our network, who we are meeting and what preparation we do. A nuts and bolts, down to earth summary of how we are making progress as writers. In the second half we talk about keeping strong mentally. How do you take knock backs? How can you find support? What happens when you doubt yourself?

As mentioned:
Our book - tinyurl.com/UKscripthandbook AND ALSO tinyurl.com/ukscriptsmash
Now on iBooks too - tinyurl.com/ukscriptibook
Our movie - www.nelsonnutmeg.com
Our production company - www.nelsonnutmegpictures.com

Do you need an agent? What do they do anyway? What are YOU supposed to do anyway?

There are a lot of rumours and pieces of 'good advice' around this topic. So here we bypass all that and talk direct to Danny's agent, Jean Kitson from kitsonpress.co.uk. What she is looking for from a writer who approaches her? Catch Jean at the LSWF too!

A lot of scriptwriters move into being a writer-director. This has it's own challenges when it comes to developing a script.

Here we talk to two old friends of ours, Dan Pringle and Suki Singh about the journey with there respective movies.

Dan's is an elevated horror / gory drama called K-Shop - out now on DVD http://amzn.to/2aSpAov and also via Amazon Prime http://amzn.to/2b5h2b1

Suki's is a psychological noir called Emulsion. He has a special edition available direct. http://www.emulsion.tv

We often get asked to feature up and coming writers and film makers in our podcast. While it is great to hear from some of the top people in the biz, if you are a beginner to scriptwriting it can seem a million miles away from where you are now.

Mustapha Kseibati is on the way up. He's done some top notch shorts (starring Benedit Wong and Kayvan Novak) after starting out in the music video world. It took him years of being runner and edit assistant first. So his route is one of hard graft and taking opportunities when he could - and a few gambles. But he can tell it in his own words.

Watch his films on his website - http://www.mustaphakseibati.com

You may see Will Smith's photo and know you've seen him somewhere. He's acted in the Thick Of It, Paddington and with 'Harry and Paul'. But in this podcast episode we delve, of course, into his career as a writer. Writing on Time Trumpet, Veep, Omid Djalili as well as for The Thick Of It too. How did he get started? And how did that all lead to his latest project, a non-comedy novel called "Mainlander"?

This episode has a guest interviewer, Jan Caston, as she managed to bump into Will in Jersey and nabbed him!

We did a special LIVE version of the podcast on TwitCast and Periscope. This is an archive of that. So when you hear us answering questions, these are comments and notes sent in via that those apps.

Tony talks about being a writer / producer and taking control of your own career. He also discusses the Red Planet prize and why he continues to support it. And of course we chat about writing; Life on Mars, Dickensian and Moving Wallpaper.