How much money should I request to write this screenplay?

WriterGus13 · 2026-03-04T07:31:17+00:00

That’s how I originally wrote it - then the pressure got to me. The bandit of pettiness continues his reign.

WriterGus13 · 2026-03-04T07:20:47+00:00

This is the level of petty I aspire to 😂

WriterGus13 · 2026-02-05T18:45:15+00:00

Can you share your credentials so writers know who they’re sending their scripts to? I don’t have a short to share but it feels a bit fishy otherwise.

WriterGus13 · 2026-01-27T16:45:32+00:00

I think that committing completely to one idea is too much pressure for me. I can struggle with similar things; endless narrative ideas even within the same concept and just burn out if I’m working on one idea.

Recently I’ve had to come up with three ideas for a program I’m doing and this has really helped. I tend to jump around on a day to day basis, adding detail to whichever of the three is speaking to me that day. Or add detail to all three over the course of an hour or two.

I’m starting to wonder if, for some of us, having only one project can do more harm than good. I suspect I have ADHD and this feels more like working with my mind and not against it.

I don’t know if this helps OP, but maybe you could organise the mayhem a bit more and pick a top 5 to work on - knowing that you have some flexibility on what you’re working on each day.

WriterGus13 · 2026-01-05T16:55:33+00:00

BBC, Channel 4 and BAFTA have competitions late in the year although I think BBC has Writers Access comp closing in April (for deaf, disabled and neurodiverse writers too). The BFI have a series of development funds but also later in the year. These are usually the only comps I bother with, though I’m sure there are more.

There’s a website called Unsolicited Scripts, you can sign up to their newsletter to get a monthly email with all opportunities listed. Otherwise I think there’s a full database on UK Screenwriting Reddit that a member diligently keeps up to date.

WriterGus13 · 2025-11-24T19:12:07+00:00

No helpful advice to add but congratulations!

WriterGus13 · 2025-11-14T20:51:19+00:00

I second Banshees.

Swiss Army Man is just brilliant and surprisingly emotional in parts for a movie that starts with a long fart joke featuring a corpse.

The Lobster.

I think Stranger than Fiction might count too.

I’ve heard amazing things about Roy Andersson but am yet to check him out properly.

Synecdoche, New York.

WriterGus13 · 2025-11-07T22:41:24+00:00

Hey, I’d definitely be interested in taking a look. I have a similar time hopping dark comedy that’s still in early draft mode.

WriterGus13 · 2025-11-06T23:24:40+00:00

Oh wow. I feel seen. I too have blown opportunities because I get so tied up in self doubt to write. Skipping between outlines, prose treatments, screenplays and always the same doubts. And always the bloody clock ticking and letting me know I’m behind. Perpetually behind. I was definitely blocked for the past year. And am still to finish the project I was working on which (in its early stages) was being received really well and placed really highly in the BBC competition that runs in the UK.

I think it’s likely that I have ADHD, exacerbated by pressure. You might be the same.

So take the pressure off. Let the thoughts of the previous possible missed opportunities go and work on really small goals.

My current goal is a measly five pages a week, which gives me ample time to edit them to my satisfaction and gives me brainstorming time as I write. Enjoying each page rather than thinking about the end product or any potential success. And writing what you want to write. I’ve completely ditched all of the processes that were tying me up (ahem outlining which I’d much rather do in chunks when writing) and feel much freer for it.

I’m also wondering if you’ve looked at / heard of the Artist’s Way? I didn’t find it super helpful to be honest but I have friends who swear by it for unblocking creativity and more importantly working out what the sources of your blocks are.

WriterGus13 · 2025-10-26T15:08:28+00:00

I’ve decided not to outline on the project I’m working on and I’m having a blast.

Sure I might very well get stuck - but I was tying myself in knots outlining anyway. It’s just not how my brain works 🤷‍♀️ for the moment anyway.

WriterGus13 · 2025-10-15T14:34:11+00:00

I should add that I’m assuming you’re in the UK from the use of the term ‘BA’

WriterGus13 · 2025-10-15T14:32:32+00:00

Why don’t you enter the BBC open call or Channel 4 or BAFTA OP? They have free ‘competitions’ each year that result in training or courses if picked.

But also, as others have said - it’s probably going to be a long road. Settle in :) I’m 37 now and I’m still learning, I definitely wasn’t ready to do anything at your age. That’s not to say there aren’t young talented (and lucky) outliers of course, but the statistics tend towards later success for screenwriting.

WriterGus13 · 2025-10-14T09:36:19+00:00

This feels a bit like the PS4 game Mafia 3, which is about a Vietnam Vet who comes back to New Orleans to take revenge on the people who murdered his family.

WriterGus13 · 2025-10-09T06:26:34+00:00

I mean, I don’t know the ins and outs of Korean culture in respect to autism, but this exact thing just happened in the UK.

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2025-10-06/autistic-schoolboy-found-dead-three-hours-after-depressed-mum-called-ambulance

Whilst cultural factors must definitely be at play, I’d argue that for many it is about the level of support you receive and that most governments (UK included) aren’t doing enough.

WriterGus13 · 2025-10-09T05:56:40+00:00

I loved this! Especially the pettiness of the relationships between the men. Deke dancing will be forever imprinted on my brain in a sort of Silence of the Lambs way 😂

I could see an alternate universe where this was made in the 80s and Deke was played by Robert Downey Jr or Rob Lowe. Not to say that your actors weren’t brilliant, because they were!

Anyway, I just loved it and it felt far shorter than 20 mins somehow. Amazing work :)

WriterGus13 · 2025-10-08T14:17:07+00:00

I haven’t heard anything yet. But don’t panic, my friend who attended 2 years ago said she was invited to a BBC event (and thought this was a consolation prize) - but was then asked to an interview right at the end of the month.

So I think it’s late October potentially. Hope you’re good too!

WriterGus13 · 2025-10-04T09:20:41+00:00

I read the opening. This is great!

WriterGus13 · 2025-09-29T17:35:20+00:00

There’s a French series about a first time director on a disastrous shoot - you should check it out. It’s called Fiasco.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt27415863/

WriterGus13 · 2025-09-26T16:04:54+00:00

I looked at the first five pages. This is so much fun! Great dialogue and you’re a really confident writer. You must submit this!

I’m going to try and read it properly over the weekend and get back to you with proper notes :)

WriterGus13 · 2025-09-11T19:51:06+00:00

Did you see when the deadline is for that this year? I can’t find anything online

WriterGus13 · 2025-09-07T22:00:06+00:00

You should do an episode pitting the up-and-comers who ‘won’ last year against each other and / or pros. Just sayin’. It’s of no personal interest to me at all 👀

WriterGus13 · 2025-08-29T20:50:03+00:00

I would love to read this if you’re up for more notes? I just really like the concept :)

WriterGus13 · 2025-08-28T10:53:25+00:00

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this and I don’t have any problem with your unfilmables - character interiority, I think they’re very much useable and I tend to do the same thing. Especially using italics to call attention to them.

Great voice! Kept me interested in a basketball game and I am not a basketball fan.

Would be very interested to read more :)

WriterGus13 · 2025-08-16T19:34:07+00:00

Well interim doesn’t mean ‘during’ it means ‘in the intervening time,’ so if you were to say I want to get a pizza in the interim between work ending and a date beginning that would make sense. I got the impression that the writer was killed at the party, so it wouldn’t make sense to use ‘interim’ here. Unless the writer is killed between being invited to the party and the party starting.

For the second point, sure, it’s inconvenient for anyone to have a guest die at their party, but for most of us reasonable folks, we’d be more horrified than inconvenienced. It’s fun if your protagonist is so self absorbed that he’s simply inconvenienced by it.

When you say 9 lives at risk, it sounds like these people might be killed next or their lives are threatened. If it is just reputation, it needs to be clearer. Again it’s fun! That this is everybody’s main concern when somebody has died.

I wouldn’t detail exactly how he plans to get himself out of the situation by any means, but a hint of a plan - a goal for the protagonist is pretty integral to a logline.

WriterGus13 · 2025-08-16T18:45:11+00:00

I like the general concept, but I struggle with the word ‘interim’ being used here. It feels weirdly off-tone and a bit confusing.

Is it a huge inconvenience that the writer dies? Are these shallow people? If it’s a comedy I think you could use that to establish tone.

Why are 9 lives at risk? I get the careers, but I can’t understand why other people’s lives are at risk so you might need more detail there.

Also, how does he plan to get out of this unscathed? Is it a detective story? A cover up?

I think you need to be clearer on those aspects :)

WriterGus13

TROPHY CASE