The award-winning screenwriter and Brighton & Hove resident James Payne was our special guest for a set of two First Five Pages events over the autumn meetings.

Members and visitors were invited to bring the first five pages of their scripts for a round table reading, group discussion then industry insights and guidance from James on their scripts’ impact and possible development.

Scripts included:

Love’s Poison by Elyse, adapted from the book chronicling Wayne Liversedge’s personal experience.

Steven’s Art of Revenge, an animated tale of a Maine Coon Cat.

Phil Tong’s Nails and Me.

Amanda Horlington’s The Shadows We Cast.

Discussing character, plot, dialogue, flow, whether the script captures and keeps attention – and crucially, whether the reader will be sparked into reading on.

Because if you haven’t captured them by then, they’re unlikely to continue reading … and will move on to the next one on the pile.

Discussion around the BBC Writers’ Room.

Our thanks to James for being our guest, making space for new, developing and established writers and sharing valuable insights, support and encouragement.

Members’ and visitors’ news included:

Nick and Phil discussed the Page to Stage group in Eastbourne, with development news of their play Sheep Love to Die set for January 2024 performance.

Steven discussed the business of writing and creating short film, which led to discussion on the use of AI in film – an ongoing conversation.

Jenny Rowe discussed her plans for taking her solo show on James Tiptree Jr to WorldCon SF convention.

Amanda Horlington discussed her experience writing a film script in lockdown.

Discussion round the Three Act Structure as a writing tool.

Challenge issued for the October meeting – the First Five Pages, with special guest screenwriter James Payne.

Members’ and visitors’ news included:

Hove Writers upcoming events.

Louise Taylor on her playwriting, performance poetry and the business of developing a radio situation comedy.

Dave Patchett on Brighton Theatre of the Air latest audio drama works in progress.

News of the Brighton Theatre Promoter Group.

Thomas led a discussion around how to run a Patreon as a way for writers/artistes to support themselves.

Members’ and visitors’ news included:

Sophie Methuen-Turner and Sascha Cooper discussed Cyclone, the onstage audio drama at the Old Dojo, Chichester

Philippa Hammond, Sophie and Sascha are also appearing in the One Fell Swoop Shakespeare drama festival – we only learn what play and characters we’re doing close to the date of performance! Discussing the practicalities of script-in-hand performance.

Discussion around the business and craft of creating murder mystery and roleplay scripts.

Members’ and visitors’ news included:

Brighton Theatre of the Air’s latest audio drama project.

Phil and Nick’s new play Sheep Love to Die coming up at the Eastbourne Printers’ Playhouse.

John Lawrenson’s new film project on a pensioners’ fight club.

Wayne Liversedge’s film Edge of Insanity is winning film festival awards.

We discussed the plays Sussex Playwrights Reviews had reviewed at the Brighton Fringe, including Who Is Number One and The Dreams of Salvador Dali.

And a discussion around the Seven Plots and the Hero’s Journey as writer’s tools.

We hosted an evening of Brighton Fringe production previews, with extracts and discussions with the visiting companies:

The Dreams of Salvador Dali by Tim Coakley, directed by Murray Hecht

The Last by Sam Chittenden, directed by Jeanette Eddisford

Who is Number One? by Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon, directed by Brian Mitchell

Sussex Playwrights Reviews appear on this site

Featured this meeting: Robert Cohen gave a reading from his newly published novel Architecture for Beginners – two childhood friends reunited and an architect is drawn into a retired football star’s world. He then discussed how the book came to be, inspired by personal experience…

Robert will be guesting at the Kemp Town bookshop and appearing in Who Is Number One in the May Fringe, then in The Madness of King George at Brighton Open Air Theatre in July.

Thomas discussed his workshop on Writing Monologue for Hastings Writers Group at the Regency Rooms.

Thomas then led the conversation round ‘how do you create your characters?’ involving writers, actors and drama makers.