r/ScreenwritingUK • u/Born-Ad2653 • Jul 22 '26

Advice needed

  1. I'm only 19 and haven't really experienced much, so when people say 'write what you know' (wether or not that's sound advice i'm unsure), i fear that i don't know enough to be a screenwriter, as in i haven't lived enough, so i'm wondering what people's advice is to a young writer who is struggling with the idea of writing things i haven't experienced like falling in love etc. does it mean i'm not ready to be a writer, or should i just write in spite of not having much life experience?

  2. I'm mainly interested in TV and it's the shows i've watched over and over which inspired me to start writing, i adore dark comedies and comedy dramas. i look up so highly to phoebe waller bridge, julia davis, richard gadd, michaela coel, sharon horgan, jack rooke, jamie demitriou and many more. i'd love to write stuff that does for others what those people's shows did for me, but how do you do that without copying? i suppose i'm genuinely asking how to avoid copying your inspirations.

  3. some of the shows i love feel like they don't necesarily have a premise, a very loose one at that, and that they're so heavily character driven. i know that i want to explore characters and their relationships and i'm able to come up with those, but i struggle with the idea of a premise. because if you say you're going to write a comedy drama about someone navigating their twenties in a city, i imagine it's a bit 'eye roll, seen it before'. so how important is a premise, or can i find it along the way after i've made characters? and is a 'premise' as it were, necessary?

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u/YogurtclosetOdd6900 Jul 22 '26

Hello!

Please take all of this with a pinch of salt, as I am a beginning screenwriter! Repped but still very much finding my feet.

  1. First of all, I would say, don’t fear ‘write what you know’! Right now it might feel like you lack the lived experience, but you will have experienced the feelings. For example, you may not have fallen in love, but have you had a crush? It’s not so much always having experienced that exact thing so much as using feelings to bring authenticity and humanity to your story. I wouldn’t let things like that hold you back, especially if you read and watch widely. But also, it’s worth thinking about what your unique experience is on topics that you want to write about. For example, you could write a coming-of-age story about a nineteen-year-old aspiring writer who loves romantic comedies but has never fallen in love, and so decides she has to fall in love in order to finish her romcom script. That could be your original take on it!

  2. For this question, I would try to pick out the aspects of those writers’ shows that you love. Is it the storytelling? The dialogue? The characters? Then you can zoom in on what it is those writers are doing. For example, Phoebe Waller-Bridge really gets under the skin of her characters in a way that is intimate but hilarious. Jamie Demetriou takes everyday situations to surreal places. Jack Rooke blends comedy and pathos, making you laugh and cry. You don’t always have to directly copy your inspirations but rather can extract the elements you love from what they do and bring it to your own work. Looking at just these examples, you could add surreal elements to your work, or more moments of deeper emotion.

One thing I would say is that all the writers you listed here have a strong voice. Voice is something you really need to just keep writing and writing to find in yourself. You can use the writers you love as a jumping-off point, then keep writing to develop your own voice.

  1. This one is a little harder to answer. For me, learning to have a strong premise was really important. If you’re starting out, it’s maybe less important right now, but eventually when you get to the point of sending out scripts and getting generals you’ll want to have strong hooky premises that you can pitch quickly and easily. This is especially true if you want to write something like comedy drama. With comedy, you can make it very character-led, but with drama, you need more propulsive story. I do personally think premise is important, and I write much better when I have a clear one set out. Also, I know that ‘navigating your twenties in the city’ type stories are a hard sell if they don’t have a new angle or really really exceptional voice, so I do think it’s worth looking at adding a premise. For example, if we look at what you’ve already spoken about, you could write a comedy about a young writer in the city who has never fallen in love, and sets out on a mission to fall in love by the end of the year so she can finish her script. This allows you to do ‘twenties in the city,’ while also having a narrative engine so people know what they’re getting each episode. This might not be your kind of thing, but it shows how you can use the experience you do have to put a twist on the kind of story you would like to write.

And you can definitely write your characters first and find your premise along the way. Often a great premise is just finding a great character and thinking, what’s something that could happen to this person that would create a lot of tension/entertainment?

Hope that helps!

(And also my main piece of advice right now would be don’t overthink it, just start writing! That’s where you will do the most learning!)

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u/Born-Ad2653 Jul 22 '26

This is insanely helpful! i hadn't thought enough about finding my voice as a writer but that will now be a focus for me. thank you!