Rachel Knightley talks to screenwriter, sci-fi/fantasy novelist and TV/radio dramatist Philip Palmer

Dr Rachel Knightley is joined today by screenwriter, TV and radio dramatist and science fiction/fantasy novelist Philip Palmer.  Philip has a background as a script editor and writes extensively for radio as well as television, scripting five seasons of the Radio Four Hungarian crime drama Keeping The Wolf Out. Other radio plays include The King’s Coinerstarring Iain McDiarmid and The Faerie Queene starring Simon Russell Beale. His feature film The Ballad of Billy McCrae, which he wrote and co-produced, was released on more than 20 UK screens in September 2021.  Philip’s books include Version 43 and Hell Ship, the horror/crime novel Hell On Earth, Morpho, and the horror novella Murder of the Heart. He also has extensive experience working with new and emerging writers.   Find out more about Philip:   BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/b07ldlnq   Author Page https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B001IU2P86/about   Feature Film The Ballad of Billy McRae: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B09KG756VM/ref=atv_sr_fle_c_srce7a38_1_1_1?sr=1-1&pageTypeIdSource=ASIN&pageTypeId=B09KGC6FND&qid=1747666407190   Agent Page https://mbalit.co.uk/client/philip-palmer/     Join the Writers’ Gym for more writing and creative confidence workouts at www.writersgym.com or sign up to our mailing list at drrachelknightley.substack.com   Get in touch with us at [email protected]     Writing Workout based on Philip’s interview   “Without realizing it… architecture, history, other lives, glimpsed lives…These are all things that are in me and I didn't have to put them there, they were there. I just needed a frame in which to express those ideas.” Philip Palmer   Warm-up: Pick a place you love. Think on the page about who is in it, what they want, what they fear, what could be changing for them. No criticising your ideas: just notice them and get them down.    Exercise 1: Read your warm-up like you’ve never seen it before. Whose story does it seem to be? What is it about them that speaks to you?   “I like to explore and experiment. My favourite way of writing, usually I have to plan but my favourite way is improvising, like if I could play piano it would be the equivalent of improvising on the piano. Having the freedom to explore and go in different directions is a joy. But you have to train the unconscious. A lot of what I've done in my career is working as a script editor and a teacher, working with techniques like writing beat sheets and synopses and scene by scene breakdowns. And you have to do those things because the more you do them, the more you don't need to do them. You rely on them and then suddenly you can catch free. If you begin with a complete blank slate and complete freedom and complete spontaneity, nothing will happen. You have to have those techniques to do upon as well but the aim is to kind of use the ladder and then fly.” Philip Palmer   Exercise 2:   Pretend you have a deadline for a first draft of your idea to hand in to your script editor. What would you pick for:   A working title? A question the story is asking? A problem your character has?

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