writing – Julie Everton

Stories from word games

November 27, 2019 by Julie

I just found an exercise which yielded good results for me in writing stories. Combine three words as below and write a story containing all three. This exercise helps you think in a right brain way, laterally connecting disparate ideas. See what other threesomes you can conjur up! A female hell’s angel, going to Ikea, … Read more

Stunning Caryl Churchill plays at Royal Court – at 80 years old

September 21, 2019 by Julie

Last night I went to see Caryl Churchill’s linked plays Glass.Kill.Bluebeard.Imp at the packed Royal Court Theatre. The plays were rich, formally inventive and evocative, but that’s what I expect from all her plays. As a whole, they riffed on myth and legends of violence, superstition, and female rage. Between the first three plays, a … Read more

Creative surprises

June 23, 2019 by Julie

I have just finished eight weeks with 18 writers on my screenwriting course at the Depot Cinema in Lewes. This class was full of enthusiastic committed writers – some who had never written before, and I witnessed the real connection and support students offered each other at each stage of the writing of a ten … Read more

Mohsin Hamid and Toni Morrison on writing about goodness.

November 2, 2018 by Julie

Last night I attended an event at Brighton University, organised by Man Booker, in which the novelist Mohsin Hamid read from his book ‘Exit West’ and answered questions about this. The novel is a love story amidst the refugee crisis, painting a nuanced portrait of contemporary migration, from the horrors of Western hysteria to what … Read more

Why do more women than men join writer’s groups?

November 1, 2018 by Julie

I was asked yesterday by a colleague why it is that the majority of people who do an MA in creative writing are women. He asked what would we be doing to encourage more men to join. It is true that in all my years of teaching creative writing in a range of settings … Read more

Script editor, script reader, script consultants, writers’ group: What is right for you?

September 13, 2018 by Julie

As a writer my work has benefitted from work with a script editor, a script consultant led writers’ group, a self selected writers group, and as a person working with other screenwriters, I have worked as a script reader, a script consultant and a teacher of screenwriting. If you’ve finished a short film course, have an idea, or a draft, or a commission, what is the best and most appropriate way to get feedback that will help you grow as a screenwriter for film, stage, or TV? Here is my understanding: