If you’re looking to improve the strength of your writer’s voice then stopping by The Writers Guild of Great Britain station in a friendly corner of Herringham Hall is something you may not have considered but that is well worth dropping past during festival time and taking a few moments to say hello. You don’t get much of a stronger voice speaking for you throughout your career than the voice the guild has to champion it’s writers.
The Writers Guild do an absolutely huge amount for writers in the UK, negotiating deals, looking over contracts and a myriad of other support to you in your writing career. Furthermore as well as the professionals, there is opportunity to join as a Candidate Member, paying a lower rate to join while they build up enough credits for Full Membership. As a summary of everything The Writers Guild do, mine here is a very shallow one, but you can find out more at LSF every year and also on the guild website www.writersguild.org.uk or @TheWritersGuild on twitter. What’s great about having the guild at the festival is that it’s easy to go along and have an informal chat and see how the guild suits your specific needs for your particular writing, as well as learning a little more about everything they’ve been doing lately. Negotiations at the time of my writing this have been very rewarding for UK writers.
Making sure writing is a sustainable career, that writers get paid fairly for their work and that things run smoothly while helping with great options for things like pensions (which broadcasters pay into), contract checking if you don’t have an agent etc. can help the sustainability of being a working writer over the long haul of your career a lot. They are writers and they are there for writers, there for you, and there to make the industry a better place.
In the vein of everyone at the festival they are super friendly too and more than happy to answer your Writer’s Guild questions and perhaps tell you things you might not know. I thought I knew lots about the Guild but hadn’t realised for instance, just how good their pension scheme is. And there’s often a little lull in the festival day where there’s time to go meet someone new. If you’re shy about networking I can guarantee that the person at The Writers’ Guild desk will be pleased to talk to you and help you feel at ease.
Just another great part of an array of support and advice available throughout the LSF.
Leilani Holmes
Festival Blogger
www.twitter.com/momentsoffilm
www.cowbird.com/leilani
Leilani is an actor, screenwriter and filmmaker and has been blogging for the London Screenwriters’ Festival since it’s inception in 2010.
