This morning hundreds of writers arrive at Regent’s Park on a quest for knowledge, advice, mentorship, career advancement and camaraderie. But the quest for one or more of these doesn’t begin here, it began like so much of our work, with an idea that we act upon.
The idea that you can write, the idea that you can write for a living, it’s not always a conscious choice. Some have written for as long as they can remember and don’t know how not to. Some have chosen to brave the page in order to record some event or thought important to them. Some like me have stumbled on writing in order to realise some other aim and surprised ourselves by discovering we enjoyed the process enough to stick around and do more. Whatever the reasons there comes a point for every writer when an idea takes hold that our words on the page will mean something to others as much as too ourselves and we decide to get our work out there. It can happen at any point in life and friends, it can be a terrifying realisation when you’re alone and wondering where you go next!
At some point, every person here today will have made a conscious decision to take the action of attending. The idea formed, maybe it percolated for a while, and then we hit the button, paid the fee and said I am going to do this! Now here on campus we all want to get the best out of our journey through the next three days and come away well prepared for the writing year that follows.
The beauty of a screenwriters festival is that together we can achieve what seems so hard to do alone. That idea we all had that it was worth while coming here, that’s what keeps us reaching out, from the top of the industry down to the bottom of the industry up, we all have the same goals, to reach out and share what we know and discover what we don’t know. And then comes another moment of deciding to take action, we’re here, we’ve already done the first bit, it has begun because we began on this road. Now we choose to stick out our hands, say hello and together embark on something great.
I’ll be live tweeting @momentsoffilm on the #LondonSWF hashtag for the next three days and blogging here about just some of the many seminars and events. If you didn’t make the decision to join us in person this year don’t worry, our community arms are long, join us online, begin your own exploration. At the London Screenwriters’ Festival we don’t do it alone. We do it together. And as the roar comes from the seats at the festival opening we take action, we begin by beginning.
Posted by a member of the London Screenwriters’ Festival team.
