Keeping Character-Driven TV Engaging

Screenwriters Hannah Bos (HBO’s Somebody Somewhere), Kim Krizan (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset) and Selina Lim (Sex Education, Hanna) on building writing partnerships, developing characters from the inside out, and finding your way into a writers’ room.
 

You'll learn

• Why a writing partnership only works when you can separate your ego from your ideas.
• How seven years of making weird theatre in Brooklyn quietly set the stage for an HBO show.
• What it takes to write a quiet, character-driven show in a TV landscape built for plot.
• How a master’s thesis on a diarist turned into one of the most beloved screenplays of the nineties.
• How Before Sunrise was built from index cards on a living room floor.
• Why thinking about the product kills the work, and what to focus on instead.
• The case for starting with character before plot, and letting the story follow.
• What breaking into TV actually looks like.
• How to set the tone in a writers’ room so the ridiculous ideas can surface.
• A practical approach to dialogue.

Episode Links

• #070: Hannah Bos — Writing TV From The Heart, HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, Artistic Partnerships, Writing Friendships For The Screen
• #99: Kim Krizan — Writing 'Before Sunrise' series, Crafting Memorable Characters For Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy & Other Screenwriting Tips
• #013: Selina Lim — Writing Authentic Dialogue for TV, Writing about Sex, Love & Drama, and A Peek Into a Writers’ Room

About the Guests

Hannah Bos is a Brooklyn based writer who, along with her writing partner Paul Thureen, is the creator and showrunner of HBO’s Somebody Somewhere. The first season received an AFI Award and Peabody nomination, and Hannah and Paul were nominated for a 2022 Humanitas Prize for Comedy Teleplay for the pilot episode. Together they have also written for HBO’s High Maintenance and Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay for their feature Driveways (dir. Andrew Ahn), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. Along with Oliver Butler, Hannah and Paul were founders and co-Artistic Directors of The Debate Society, a multiple-Obie award-winning, Brooklyn-based theatre company. As an actor, Hannah has received a Drama Desk Award and Lortel Nomination. Contact: www.hannahbos.com

Kim Krizan is the Academy Award-nominated writer of the films Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Her book Original Sins: Trade Secrets of the Femme Fatale is a tongue-in-cheek examination of history’s dangerous women. She is also the author of Spy in the House of Anaïs Nin, an analysis of the life of the 20th-century rule-bending diarist. Krizan’s work has been hailed as insightful, penetrating, and profound. She lives and writes in Los Angeles, California. You can find her on Instagram and Patreon. Contact: www.instagram.com/kimkrizan

Selina Lim is a BAFTA and BIFA-nominated screenwriter, with credits on Sex Education (Eleven/Netflix) and Hanna (Amazon/NBC). Her short films include Painkiller (BBC/B3 Media) starring Benedict Wong, Keeping Up with the Joneses (BFI/Lighthouse) with Maxine Peake and Adeel Akhtar, and BBC Studios/Green Door’s Five By Five starring Ruth Madeley. Selina has also written for Hollyoaks (Lime Pictures/Channel 4) and was in the writers’ room for The Night Manager Series 2 (The Ink Factory/AMC). Contact: www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/selina-lim

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