Raagavi Sivakumar, LISP Screenplay Semi-Finalist

Can you please tell us about you? Where do you live and how is your daily life? 

I'm an aspiring writer from Norway now living in London. I currently work in media and have always kept up my passion of writing on the side. Recently I have started taking it more seriously wanting to submit my works and start to try and publish/get into the scene more.

How did you feel when you learned that you are a Semi-Finalist on The London Independent Story Prize? 

Shocked. It sounds cheesy to say, but it was my first time in a while submitting my script to a competition and I wasn't sure how it was going to go. Or even if I was going to submit but I caught the deadline in time and decided to just go for it. Really pleased that I got to the Semi-Final stage. It's given me the kick to keep going with my writing.

What's the best thing and the hardest thing about writing a Screenplay? 

Best thing: the whole creation process. Thinking of a new concept and bringing it to life slowly but surely. It’s like putting together a puzzle. Especially as there’s not always an order to it. Sometimes a certain scene comes to mind before your story is even finished. Sometimes the character you thought you knew ends up being a totally different person once on the page. It’s exciting and definitely my favourite part of writing/creating a screenplay.

Hardest thing: losing your flow of writing and not being able to pick it up again. It can be totally disheartening and get you in a slump which only further makes you want to not continue with your writing.

How did you come up with the idea for your LISP selected script? Is there a story behind your story? And how long have you been working on it?

It actually was inspired by a music video I saw. The music video involved two couples and the sort of plot twist of the music video was that one half of each couple was actually dead and the other half was still clinging onto them. It really intrigued me especially how they conveyed it in such a short time frame and I wanted to explore the aspect of grief/not being able to let go in a short script.

Can you please give us a few tips about writing a short screenplay?

The simplest trick for me is to just keep writing. Even if you feel like you are writing absolutely terribly, just keep writing and keep going forward. You never know what sort of gems your brain will create. Even if it feels like the silliest idea or something super insignificant: write it down! Make some kind of note of it. They are always the notes that end up being super useful to me.

You will get to the finish line eventually!

What's the best thing about writing competitions?

I think it’s just making the whole process seem a little less daunting and feeling like you are making progress with your work. It feels like such a big step once you’ve submitted your writing to a competition and then you look at it and think “Huh... I could do that again”. It’s great.

Lastly, do you recommend the writers to give it a go on writing a Screenplay and LISP?

Absolutely! It's fun and rewarding. It also motivated me to keep submitting my writing going forwards!