Rachel Littlemore, LISP Screenplay Semi-Finalist

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

I am 21 years old and I live just outside of London. I am currently studying a Media Arts Degree at St Mary’s University in Twickenham.

- When did you start writing? How often do you write? Please feel free to mention your previously published works, produced films or awards or any other achievements in writing. We want to learn all about your writing life!

So ever since I was about 12 years old I have been a bookworm and this is where I believe my spark for writing began. I would always start trying to write my own stories and after about a page I would give up and never go back to it. In college, I had to write a short story for children for part of my English Language A level. I wrote a story about a Little Old Bear and it ended up being one of the first things that I was proud to have written.

At University I decided to take a few screenwriting modules and that’s where I started to really enjoy writing and where I feel like I have found my passion. Down by the River is only my second screenplay and I am delighted to have been selected as a Semi Finalist fir the London Independent Story Prize.

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

The best thing about writing a screenplay of course is when people read it and hopefully (fingers crossed) enjoy it! Writing a screenplay can take time so there is always that sense of doubt that maybe people won’t understand the point of your story or just don’t like it, so of course it feels amazing when they do!

For me I think that hardest thing about writing a screenplay is not always having a deadline. Some stories can be hard to write and some flow straight out of you. The ones that take time can be hard to sustain, especially when you don’t have a deadline because you’ll just put it off for weeks and weeks.

-  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?

Down by the River was inspired by the song Hazard by Richard Marx. I had listened to this song ever since I was a child and one day it came on the radio whilst I was driving my car and the story came instantly into my mind. I wanted to focus on a classic Romeo and Juliet structure whilst also showing struggles of being disabled and the prejudice that people face. The initial draft of my screenplay only took me a few days to write but then I worked on edits for a couple of months.

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

Don’t rush yourself but try set yourself mini deadlines to meet.

Talk to people about your ideas, they may have really good advice

Get people to read your work at all stages, once again hearing other people advice is always helpful.

Enjoy yourself!

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

I would definitely recommend any writer out there to give it a go, take a chance and believe in yourself!