Nobel co-writers Mette M. Bølstad and Stephen Uhlander offer basic tips on how to approach screenwriting for drama series.

On Thursday the Norwegian writing duo will give a TV drama writing masterclass to Nordic Talents attendees at Copenhagen’s National Film School of Denmark. They shared Göteborg’s inaugural Nordisk Film & TV Fond TV Drama Script award collected for NRK’s hit series Nobel.

Bølstad’s writing credits also include the film King of Devil’s Island, the TV dramas The Half Brother and The Heavy Water War. Her upcoming works include NRK’s high-end TV drama State of Happiness and the Norwegian biopic Queen of Ice, her second collaboration with director Anne Sewitsky after Happy Happy. She has also written for Radio, BBC4, and has worked as script consultant for the Norwegian Film Institute and the European Script Fund. She is educated at the Central School of Speech and Drama – New Writing in London.

Uhlander who runs the London-based company DS Fiction, has co-written the script for Marius Host’s upcoming drama Congo starring Aksel Hennie and Tobias Santelmann. He has been working as a translator and author for film and theatre since 1995.   

Mette M. Bølstad and Stephen Uhlander’s writing tips:

  • Find a topic you’re passionate about. This is essential as you might spend at least the next three years working on it.
  • Relate to your audience. Will they be moved? Will they know something they didn´t know before? Will they talk to people they´ve never talked to after having seen your show? Define your target group. Speak directly to them. If the show is entertaining, the rest will follow.
  • Don´t end on a downer. Hope is essential.
  • Privilege emotions, different emotions. Contrast in emotion is entertaining. People like to feel things.
  • Keep a good dialogue with your producer and commissioner. Tell your producer and the broadcaster (unless you’re worried about funding) not to ask you the question ”What is it really about” until they already know the answer. And if you don´t like criticism, let them know. You don´t have to be an uber-mensch even though the script is the first in the food chain.
  • Remain open minded, courageous and laid back. It is much harder than being structured, technical and methodical. But the first is not possible without the latter.