General Meetings

Our first session in our 2026 Script Essentials webinar series was hosted by Alice Ramsey (Commissioning Executive, BBC Drama) and features William Mager (writer and creator, Reunion) as well as Gwen Gorst (Executive Producer, Warp Films). 

You can watch the full recording of our session on the Script Essentials page, accessible by clicking this link here. Or, you can read the summary notes below to get some key takeaways from the session! (Questions were put to the panel by Alice Ramsey)

Q: Billy, when did you start to write?

• Billy always wrote for himself growing up but ‘officially’ started writing whilst studying English Literature at University.
• More scripts became available to read at the time Billy was at university and it became something that seemed like a form of writing that he could take up.
• After graduating Billy did an MA in Writing for Film and Television where he learnt more about the craft of scriptwriting.
• With few screenwriting opportunities available Billy started a career in factual TV.

Q: What were you watching and consuming that you felt inspired by when working in factual TV?

• Billy watched a lot films and TV growing up and says it’s important when you’re a writer to develop your own taste for what you like and don’t like so you can write to your own strengths.
• Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is a favourite of Billy’s and a film he’s watched repeatedly. He observed that watching back with a critical eye, the story of the film would be the same if Indiana Jones wasn’t there.
• Alice mentioned the importance watching for pleasure and seeing what inspires you as well making the time to watch things through a critical lens, keeping in mind ‘What works, what doesn't work, and thinking what am I enjoying, where am I losing concentration?’ whilst watching.

Q: When did you start sharing your writing?

• After Billy left his career in factual TV he knew he want to become a creative writer and successfully applied for Arts Council grants to develop writing.
• He begun with prose writing and was part of a small writing group where he would share his work.
• Billy talked about how one of the hardest things as a writer is to show other people your work but it’s what you must do to develop.
• Something else which held Billy back was that he would think of ideas for scripts but wouldn’t actually sit down to write the script.
• When he wrote the script for what later became the BBC One series Reunion, it was the first time he told himself to sit down and write a whole script.
• Billy wrote Reunion as something for himself, that he would want to watch and encourages new writers to do the same.

Q: Can you tell us about your experience on BBC Writers’ Scripted programme?

• For Billy, the most important part of the BBC Writers' Scripted programme was being part of a group with other writers.
• New collaborations and networking is really important for Billy and as a deaf person, it's hard go out and network because events can be often be held in dark, noisy spaces with lots of people.
• The BBC Writer's programme offered a collaborative writing group with people who have different experiences, ways of working and have navigated through the industry and their careers.

Q: Gwen, please explain your role of Executive Producer?

• Gwen is an Executive Producer at Warp Films working in the development team.
• Her role involves meeting writers, establishing relationships with writers and talking to them about ideas.
• If their ideas feel like a good fit for Warp as a company, Gwen works with writers to develop the idea into a show and share the idea with commissioners.
• If a show is commissioned Gwen works on an idea through production to delivery.

Q: Gwen, when we’re talking about the writer’s ‘voice’, how you do you know that the writer has a strong voice, even if the script is not super polished yet?

• A strong ‘voice’ can be hard to define but as someone who reads a lot of scripts Gwen mentioned that a writer who knows their characters and their worlds really well will come through in the writing rather than a perfectly polished script.

Q: Billy, when you were first writing and getting feedback from your peers in your writers’ group did you know your ‘voice’ or is it something that you found through that process?

• Billy found his ‘voice’ by developing his taste through reading scripts and thinking about what he liked and didn’t like.
• He downloads scripts for TV series and reads them alongside watching the show.
• Rather than copying those shows, he advised seeing what works on the page for you when you read the script and then bringing in your own unique way of writing.
• Scriptwriting is a craft, like being a plumber or a woodworker it's something that you learn.

Q: Gwen, how did Billy’s script for Reunion first come to you at Warp?

• Gwen read Billy’s script after knowing him through his factual TV role.
• Reunion is set in Sheffield where Warp Films are based and Gwen thought the script was brilliant, so when she shared the script with Mark Herbert (CEO of Warp) they took the project into development.

Q: Billy, what was it about Reunion that worked for TV rather than a film?

• Billy started writing Reunion as a film script but when he sent the outline to development opportunities, he received useful feedback and made changes to the script.
• The format of a film felt too short for Reunion but creating a series for TV is challenging because you need so much story, characters need to move around enough and changes need to happen.
• Billy had a clear idea of the beginning and the end of the story, so he and Gwen spent time developing the series and working on the middle of the series in particular.
• It was a useful learning process for him to work out how many episodes worked and to find the right structure.

Q: Did the process of Reunion help you identify which ideas make a good film script and which make a good TV series?

• Billy said he’s still figuring out what makes a perfect idea but for any idea for screen you must really love and 100% believe in your idea because the process of working on something can be long – sometimes even 4-6 years.
• He received a lot of ‘nos’ but persevered because he really believed in the idea of Reunion.
• If you put your idea away for a while you can bring it back out again to continue working on it and refresh it until you get it to a place that you're happy with.
• Secondly, it’s important to think about who is going to be watching this, and why you want them to watch it. Ask the question ‘is this going to be something different for our audiences to watch?’.

Q: Where do your ideas come from and where do you look for inspiration?

• Billy finds inspiration absorbing as much information as he can through reading books and the news, talking to friends and family and looking at what’s happening in the world.
• He advises looking introspectively at your own experiences, something that might have happened to you recently that could become a good story.
• Often there’s a pressure to force yourself to come up with loads of ideas but when doing something mundane like walking the dog an idea can hit you, so write it down and keep coming back to it.

Q: Gwen, you read pitches, scripts and treatments, what are common mistakes you see from writers?

• A common mistake is a script being led by an issue the writer wants to talk about rather than focussing on the character.
• Gwen advised knowing your character really well because no matter how obscure the world that you want to explore or the issue that you want to discuss, you will only grab an audience to come to it through a character who is intriguing, compelling, and that they to want to stick with.
• Warp Films always look for shows with a unique perspective on the world so when it came to Reunion. the character of Brennan and the experience of a deaf person in prison hooks you in, you care about him and the audience want to go on the rest of his revenge journey with him.
• A character doesn’t have to be likeable, but you need to want to follow them for 4-10 episodes because that’s a lot of time.

Q: A lot of writers comes from different mediums such as prose, theatre, short film. Gwen, what makes an idea for TV rather than a film or theatre piece?

• An idea can be a brilliant book or theatre piece but it doesn’t mean it will make a great TV show and vice versa.
• TV doesn’t have a captive audience that theatre or film has. Those audiences have chosen to go to the cinema, theatre or to buy a book.
• There are many viewing options with TV and 10 episodes is a time commitment so if an audience isn’t grabbed by characters initially, there’s a choice to change what they’re viewing or switch off.
• TV needs a story engine that will keep people watching and intrigued enough to stick with the story rather than sitting with a thought or concept which you can explore in a book.

What actually is it though?

The purpose of a general is for the person / company who read your script to get the chance to get to know more – yes, maybe about that specific project, but by and large, likely more so – about you.

This meeting does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s ‘general’. It’s not about anything exact or detailed or any targets to achieve. And look, that in itself can be understandably daunting. What do you talk about when you can talk about anything?

So let’s start with preparation

Know who you’re talking to. 

What’s their company's output? Watch some of it. Have something to say about it. Have a general idea of the type of stuff they make and where you could sit in the pantheon. Let this influence what you choose to talk about, but don’t let this dwarf the conversation either.

So, for example, if you’re chatting to a company who by and large make police procedural dramas, they’re probably not one for your sci-fi epic. Or a straight comedy. But if they’ve chosen to meet you, they’ve probably anticipated you’re not going to be sending those things their way anyway. Or may be looking to branch out. You’ll find out during the conversation!

It’s also nice to know who you’re meeting.

What’s their background? It can often be easy to see the general as company first, but the person you’re meeting with will have their own background, their own credits and their own personal tastes. So, though the company have requested to meet with you – it’s this specific person that has brought you into the fold. Don’t lose sight of that.

And on talking about the ‘people’ of it all – now is a good time to say...

Take whoever you’re about to meet off the pedestal you’ve put them on.

That’s not to say be unprofessional or overly familiar to the point everyone’s uncomfortable, but it’s also easy to forget that this development assistant, exec, or producer is someone who just bloody loves telly. That’s the thing you’re going to connect about. And even more importantly, they clearly already enjoy the telly you’re dying to write, otherwise you wouldn’t be there talking to them. You’ve already connected.

Yes, they’re technically ‘a gatekeeper’, sure. But they’re also just trying as hard as you to make things that matter, that they love and feel are important and desperately want the world to see – so talk to them on that level instead of "THIS PERSON IS HOLDING THE PROSPECT OF ME HAVING A WRITING CAREER IN THE PALM OF THEIR HAND LIKE A DELICATE BABY BIRD". It’s not that deep, and they are not the be all and end all.

Because this meeting isn’t actually only for them to determine whether you’re the right fit for this company, but also for you to...

Figure out whether this company and this specific development person is the right fit for you and your stories.

Do they see you and your writing the way you do? Do you see yourself working with them on the same project for years at a time? Labouring over the 15th draft of one scene at 9.30pm? Spoiler alert, making television drama takes ages.

This general should be the start of a relationship, about trying to find the people that you want to work with again and again, whether they stay at that company or not.

But now I’m jumping ahead. Ultimately, before your general, seeing this person as a person and knowing a bit about them (in the same way they already know a bit about you) will only put you in a better position and make you more comfortable to have a better type of conversation.

The Meat & Potatoes (what actually happens in a general)

They’re typically an hour long, and that’ll go faster than you think.

Remember this is chat, not you just talking at someone, so be sure to let the conversation ebb and flow. This is just an introductory chat to use as a springboard to have more chats and open the door to sending more ideas and more projects – so don’t put any pressure on yourself to say everything on this one occasion.

To give you a general idea of what this meeting could look like, these are the things I personally try to cover when meeting with a writer.

• Your general background when it comes to writing / any relevant experiences.
• What you’ve been up to recently / what do you have coming up.
• Talk about why we liked your script, and often ask about the process of writing it – trying to get a sense of you as a writer, your influences and your instincts etc.
• What TV have you been watching recently & what did you love and hate – I’m trying to determine your taste, and how you see the present TV landscape. To see how you view telly, how you talk about it, especially when it comes to things you love and hate, because more importantly, I’m trying to find out why!
• What are some of your favourite TV and Films ever – the dreaded question that most people will absolutely ask. There’s nothing worse than knowing your selection in your soul but not knowing in the moment, so have your top choices scribbled down nearby. This says so much about you.
• Run through the relevant history of the production company.
• Run through what we (the production company) traditionally look for in a project.
• Run through what genres/projects we don’t look for – if this doesn’t come up, make sure to ask. It’s obvious to ask about what a company is looking for, but it’s incredibly useful to you to know what they avoid. Sometimes this won’t come up because a development assistant won’t want to limit your creativity.
• Relevant ideas – I don’t always have time for this, and this first general is very much about getting to know you rather than finding a project right away. But it is always useful to have a few embryonic thoughts percolating in case you’re asked.
• Time for questions – we love questions, so come prepared. More often than not, no question is stupid and people want to help and inform, so have the courage to ask.

Disclaimer: every single general you have will absolutely be different in what you cover and the order that it goes in. There are no hard and fast rules, so ride that wave, vibe it out, and try to enjoy yourself. It’s just telly!

Pet Peeves

But in the interests of transparency here are some things worth avoiding…

• Clout chasing. I’ve lost count of the number of writers who’ve been visibly deflated when they meet me rather than my boss. Wanting to meet and only meet the head honcho will get you nowhere. The people you’re meeting may be on a lower rung of the ladder right now, but I can promise you that won’t always be the case. The industry is small, people talk – value everyone’s time equally.
• Not digressing from your personal tick list. In the same way that meeting someone is a lot for you, it can be also be a lot for a development staffer too – let the conversation follow naturally rather than adhering to a strict scripted agenda. 
• Endlessly pitching. This first meeting is about making a personal connection rather than using the allotted to time to run through a list of prospective projects. Prioritise getting to know this person and company first and then use future meetings to specifically talk ideas.
• Talking primarily about film. Remember that while your influences can span multi-mediums, remember than you’ll often be talking to TV companies about… well, TV. And if you’re only ever watching films, the scope of your ideas to ultimately sustain the amount of story needed for a 6-8 episode series may be limited.
• Or purely talking about American programming. And British TV at that. Look, Breaking Bad is objectively brilliant. As is Buffy, of course. But when writers exclusively watch and talk about US telly versus UK, ideas can often be at odds with production companies’ current development priorities… that being said, if you haven’t ever watched Six Feet Under or Nurse Jackie, do immediately and thank me later.
• Not staying in touch. Now I may be cheating with this bit of advice, because this happens post-general meeting rather than during-general meeting, however, it’s the best piece of advice I can give you. The general is just the beginning, so once it is over, the onus is on you to stay in touch with the person you’ve met and nurture that relationship. Write more scripts and send them their way. Even if you haven’t written anything in a while, what’s the harm in checking in every 4-6 months to see how they’re doing and fill them in on what you have in progress? They may not respond, but that person will appreciate you not just contacting them when you want something from them. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that jazz – no matter how many times someone turns down your work, they are turning down the project, not you. Keep writing, keep sending, keep getting better – as a writer and a collaborator. The more someone knows you and your ability, the more opportunities will come your way.

In Summary

I could go on, but no one likes a mardy bum, and also, most importantly, it’s truly very hard to get a general wrong.

Be polite, be kind, be genuine, and be passionate about the telly you watch, the telly you want to write and the creative connections along the way, and you’re on your way, promise.

Never forget the reason you’re doing this is because you love it, and as long as that’s coming across to the person fortunate enough to have a general with you, you’re going to be fine.