FREE TIP, MARCH 2010

Writing for "older women"  

There is a whole raft of professional talent available which is being largely overlooked on television and in film - I am referring to the "older woman".

In the Equity (British) Magazine "Review of the Year 2009" there is a revealing and informative article ("A Passion for Youth") on the veteran actress Sheila Hancock, who has just been appointed as Chancellor of Portsmouth University, in which Miss Hancock makes some important observations to benefit writers in all genres:

"The difficulty for women is making various jumps," she says, "You start off as a juvenile and then you have to be accepted as a leading lady and then it's very difficult  to make them think of you as a middle-aged person, and then it's even more difficult for them - it's as if there's something shameful in it - getting them to offer you  a part as an old lady. I'm constantly saying to my agent for goodness sake, I'm 76, why can't I play this old git? Obviously everything is down to the writing. I don't think you can blame Management. It's the writers that have got to write the parts for women.  I'm afraid a lot of men have a concept of women as they become older as being rather dreary and rather grey and not having any kind of life or personality and therefore there is a danger that writers don't write lively parts for older woman. That's a problem" (My emphasis)

Every film and TV writer must come to recognize that an older woman is the sum total of her life experiences. She does not just suddenly emerge into the world as a grey headed, slightly stooped "old git". In real life she was once the juvenile, flitting through the shopping mall and turning male heads, old and young. She was your mother, loving or bossy, a darling or a pain in the ass, or she was the mother of your best friend whom you fancied in your youth. She matures into "Hedda Gabler" or "Mrs Warren" or "Blanche Dubois" or any number of classic middle-aged leading ladies of the stage - so why do you ignore her in her final act?

She still contains all of those multiple qualities, and, most important of all, she still feels the same as she did when she was that gorgeous juvenile -

only with a few, very few, unwelcome aches and pains and some very unwelcome thickening around the waist.

The Older Woman, properly written, can be a show stealer - think of "Lady Bracknell" and TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HER!

Screenwriting - The Nuts and Bolts contains hints on how to adapt from novels.

Meanwhile we repeat, and repeat, and repeat: Getting the storyline right remains the FIRST step in constructing a successful screenplay. YOU can do that by consulting