Script Essentials 2026 Summary Notes - Session 6: Finding a Writing Community

Our wrap up notes for the sixth session in our 2026 Script Essentials Webinar series

Published: 29 June 2026

Our final Script Essentials session featured Jen Bradfield (BFI Network Talent Executive), Jenny Sealey (Artistic Director of Graeae Theatre Company) and Steph Lacey (Actor, Writer and part of Triple C’s creative team). The panel was hosted by BBC Writers’ Michelle Matherson and focussed on finding a creative community and where writers can find and make opportunities.

Michelle: What does a creative community really mean to you?

Jen B:

Jen talks about writing being a solitary career and that finding a community that can give you feedback and support. A good community can also signpost you to opportunities, it's important for mental health, and your career too.

Jenny S:

Jenny says that when a group of writers get together everything becomes possible. Particularly for the deaf and disabled community, she says barriers come down and everyone can just talk about creativity, the plays they want to write, as well as how the access might work.
A creative community is about being with like-minded people, but also those people who will challenge you and have different perspectives, different lenses, so you can come away with more questions than you do have answers.

Steph:

Steph brings up the importance of shared knowledge, rather than gatekeeping opportunities and experiences, finding space to share together.
Steph talks about creative community being inclusive and the positives of not having to explain everything, especially in terms of disability and access, that you can ‘just be’ with people who understand so that you can just move on from that and have conversations that shift towards the creative rather than the practical.

Michelle: I have my script and I'm coming to see each of you, what do I do now?

Jenny S:

Jenny says that when you've got something you want to share with somebody, it's about having that confidence to go to them.
It's also important to know who you want to read it, and why?
Sometimes it helps to have an external reading of it with some friends so you can start to hear what it is you have written.
Graeae have a very small script reading team who will read a script and write a report.
Jenny says that when Graeae receive a script she thinks ‘wow, someone has been massively brave, because it's like parting with your baby.’ and so doesn’t want to put it on a pile. She wants to invest and read it.
If Graeae receive a script and know that it's something that they can’t go forward with they will try to signpost the writer to organisations or opportunities that may be better suited.
She also suggests that if you know, your script needs some development and you have an idea of where it needs work, put that in a covering letter.
For more information about Graeae Theatre Company, click this link.

Steph:

Triple C don’t develop scripts, but they have good connections with the industry and run masterclasses and webinars with producers, with production companies, who can give advice on what to do next with the scripts.
They also run networking events, so if you have a script ready to go, and you want to talk to the industry about it, then Triple C offer opportunities to network with industry professionals.
Steph advises steering away from thinking that your first conversation with an industry professional is going to be the answer to all of your problems, or sort of all of your career goals because screenwriting is a long game and working in TV is about building long term relationships.
Although networking events can be anxiety-inducing, Steph advises reframing the connections you might make as just the start of the conversation because you can follow up with an update email later.
The events that Triple C run put access for deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent creatives at the forefront.
For more info about opportunities, you can sign up to Triple C’s newsletter by clicking here.

Jen B:

BFI Network have a short film fund. Click the link to find out more information: https://www.bfi.org.uk/get-funding-support/bfi-network/bfi-network-england-short-film-funding
To apply for the fund as a writer you need a producer and a director attached.
Every single script that is submitted for this opportunity is read and applicants receive direct feedback on their project if unsuccessful.
Film Hub North also have a Script Lab opportunity which opens once a year for writers that have an early-stage idea for a short film.
A cohort of 10 writers are selected each year to develop a short script across the programme with a script mentor and peer-to-peer feedback and support.
Click the link below to find the BFI Network Film Hub and opportunities local to you: https://www.bfi.org.uk/get-funding-support/bring-film-wider-audience/bfi-film-audience-network/find-your-local-film-hub
BFI Network also have an Early Development Fund for writers who have made short films, theatre or television looking to develop a debut feature film, you can apply to the Early Development Fund.
All BFI Network funds have access lines so that if you require any kind of support with making your work, whether that's in short film production or writing during the Early Development Fund.

Michelle: Do you think there's value in having specific opportunities for deaf, disabled, and/or neurodivergent writers?

Steph:

Steph says in an ideal world, there wouldn't need to be specific opportunities for DDN writers but at the moment, if people aren't held accountable for making sure that deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people are included, numbers of DDN creatives in the industry could dwindle.
Steph talks about numbers of DDN inclusion in the industry still being relatively low, so making sure that there are spaces specifically for DDN people to break the glass ceiling is really important.
She reiterates that in spaces for DDN writers, you can quickly move on from conversations about access and disability and just engage in the process that you are involved in creatively.
Steph also says that conversations need to evolve within the industry. She explains that usually she is hired for both acting and writing when a script involves a disabled character or storyline. DDN writers need to be trusted to tell any story - human stories, that are not just about disability.
Steph cites the work of the TV Access Project which brings broadcasters together to make sure that there is accountability for putting access in place in the TV industry.

Jen B:

Jen agrees that it’s important to have ring-fenced opportunities for DDN writers so there are spaces that people feel comfortable sharing and creating work, without questions being asked or having to provide confidential information about yourself to make life easier.
She says it's also important for programmes that are open to all to be accessible to everybody and that it’s part of her role to look at BFI Network programmes and make them inclusive and accessible.

Jenny S:

Jenny says ringfencing money to protect opportunities for deaf, disabled and neurodivergent writers is important so that DDN creatives can become super skilled in their craft without judgement. She adds that it’s important for building confidence.
Graeae’s Right to Play programme ran for several years and came together as a result of the writers involved being fed up of feeling excluded and othered in non-disabled writing groups as well as the frustration of being expected to write only disabled focussed stories.

Steph:

Steph adds there’s an assumption about DDN writers that they must be at the beginning of their career and that often opportunities for DDN creatives are beginner programmes, and there needs to be opportunities for step up or in between roles.
She says there also needs to be meaningful routes for progression from schemes. She talks about how people can get stuck in a 'scheme loop’, because that is where funds are ring-fenced specifically for DDN people.

Michelle: Finally, what TV show have you watched and loved that relates to you?

Jen B:

Jen loves Jack Rooke's Big Boys. Having lost her dad when she was young, she says she’s never seen a TV show that's handled loss, and parental grief in a way that has so much heart and so many laughs.

Jenny S:

Jenny talks about how when she was growing up there was nothing with subtitles but there was a show called Vision On which featured sign language which felt significant to her.
She talks about Marlee Matlin’s character from West Wing being a deaf character who is a top lawyer with an interpreter being important to her.
Jenny also mentions Jack Thorne and Alex Bulmer’s series Cast Offs which had a disabled cast of complex characters and being disabled wasn't that only thing that defined them.

Steph:

Steph talks about being homeless when she was younger, she says sometimes that experience connects her more to a story than disability stories.
When she saw This Is England she saw an exciting, working-class story and seeing how much audiences cared about the characters made her feel like she could tell a working-class story - whatever that might be.
In terms of disability, Steph talks about loving watching Isaac’s character behaving badly in Sex Education.