Developing Factual Ideas

Copyblogger Articles You Need to Read Before You Write Your TV Proposal: Part I

Writing a concise, compelling proposal is a task that many  TV producers and filmmakers find difficult: coming up with the idea and visualizing what it will look like probably  comes easily to you; but being able to put your idea into words in a proposal or in a pitch is a different matter entirely. You have to switch from thinking like a director and start thinking like a copywriter. Copywriters (at least good ones) sell stuff and that’s the purpose of your proposal – it’s a sales pitch.

Copyblogger, named by The Guardian as one of the World’s 50 Most Powerful Blogs, is a site all about marketing online content, but you can adapt Copyblogger’s principles to help you write your TV proposal. In the first of this three-part series on turbocharging your development skills we look at some articles that explain the simple writing rules that you should use to polish your proposal so it looks professional:

1. Do You Make These Seven Mistakes When You Write? - This article explains how to avoid common pitfalls such as using loose instead of lose; the difference between Me, Myself and I; correct placement of the apostrophe among other common mistakes.
   
2. Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb - Do you know the difference between Your and You’re? Its and It’s? Their and There? Read this article to make sure.
   
3. Seven Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School – It can be tempting, when writing a proposal, to write as though you are writing an English paper or thesis by using lots of long sentences and big words to impress. In fact, you should do the opposite: use short paragraphs, simple language and a narrative that will engage and draw in your audience, not bore them to death.

Don’t forget to read  Part II and Part III.

© 2010 TV Mole.