For children’s author Maisie Chan, a place on a ScreenSkills-funded mentoring programme helped her understand more about the screen industries, while a course funded by the Animation Skills Fund opened her eyes to opportunities in children’s animation.
Glasgow-based Maisie had not always dreamt of being a writer. It was not until she spent a year abroad as part of her BA in American Studies - studying Asian-American and African-American literature and film - that a whole new world opened for her.
Growing up in Birmingham she had only once read a book featuring Chinese people, so as she started reading and exploring Asian literature and film she became determined to play a role in creating more British Chinese content.
After graduation she temporarily moved to Taiwan to learn Mandarin. “Whilst there, someone asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I blurted out, 'Write books,'” she says. Once back in the UK she started turning that dream into reality.
Many years later – “I've got to where I am through a lot of persistence, learning of the craft over a long period of time and making connections” – she came across ScreenSkills for the first time when she decided to apply for a mentoring opportunity. Having written books, she was keen to explore writing for screen.
The Beats Fellowship, supported by ScreenSkills as part of the BFI Future Film Skills programme using funds from the National Lottery, is an initiative for emerging and experienced British East Asian and South East Asia screenwriter and directors.
“I had an initial chat about my goals as a novelist who wanted to write screenplays. I already wrote for children and felt moving into writing for children’s television would be a natural move as I already write for that age group anyway,” Maisie says. “I was considering adapting my novel Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths into a live action show for a broadcaster like the BBC.” She was paired with screenwriter Emma Reeves, who had been the lead writer on CBBC shows such as Eve and The Demon Headmaster.
“We had three mentoring sessions and I would ask technical questions about adapting books to TV serials, and I wanted to know more about what places like CBBC were looking for in terms of screenwriters,” Maisie explains. “Talking to Emma was extremely helpful, she read my novel and gave me insight into how I could begin to adapt it. Having Emma as a mentor also meant producers took me more seriously.”
After her mentoring experience, Maisie wanted to explore whether she wanted to write for live action or animation. Her eye fell on a writing for children’s animation course, with writer Myles McLeod.
“I wanted to see what the difference was between writing animation and live action, to explore the various avenues in children’s TV,” she says. “I also wanted to meet new people who were interested in the same thing.”
During the course, funded by the Animation Skills Fund, Maisie learned about different types of animation and children’s TV, as well as opportunities for writers. “The course was for those with some experience in related fields - those who had either written published children's books or those linked to the animation industry but who had not perhaps had a series produced yet,” she explains. “Having a course leader like Myles - who has created and sold their own shows - was really useful in case you want to follow in those footsteps.”
Myles helped her see other ways to diversify writing whilst also making money. “He was generous with his time and also shared old pitching documents and other resources with us,” she says.
The course also helped her expand her network. “We have a Facebook group and each other’s emails now, so we can carry on sharing information and stay in touch,” Maisie notes. “Many people in the group were already working in animation on the drawing or storyboarding side, and a few of us were children’s authors hoping to get a first break into writing for animation.”
She feels her knowledge of working in children’s animation has grown a lot since completing the workshop and the networking event that followed. “I’ve had some correspondence with various producers and people on the course since the course finished.”
Maisie is grateful she got the chance to participate in the course and to learn from someone as experienced as Myles. “I have a lot more confidence that I understand more about what it takes to write for children’s TV and animation,” she says before offering one last piece of advice for others dreaming of a career in writing. “I think the main thing is to keep putting yourself and your name out there (but not in a pushy way) and continue to keep working on getting better at writing scripts.”
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