 PLEASE
NOTE THAT RICK VANES HAS NOW RETIRED FROM HOSTING WRITING WORKSHOPS AND
ACCEPTING WRITING COMMISSIONS; THE CONTENTS OF THESE PAGES ARE NOW
SOLELY FOR REFERENCE. YOU MAY (OR MAY NOT) FIND SOME OF IT INTERESTING,
THOUGH ...
Of all the
websites in all the world, you found your way into mine – and I’m
delighted you did. In these pages you’ll find details of my:
- Writing
for television
- Corporate
scriptwriting
- Books
- Writing workshops for schools,
colleges and literary festivals
So
whether you’re a TV or corporate producer looking for an experienced
and totally professional scriptwriter, or a teacher in search of
someone who can dramatically improve your students’ writing abilities,
then I hope you find something to interest you. If you’re merely
looking around because you’ve got nothing better to do at the moment …
well, thanks for dropping by.
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Photo
courtesy of Yorkshire Post Newspapers
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A little about me
I’ve
earned my living exclusively from writing since the age of 18 (and that
was a long time ago!). I began as a junior reporter on my local evening
newspaper, graduated to writing for national newspapers and local radio
stations as a Press Agency news and sports reporter, then moved into
television as a Promotions Scriptwriter and subsequently Promotions
Producer.
I
became a freelance writer in 1979, since when I have notched up over
2000 TV credits as writer, script editor and programme associate for
ITV,
BBC, Channel 4, Five, Sky One and RTE, working in just about every
genre known to television. I wrote my first corporate script back in
1982 and have continued to work in that area ever since, writing for some of the world's biggest companies. And since 1992
I have been devising and running Creative Writing workshops for
students of all ages. I
am a full member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain www.writersguild.org.uk
and the National Association of Writers in Education www.nawe.co.uk.
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The success of my writing workshops led to me being
commissioned
by Routledge to write a handbook for teachers, showing innovative and
effective ways
of
teaching essential writing skills. Entitled
Tricks of
the
Writer's Trade - and how to teach them to children aged 8-14,
it was published in November 2011. It covers both fiction and
non-fiction, deals with topics such as story
structure, writing techniques, creating characters, how to get story
ideas, journalistic
writing, persuasive writing, scriptwriting and more, and
contains lots of the resources which I use in my workshops.
The book is nominally aimed at KS2 and KS3 teachers and
literacy coordinators, but the techniques it describes are useful at
GCSE level, too, as this extract from one of my testimonials would seem
to indicate:
"This has
been so effective when teaching GCSE
narratives as part of their coursework and providing the students with
something visual to help prevent predictability and quite simply a
boring plot.
I use these models for all levels and they are great. I thought I would
let you
know that after 2 years I still use these with very positive results
and
champion your work." - Leeds high school teacher, October 2014
In fact, anyone of any age who wishes to improve
their writing skills and learn some of the techniques that professional
writers use will find the book an invaluable guide. You can find out more about it
on the Routledge website by clicking here». Or if you wish to buy a copy from Amazon, you can do so here».
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You’ll
find fuller details of all the things I’ve done and what I have to
offer elsewhere on this site, but if you’d like to know more,
or have any questions, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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