Sensitivity Readers Assemble

Sensitivity Readers Assemble: How to Write More Authentic Characters

Watch the Q&A Lucy and Professor Sunny Singh ahead of the course...

Culture is ever-shifting and the savvy writer is moving with the times. The really smart ones are facilitating story evolution.

Who would have predicted that a mini-series about teenage life would hit so hard and reflect culture so profoundly?

Adolescence wasn’t just about broken homes. It tackled radicalisation, race, gender, and the brutal realities of growing up — without offering easy answers.

It asks how boys like Jamie are created, and why others facing similar struggles don’t follow the same path. The racial dynamics were subtle yet powerful, highlighting how incel culture remains largely a white male issue. It also didn’t shy away from the crisis in education or the uncomfortable truth that victims get forgotten — because that’s exactly the problem.

This show proves how vital authenticity is in the 2020s. Writers need to take risks and BE REAL — the world is complicated, and audiences are hungry for stories that reflect that truth. But if writers are taking risks, script readers and editors need to understand what they’re reading too — which is exactly where this course comes in.

OK. So we may prickle at the phrase, ‘sensitivity reader’

…and perhaps there is a better phrase for it.

However, audiences are evolving and we need to stay ahead of that curve.

Have you ever read a book, or watched a TV show or movie and felt uncomfortable with the way a certain group of people were depicted? Or maybe you couldn’t quite put your finger on it, but something about the writing just didn’t feel right. You may well have been inside that group, or know some who is.

This is where sensitivity reading comes in!

Far from being ‘censorship’ or ‘wokism gone mad’, sensitivity reading is really just about AUTHENTICITY CHECKING.

Writers ask experts like police officers, lawyers, doctors, teachers for their feedback to make their stories more authentic all the time.

In the same way, sensitivity readers have real, lived experience of being a member of a community or culture that can help writers make their characters more nuanced and layered.

And make no mistake, audiences are demanding diverse and authentic story telling. And so studios, execs and producers are seeking projects with true voices that authentically interweave these diverse characters and voices into ALL stories being produced.

In this new course from Bang2write and LondonSWF, B2W’s Lucy V will put sensitivity reading under the microscope in this intensive, one day Zoom workshop (with one year replay).

During the course, you will learn:

• How ‘authenticity’ has become the watch-word for the industry and how use that to elevate your work

• Why authenticity is in demand from agents, producers & publishers

• How to access deeper emotional truth in your writing, making it more resonant and fresh

• How copying stories from the past is a BIG mistake in the 2020s

• How to more effectively research and do ‘due diligence’ to make your script feel like it was written for audiences of today

• How to become a sensitivity reader yourself and earn £££$$$ helping other writers get optioned

• Why you DON’T need to be scared of writing characters UNlike yourself and WHY this is a doorway to success

• How to write characters, stories and visualise situations that audiences want in 2023 and beyond

Rather than seeing restriction, seeking authenticity will deepen the emotional impact of your work.

It will leave the reader with a sense that you have your finger on the cultural pulse of today. And you work will inherently become more powerful and ‘fresh’.

It’s all upside.

Sensitivity reading is now a mainstream process and tool that savvy writers are leveraging, in order to create more meaningful and resonant stories. You should too.

Join us and take direct and specific steps to make your work feel fresh, contemporary, producible and deepen the emotional authenticity in your characters journey.

Lucy V. Hay is a script editor, author and blogger who helps writers. She’s been the script editor and advisor on numerous UK features and shorts & has also been a script reader for over 15 years, providing coverage for indie prodcos, investors, screen agencies, producers, directors and individual writers. She’s also an author, publishing as LV Hay and Lizzie Fry; Lizzie’s latest, THE COVEN, is out now with Sphere Books and LV’s debut crime novel THE OTHER TWIN is being adapted by the Emmy-nominated Free@Last TV. Lucy’s site at www.bang2write.com has appeared in Top 100 round ups for Writer’s Digest & The Write Life, as well as been a UK Blog Awards Finalist and Feedspot’s #1 Screenwriting blog in the UK (tenth in the world!).