When I launched my website I also published my first post, One Winter’s Evening, which detailed the day in December 2024 when I decided to write my first script and the weeks and months that followed.
Today, I have decided it’s high time I talk a bit more about that first script, because I love it, and I have a feeling others might love it too.
Looking for a movie…
A movie that didn’t exist yet. I scrolled through the dozens and dozens of holiday titles, most of which I’d already watched, hoping to find something new. I had a particular itch to scratch, there was something specific I wanted to see.
I just want to find a movie where the main character gets her dream job AND gets the love and community she didn’t know she needed.
I had started to feel a bit disillusioned with Christmas movies for the first time in history. I had seen too many fabulous, independent, smart women, on the verge of getting a long awaited promotion, giving it all up for the first man she sees in a check shirt or cable knit jumper.
I found myself sitting on my sofa yelling at the T.V. “Nooooo! You look so good in power suits, the Christmas Tree Farm life isn’t the one for you! Sure, he’s got good hair and a white, toothy grin but you are still the prize here!”
Thinking of a plot…
Instead of wallowing in my frustration I opened up Google Docs and started bullet pointing what this movie, the one I wanted to watch but couldn’t find, would be like. I have since learned that this is called outlining. Outlining is a process that lots of writers go through before they start writing the actual script. An outline is basically your structure, it’s an overview of all your main story beats that makes writing the script a bit easier for most people.
Not everyone outlines, and to be honest, I didn’t finish this Google Doc I started. As with most things that spark my interest and creativity I became impatient and excited with my idea and needed to see it in more than just bullet points.
I abandoned the outline, did an hour or so of research and then downloaded a piece of free screenwriting software called Fade In. Then, I started typing out the words that represented the images I could see playing in my mind.
I typed furiously for hours, eventually I had to sleep but the following day I continued. The next day, and the day after that, I did the same. I couldn’t stop. Each time I ended a scene I could see the next scene play inside my mind, exactly how it would look in a movie. Three weeks later I had written a full screenplay.
This is it, this is the movie that I want to watch!
My script was called Dreaming of Christmas from the start, from the first spark of the idea I knew that this story was going to be imbued with Christmas magic and that dreams were going to be the main catalyst for the events of the movie.
Crafting a character…
My protagonist, a career driven woman, who has put love and social connection to one side to focus on her corporate goals and ambitions. Does she sound familiar? She’s meant to. I want people to think they know exactly what’s going to happen with her, so they can be more surprised with what actually does happen.
I toyed with several name options, I even googled what the most common female protagonist names are in Christmas films. Unsurprisingly the most common names are somewhat Christmas themed; Holly, Ivy, Grace, Faith etc.
I didn’t want that for my main character, I couldn’t connect her to Christmas too obviously, too early. But I did need something in her name that would indicate her potential for being open to new things in the future.
I called her Rachel Hart, I felt her first name was generic enough to belong to just about anyone and her surname indicated unlimited possibilities for love and happiness to find their way to her.
Naming my characters really helped my process of forming each person’s unique personality and tone of voice in my mind. The other character names came to me much easier than Rachel’s, I knew immediately that the “friend” character should have a short, snappy name that brought to mind light and guidance. Tara, meaning star. I also knew that Rachel’s dream contact, who is energetic, spirited and a bit fiery at times needed a more spicy name. Ginger, felt perfect.
But what about Rachel’s potential love interest?
I admit that in the first draft of my script poor Charlie was a bit of an afterthought. I wanted him in there, because I was determined that Rachel would have everything at the end, but I didn’t care too much about him or his motives and goals. I knew he would be a balance to Rachel though, where she was serious and uptight, he should be relaxed and chill. I thought maybe a nickname would be good for him, or a diminutive of a given name, and that’s where Charlie got his name.
Recruiting for a role…
Did I mention my day job? I have worked in HR and Recruitment for a long, long time. It turns out, that Ginger, from my script, also works in HR and Recruitment, although her job sounds a lot more interesting than mine. Hers is based in the North Pole for one.
The North Pole are in desperate need of a highly organised, strategic thinker who can help them get Christmas Operations running efficiently and help them meet their targets.
Ginger is trying to recruit Rachel for this once in a lifetime position at the North Pole, the problem is Rachel doesn’t believe it’s real. She believes she’s having strange Christmas related dreams and hallucinations, all the way up until Charlie gets accidentally pulled into one of Rachel’s meetings with Ginger, and when she realises it’s real to him, she finally accepts it’s real for her too.
She falls in love with the magic and whimsy of the North Pole while at the same time realised that she has also fallen in love with Charlie without even noticing.
But no spoilers here!
Will Charlie return her feelings? Will she accept the job and move to the North Pole? Will Charlie be able to visit her there if she does? What does the future hold for Rachel?
Pitching for real…
As mentioned in One Winter’s Evening I pitched Dreaming of Christmas, via a pay to pitch online service. A lot of people in the industry advise that paying to pitch is not a good thing to do, and they may be right, however I’ve never seen anywhere that you can get feedback from professionals for free so I was willing to pay the very small fee to obtain some feedback on the premise of Dreaming of Christmas.
The pitch went really well, it was positively received and the person I pitched to actually requested the full script to read based on my pitch and once she read the script she requested to meet with me.
A very unexpected outcome, but a very welcome one. I have since had several creative and energising conversations with this contact. Including one where she gave me “notes” on the screenplay. Notes are feedback and suggestions for improvement given by professionals to help with plot, clarity, pacing and structure and the aim of notes is to help to elevate the work to a point where it would be appealing to potential buyers.
I was worried about receiving notes, unsure how I would take them but it turned out that I loved the whole process. It was so great to hear someone else’s vision and suggestions and I could see exactly how my script could be improved by them.
After implementing the notes and returning the amended script, Dreaming of Christmas is now ready for “shopping” and is open for buyers. My contact is confident in my scripts commercial appeal and thinks it may sell before the end of this year.
Imagine that! I only sat down to write my first script in December 2024 and now there is a possibility that by December 2025 I will have sold that script and officially be a professional writer!
I would love nothing more than to see the movie that I imagined be available for everyone on one of the popular streaming services one day.
And that is the story so far with Dreaming of Christmas. I will make sure to write about it again if anything exciting happens and I’ll also share more about some of my other writing in due course. Stay tuned!
Amy Writes 