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BEHIND THE SCENES
Articles
Writing for (and about) women characters
AAn interview with writing team members Kathryn Burnett and Paula Boock.
"We've run towards the tricky stuff, rather than away from it"
Two of the four regular writers for The Strip are women. Both are published writers in their own right.
Both writers describe the experience of working on The Strip as a "license to have fun" because it allowed them to present serious adult themes in a humorous and interesting way.
"This show is unusual because it's heartfelt and yet totally irreverent and whimsical," says Kathryn Burnett. "The characters don't discuss weighty issues. It isn't politically correct. And it's not coy about sex. But it's sex largely from a female point of view."
"The Strip is also a series about a woman entering a man's domain," adds fellow writer Paula Boock. "So Kathryn and I both worked hard to give voice to the 'female experience' throughout the show."
As Melissa [played by Luanne Gordon] is the character most viewers will identify with, the pair said they had to have a very clear sense of exactly who she is and how she would react to a given situation.
"Mel is, in turns, smart, passionate and bold, but also a kind of innocent - having been married to one guy for most of her adult life. It's that mixture of chutzpah and vulnerability that I think makes her so engaging," says Paula.
"And the other important thing about Mel is that she's in a state of flux, opening herself up to change, and starting to take risks. That's quite a common thing for women in their thirties [as both myself and Kathryn are], so we've certainly been able to draw on some personal experiences."
Aside from Melissa, both Paula and Kathryn admit to having other 'favourite femmes' on the show.
Paula for instance, loved writing for Mel's 16-year-old daughter Paige [played by Renee Ellwood] which is hardly surprising given her renowned success writing teenage fiction. "I must admit I tend to look out for Paige when I'm writing an episode of The Strip," she confesses. "Often she hasn't started out central to a storyline, but as I write she pops up, because she nearly always makes things much more interesting!"
"Paige is also one of the triumvirate - with Kathryn and Leslie - who have the guts to confront Mel about any issue." Whereas, for Kathryn Burnett, capturing the dynamic in the friendship between Melissa and her best friend Kathryn [played by Jodie Rimmer] was an opportunity she particularly relished: "Female characters are often friends because the screenwriter tells us they're friends yet we never actually see any true evidence of it," she explains. "So it was very refreshing to write two female characters who truly behave like good friends."
Kathryn also says the two characters have what she calls a 'realistic' friendship. "It's not always smooth sailing between Mel and Kathryn, but they accept each other as they are and are vulnerable. They're not afraid to reveal their silly anxieties, or true nature to each other, or to appear foolish, which is lovely."
On reflection, both Paula and Kathryn admit that they found the experience of writing for The Strip harder than anything they'd previously tackled in their individual careers - because of the enormous amount of writing, and rewriting required (and tight deadlines) - but easier in other ways because of the collaborative nature between both themselves and the two male writers: Alan Brash and Chris Ellis [see separate story, Creating the Series].
"We've been able to bounce ideas around the group and help each other make the scripts tighter and funnier," says Paula. "We've also tried to keep it inventive and edgy and urban - which means most of the time we've run towards the tricky stuff rather than away from it."
Some of that 'inventiveness' occurs during the fantasy sequences in The Strip which pop up when viewers are least likely to expect them. "Having the freedom to write those was best of all," recalls Paula. "Because it's like being able to jump into a candy shop at any time, instead of sticking to 'meat and 2 veg' all day."
Paula Boock was a founding partner of Longacre Press and editor of their award-winning young adult fiction series. Now based in Wellington, she works as a freelance editor and writer, specialising in teenage fiction and television scriptwriting. Her own novels, including Out Walked Mel (AIM Best First Book Award), Sasscat to Win (Esther Glen Medal) and Dare Truth or Promise (NZ Post Children's Book of the Year), have enjoyed both popular and critical success. She is published in Australia, the UK and USA, and has held the Writer's Residency at the Dunedin College of Education and the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago.
Kathryn Burnett has worked as a freelance writer for television and print for eight years. Her television credits include Melody Rules, Issues, Pio!, Street Legal and Ice TV. She has created and/or developed a number of television series, several of which she still hopes will struggle to the screen. She has been a regular humour columnist for She & More and Grace magazines - winning a Qantas Media Award for Best Human Relations Columnist in 1997.
In 1999 she published her first book - "Has Johnny Come Lately?" - a humourous collection of non-fiction essays on sex and singledom. Kathryn is the Vice- President of the New Zealand Writers Guild and is currently writing her first novel.
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