Script Essentials 2026 Summary Notes - Session 4: How I Write & The Writing Life

Our wrap up notes for the fourth session in our 2026 Script Essentials Webinar series

Published: 19 June 2026

Our fourth Script Essentials session was hosted by Karen Featherstone with writers Nk'iru. Njoku and Benjamin Bee talking about their writing process, how they deal with deadlines and organise their days as neurodivergent writers.

What is your favourite show or genre and why? Does it match the kind of things you like to write?

Ben:

Ben鈥檚 favourite show is The Sopranos and his favourite genre is between watching what he describes as both terrible and amazing TV.
Ben is fascinated by people and how they interact and the human struggle - how we鈥檙e all incredibly complex and different and all have our own individual struggles. He uses storytelling to understand what's going on in the world around him.

狈办鈥檌谤耻.:

Nk鈥檌ru.鈥檚 favourite genre to write is comedy-drama and she has a broad taste in terms of viewing; thrillers, action and recently horror.
Having never watched much horror, Nk鈥檌ru recently watched From (Sky) and is looking to add to her horror list.

Why do you write?

Ben:

Ben says he overthinks everything and an element of that is being neurodivergent but most writers he talks to also overthink.
He says that storytelling is part of survival to make sense of the world and that the hope is that somebody else says this is how I feel too. He writes to feel connected to people.

狈办鈥檌谤耻.:

When Nk鈥檌ru. was growing up she enjoyed writing to play with life. She describes herself an introvert in her own world.
When writing she thinks about life: what is, what could be, what was, and how can we have fun? How can we poke holes in things and people. She鈥檚 inspired by people watching and her family for characters.

How did you start writing?

狈办鈥檌谤耻.:

When Nk鈥檌ru. was about 6 or 7 years old, she hadn鈥檛 visited England but wrote an entire book about her trip to London from her imagination, inspired by things she watched on TV and her parents鈥� anecdotes. She wrote fiction and poetry growing up and into adulthood.
Nk鈥檌ru. then became an actor as a lead female of a Nigerian television soap which she describes as 鈥榲ery accidental鈥� but it gave her an opportunity to connect and talk to people making TV which led to writing opportunities.

Ben, when did you find writing, was it instinctive for you?

Ben:

Writing wasn鈥檛 instinctive to Ben; he is dyslexic, his school reports described him as 鈥榖right, really naughty and he shouldn鈥檛 do anything to with English or writing鈥� and he was expelled from school at the age of 14.
When technology changed and Ben began to use a screen reader and he started to make short films with his friends.
He says it was still a struggle and didn鈥檛 write a longer form script until he was in his 30s.
It took Ben a long time to realise that the ability to spell or the ability to use English language correctly doesn't equate to being a writer.
He describes his journey to being a writer as horrible but it鈥檚 the only thing he enjoys doing.

Do you have writing routines, and how does being neurodivergent have an influence on that, for example, meeting deadlines?

狈办鈥檌谤耻.:

Nk鈥檌ru. doesn鈥檛 have a strict routine routine, but if something is working she doesn鈥檛 question it. For instance in the last few months, she has been unravelling dreadlocks that she recently cut off in between writing. She writes one scene and thinks about the next as she occupies herself unravelling the hair and then writes another.
She also uses the example of using chores to keep her busy whilst she thinks.

What did you think being a writer was going to be like compared to your experience of being a writer?

Ben:

Ben says he thought writing would involve more writing.
He spent a lot of time growing up looking for how the world works, and shortcuts for that, which he compares to the writing process.
He thought that writing was being clever with words and being smart and having a big vocabulary and being able to spell.
Ben also talked about elements of being a working writer that don鈥檛 feel inclusive as a neurodivergent writer e.g. going to parties to network and books which tell you to follow formulas.
He says he didn鈥檛 realise that the value of being a writer is your voice, how you feel about the world and understanding that those have value and might resonate with other people.
He thought that being a writer was a solitary thing but as writer you work with other brilliant people to make sure your work resonates with the biggest audience as possible.

Do production companies, commissioners or people who might hire you, have different expectations of you as a disabled writer e.g. do they expect you to be a different sort of writer or write about different topics?

Ben:

Ben says there鈥檚 an expectation to tell stories about being disabled.
He also talks about a view that neurodivergent people have communication differences but says that neurodivergent people can communicate really well with other neurodivergent people. Comparing it to an English person accepting that a French person speaks French.
He says there can be a worry about offending people and a cautiousness of problematic disabled or neurodivergent characters, which means that you don鈥檛 get the most brilliant stories possible.

狈办鈥檌谤耻.:

Nk鈥檌ru. says that she doesn鈥檛 think people know she鈥檚 neurodivergent unless she tells them. However, she does find that people want her to talk about her black experience or her immigrant experience.
In terms of being a neurodivergent writer she says that often the tips given about how to succeed as a neurodivergent writer usually feel like tips on how to be neurotypical.
Nk鈥檌ru. says that being neurodivergent means that she asks questions no one else is asking when working on something.

What sort of stories are missing or underrepresented at the moment?

狈办鈥檌谤耻.:

Nk鈥檌ru. says she writes want she wants to see, as a mother of a disabled child she wants to tell stories of her experiences and what other people are experiencing that are funny, thought provoking and intriguing.
Nk鈥檌ru. recently wrote an episode of Eastenders with the storyline of Lauren and her son Jimmy who was born visually impaired.

Ben:

Ben says there鈥檚 an untapped market of disabled and neurodivergent stories.
He says that everybody feels like an outsider and disabled and neurodivergent stories are about people who feel like outsiders.
He talks about how many people are touched by disability. These stories resonate with a big untapped audience.