​PETER de NORVILLE
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Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
I live in a small village called Bolney in West Sussex, it is about eight miles north of the city of Brighton on the south coast of England.
 
Your script stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your story and why did you write a script instead of a short story or a novel?
I wrote Ruler of Men as I wanted to show how women were airbrushed out of a history that was written by men, how misogynistic ideas from over 2,000 years ago shaped modern thinking, how same sex relationships were the norm in the pre-Christian world, and that people with disabilities have always been discriminated against. I also wanted to show how our views on the birth of democracy are wrong and that ancient Persia was a progressive forward-thinking place where slavery was outlawed and there were equal rights for men and women, which is the complete opposite of the world we live in today.
 
The reason I wrote a script instead of a novel is that I firmly believe that the story will be so much more powerful when told on the screen, it could work as a graphic novel though.
 
How long did it take you to write your script...and what is your writing process? Do you outline...use index cards...white board...or just start with FADE IN?
Once I have a concept clear in my mind, I try to be process driven, but I am a very visual person and I have an annoying habit of coming up with interesting scenes, then I try to force them into the script before it is ready for them.
On this project I started by writing a one pager of the overall project, as I wanted to make sure I could define wanted I wanted to achieve. I then broke the entire narrative arc down into seasons and wrote a season one overview, plus a sentence or two that outlines the main story arcs for each of the remaining seasons. I use WriterDuet and I start with the scene headings and the bullet points of what I want to include, then I use the cards function to move them around in a way that makes the most sense for the episode. By this time, I usually have around 40 pages of scene notes and the story has begun to write itself in my head. I then give in to my desire to get my favorite scenes down on the page, before starting at the beginning and writing each of the remaining scenes in order.
 
I write ten pages every day for five days a week, even if the writing isn’t very good, I know that some of the ideas might be. Then I take the dog for a walk and let those ten pages float around in my head, they usually start to make sense after a while and by the time I get back to my desk, I know exactly what I want to write, or rewrite. I also restrict myself to editing no more than three previously written scenes a day, otherwise I would spend my entire time fiddling and making minor changes that nobody but me cares about.
 
The timeline for the whole project was about three months of writing and editing, but that only happened after a whole life of gathering all the different ideas that came together to give me the inspiration.
 
What is your ultimate ambition as a writer?
My ultimate ambition is to educate the world on diversity without them realizing it, through the power of great storytelling. In the meantime, I want to write Ruler of Men full time, as there are 60 episodes in my head that need to come out. I spent many years as the Global Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for big business, so I am also happy to rewrite and edit scripts for producers who want to make sure the diversity of their characters are depicted accurately, and avoid any accusations of tokenism or virtue signaling.
 
Which film or television writers inspire you? Why?
Without a shadow of a doubt, it is Aaron Sorkin writing for the West Wing. He would let the actors interpret his script in any way they wanted, but in return they had to deliver the lines exactly as he had written them, it was all about the rhythm of the lines in much the same way as you would read poetry. Let the actor act and let the writer write, as long as both parties remain open to recommendations from the other. Respect the craft, create collaboratively, but let the expert make the final decision, genius.
 
What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show?
This to me is the unanswerable question. At various times I have been obsessed with so many shows, The Walking Dead, Generation Kill, The West Wing, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, Battlestar Galactica, The Wire, plus hundreds of others. When I am obsessed with a TV show, I can’t watch anything else until I am finished. I am a serial monogamist when it comes to shows, always faithful to just the one but happy to move on when our time together comes to an end. As to why, it is because I can imagine myself there, there is something about the characters, or the world they inhabit, that just makes me feel as if I am part of it, at that point it becomes something more than just entertainment for me.
Answering the question in a different way, my favorite experience in cinema history was watching The Matrix with a great friend of mine. I knew it was good but had no idea what it was about, as I had been avoiding reviews and other friends who wanted to tell me about it. We sat down, watched it, had our minds blown, and left. We didn’t say a word to each other afterwards, we just walked over to the ticket booth, bought two more tickets for the next showing and went back in to get our heads around what we had just seen. When it was over, we left, and I don’t think either one of us said a word until the third beer.
 
What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have?
When you think you have finished, read the full script out loud to yourself. I do this every time, because I want to put myself in the position of the actors who will have to bring my dialogue to life. After that I make any final edits and then keep rereading it to myself until I have been all the way through without making any further changes. Then I send the script off into the world and mentally prepare myself for all the rewrites I will have to make.
I tend to agree with most of the changes that are recommended, as I will have been too blinkered by my own approach to see what was obvious to somebody else. I am also happy to say when I disagree with the feedback, and more importantly why I disagree, it is explaining why that makes sure my input is based on what I think is best for the script, not what is best for my ego. Just in case I forget this, I have a note above my desk which says, “Feedback isn’t personal, it’s necessary”. One last thing that works for me, before I sit down to write I listen to the song I think should be the theme tune that plays over the opening titles, I let it pick me up and take me with it, only then do I begin to write.
 
What else are you working on that the world needs to know about?
Episodes 2 episode 60 of Ruler of Men. However, I keep getting distracted by the idea of a children’s book about my dog and his friends in the village where I live. In my head it will read like a 1950’s English children’s adventure and be illustrated in a style a little like Winnie the Pooh. Every time I tell people the story, they forget about Ruler of Men and want me to write this first.

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