Wanted: TV scriptwriters

Before actors are cast for a programme and begin to master their lines, before a trailer is run to entice the audience to get a little taste of what they will watch, a script must first be written.

Scriptwriters are the lot charged with putting words to ideas – whether their own or other people’s – making them uniquely fresh no matter how many times we have heard them before. They are responsible for making characters come alive from paper to the screen and ensuring that the characters will resonate with the audience.

Television scriptwriters are a little known breed in Kenya that rarely get the attention they deserve.

Actor and scriptwriter Abel Mutua started writing for television in 2009 while still starring in the high school drama Tahidi High. Since there was a crisis, a shortage of writers for the show, he talked to the producer Catherine Wamuyu to give him a shot at it.

Being his first time and still very green, he says his debut was horrible but it was nevertheless transmitted and needless to say there were lots of negative reactions. But he went back to the drawing board and gave it a few more tries. Wamuyu who is also a producer for the show Mother in Law, gave him another chance to write for the family drama series and six years later he is now a solo scriptwriter, and among the best if the TV shows he writes for Hapa Kule and Real Househelps of Kawangware are anything to go by.

“Naturally, most people are put down by fans’ negative comments and reactions but it was a learning experience for me. It made me even more determined to prove people wrong. But the one thing that Wamuyu told me that has always stuck is that ‘consistency will never fail you’,” says Mutua.

Hungry to learn more about scriptwriting, Mutua borrowed tips from Wamuyu who took him for a short one-week course, drilling into him the basics of becoming a skilled writer.

Kenyan television shows have grown not only in numbers and content, but the reality is that more needs to be done to reduce the reliance on foreign shows and create more room for local shows.

The urgency with which more writers are needed is perhaps exhibited in a recent online poll rating the top ten best Kenyan television shows.

Starting off at number one was Jeff Koinange Live, followed by XYZ, The Trend, The Real Househelps of Kawangware, Hapa Kule News, Bulls Eye, Churchill Raw, Don’t mess with Kansiime, Tujuane, and at number ten the Churchill Show.

The shows in this poll are comedy and news and current events driven, leaving The real Househelps of Kawangware and Don’t mess with Kansiime as the only scripted shows.

Biggest challenge

 But the biggest challenge facing scriptwriters is that everybody wants to act and no one really wants to write, argues Mutua. According to him, this is the reason the television show industry has not been able to pick up and why Nigerian and Tanzanian shows are beating us however good we are at the technical stuff.

There is need to fill the void of scriptwriters, but scripting for a television show no matter how easy it may sound, just like anything else, needs drive and talent.

“People need to understand that scripting comes from within. It’s not something that you can teach, it is inborn and passion driven. They want to do it for their own reasons and that’s why as soon as I take them through a rigorous training they drop out even before they are close to being done. It is not easy, it takes a lot of practice before you are comfortable handling a show,” says Mutua.

As a writer for shows that run weekly and rarely take breaks, Mutua has so far written over 500 episodes worth of shows from Mother-in-law to Tahidi High which he wrote continuously for six seasons without a break. This was in part why he left Citizen.

Script writers, tasked with the responsibility of handling a show and shaping the final outcome also run the risk of getting blamed when things don’t go well. But things have so far gone well for him which he admits scares him a little.

“I keep getting positive feedback for the and it honestly scares me when nobody criticises me. When everybody is telling you that you’re doing well, you never know what to improve on,” he says.

He further adds that his wish, is to get about three or four writers with drive and passion who will work with him and continue with the pace and standard he has so far set.

Regardless of how talented and amazing an actor is, be it Denzel Washington or Brenda Wairimu, a script needs to be top notch otherwise the whole production will be pathetic. Actors do bring a lot to the table but without a seamless script that grabs attention,  and makes the characters come alive, then a show is definitely setting itself up for failure from the get go.

Majority of broadcasters do not understand that scriptwriters are an important part of the work that goes into the creative element of a show. With that notion, they are poorly paid not keeping in mind that writing is a creative process that takes a lot of time and attention.

Mother-in-Law actor and scriptwriter Patrick Oketch reiterates that the biggest problem facing scriptwriters is that not many people are up for the tedious job. Everyone wants to act. So who will tell the stories?

Oketch, who plays Charlie in the drama series Mother-in-law, says what bothers him more is the lack of originality on Kenyan shows.

“We want to write superficial stories that we know nothing about like sub marines or state house. How can I write about state house and the farthest I’ve been is right outside the gate? Kenya is not that affluent state yet, the reality on the ground is that people are buying pirated movies and that means there is a niche that’s not being targeted,” he says.

Oketch adds: “People are missing the value in simplicity and that’s where the story is. That’s why a programme like Mother-in-law is still running. We want to tell funny stories that are not relatable, complicating peoples’ lives and then blaming Kenyans for not buying Kenya,” he says.