I’ve been exploring a new script that follows two teens on a short trip to London in the late 80s — a trip that ends up changing the trajectory of their lives in ways neither of them expects.
What’s been fascinating in the writing process is balancing the innocence of discovery with the cultural undercurrent of the era — especially the early rave scene, which was still underground, whispered about, and hard to find unless you knew where to look.
Right now, I’m deep in the section where the characters are on the edge of something they don’t have language for yet — that moment before a threshold, when excitement and fear blur together. It’s been a challenge to write those beats honestly without romanticizing or sensationalizing the era.
I’m curious how other writers here approach stories set during cultural shifts. How do you capture the emotional truth of a time period without turning it into nostalgia or exposition? And how do you write characters who are stepping into a world they don’t yet understand?
