screenwriting
The page is where it begins.
Original screenplays in horror, thriller, and dark fiction.
Screenwriting is the foundation of everything at Dark Wander. We develop original feature screenplays and short film scripts rooted in landscape, isolation, and dread - stories that take you somewhere dark.
Ideas
Where I find inspiration.
Ideas arrive from everywhere and nowhere in particular. A book, a film, a long ride on the bike, occasionally something deeply stupid on reality TV. What they have in common is usually an image or a question that won't sit still.
Place is central to almost everything. Houses keep appearing — the idea that they have souls, whether borrowed from the people who lived in them or something older and entirely their own. Wild places too, and the self that emerges when everything familiar falls away.
The themes that recur are personal. The burden of responsibility that accumulates quietly around women, and the choices that shouldn't require justification but still do. The horrors that don't need the supernatural to be frightening. Gothic atmosphere and folk myth often provide the frame, but the engine is usually something closer to home.
approach
How I write.
An idea incubates for a long time before anything gets written down. Structure comes first — I can't begin a first draft without knowing where the story is going. It's worth taking the time: the planning phase is where the real work happens, and a well-planned first draft reads more like a third.
Once it's clean enough, a small handful of trusted writers and filmmakers read it. They usually find the same thing — that in trying to avoid over-explaining, I've under-explained, and a few places need filling in. Things get cut too.
The script isn't finished until I've done a read-through with the actors. That's where clunky wording shows up and flow problems become obvious that no amount of quiet re-reading will catch. Directing feels like a continuation of the writing — seeing what the words actually do when people inhabit them.
writing in
Horror
Folk, psychological, supernatural
Thriller
Slow-burn, psychological, noir
Sci-fi
Dark, grounded, speculative
Drama
Dark literary, genre-adjacent
Scripts
Current and Recent work.
· FOLK HORROR
IN DEVELOPMENT
Skin
Returning to her childhood home in Scotland after her mother's death, a young woman begins to remember a brother she shouldn't be able to remember — and the family secret that was drowned with him.
Feature script · Outline stage
· HORROR / DRAMA
FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
Lone
A man wishes he never escaped the city for the weekend when he encounters a beast in the dark. Will he get away, or will he embrace the wild?
11 pp · Shooting script
· HORROR / THRILLER
IN POST
Mayday
A lifeboat crew member wakes to find her hearing gone and the boat empty except for one crazed stranger. Can she piece it together before the sea claims her too?
8 pp · Shooting script
Script Editing
I also edit other writer's work.
Script editing is a separate service offered through Dark Wander. Emma-Jane works with feature and short film writers at all stages — from early development through to polish drafts.
Available for one-to-one notes sessions, full script reports, and ongoing development partnerships. Specialising in horror, thriller, and dark genre scripts.
services offered
Full script report
Structure, character, dialogue, tone — detailed written notes on the full script.
Notes session
A one-hour conversation to talk through your script and where it wants to go.
Development partnership
Ongoing support across multiple drafts from first outline to final polish.
Want to talk about a project?
Whether you're looking to finance a script, collaborate on development, or commission something new — get in touch.