Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge discusses writing process at packed-out Southbank Centre

Writer and actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge has revealed her writing tips and the “joy” of adapting another’s work in a rare public appearance on Sunday (8th December) at the Southbank Centre, marking the publication of Fleabag: The Scriptures (Sceptre).

Waller-Bridge’s book, comprising scripts of the two series of the hit BBC show, sparked a bidding frenzy among publishers this summer, with Sceptre finally clinching the rights in an eight-way auction. The book’s publication on 12th November was accompanied by much fanfare—including a Fleabag-themed café in Waterstones Piccadilly—but the event at London’s Southbank Centre was her only public appearance for the book. She appeared in conversation with Deborah Frances-White, host of “The Guilty Feminist” podcast, in front of a packed auditorium which included actress Sian Clifford, who played Fleabag’s sister Claire, and singer Jessie Ware.

Frances-White told the audience how the Fleabag character had first been glimpsed on stage as a short monologue at a storytelling festival which she developed, called Chancing her Arm. Waller-Bridge revealed that an inebriated audience member approached her after the show and encouraged her to take it further. “This absolutely hammered girl came up and said, ‘That's so fucking funny, you have to take it to Edinburgh…' Fran [my producer] said, ‘That is not a bad idea'. Fran sent it over to the Underbelly [venue at Edinburgh] and they gave me a 10-minute slot.” The stage show went on to have a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival, before being developed into a show for the BBC. The stage show was recently performed again by Waller-Bridge in London and also on New York’s Broadway, following the TV show's success.

Waller-Bridge read a section of the book, "Who is Fleabag?", about how she developed the character and the series, and how, at 27 years old, she had felt disillusioned with how women’s desirability was promoted in society above all else. “I felt like so much is part of a really subtle performance that we have really tried to perfect.” When asked about her inspiration for the character, she said: “I was really writing someone who I wanted to play. That was the main impetus.”

Asked for her writing advice, Waller-Bridge said: “The thing that changed my life was finding collaborators and friends who offered to read it over. That is the instant thing, because we are so vulnerable [in receiving feedback on work]… sometimes I just asked, ‘Are you bored or confused?’, because those are the two things you must never do to your audience.

“I would also say, write and write and write as much as you can, and then show someone. Then read it and see if you can make it better, and it show it to someone again. Don’t worry about knowing the whole story when you are writing something down. You may be writing down a blurb, or a feeling… it is about reading between the lines.”

On writing about feelings and experiences authentically, she said: “I think if you are always writing for where you want to be in that moment, or want to create that moment, not second-guessing the audience, it is tapping into what you are feeling. It will feel truthful and authentic.” Waller-Bridge also discussed the experience of working with her sister, and how the TV show's score featured a boy choir singing Greek; the back of the new book features the musical notations they followed.

As well as “Fleabag”, the writer also discussed how to collaborate on others' writing, citing her work on the first season of BBC America’s “Killing Eve”. On adapting Luke Jennings’ Codename Villanelle (John Murray) for the show, she described the differences between an adaptation of someone else’s work as opposed to screening one's own writing: “It was definitely exciting because it was an adaption. It was all on the page but Luke was very open to any ideas I had. For example, the Fiona Shaw character was originally a man. A lot of the time [when devising the character] I just wanted Fiona Shaw to do that, or say that. Luke saw 'Fleabag' [the play] when he was deciding who should adapt it. [Adapting the book] was a joy. It was very hard adapting something like that, because it had two points of view; 'Fleabag' was just one.”

Waller-Bridge emphasised how her involvement in the upcoming James Bond movie was only “a contribution”, but said she hoped audiences could guess which bits she had worked on. “It was a really mad job to get. I said to my producer, ‘That would be a cool job', and then only a month later [the Bond producers] called me… The characters were there. The story was there. There was a bunch of writers, I had a small contribution to it.”

On her current projects, the 34-year-old revealed she had caught the film bug after working on Bond. “I am writing a film. I feel quite calm because I have an idea. If I didn’t have an idea I would feel panicky. I went to bed on the last day of filming of ‘Fleabag’ and thought, 'I am never going to have another idea'. Then the next day I had an idea, and I am getting really excited and completely obsessed with it.” When asked about her longer-term career goals, she said that while she was focusing on the film, also aimed to write another play and generally “keep writing”.

Fleabag – The Scriptures has sold 10,876 copies since publication as a £20 hardback through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. As part of the publishing deal believed to be worth upwards £500,000, Sceptre's editorial director Emma Herdman bought British Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from the United Talent Agency and Independent Talent Group.