Owen Nicholls Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Owen Nicholls is a scriptwriter and author of literary fiction. His first script, a documentary of Pressburger and Powell is under option by the Academy Award and BAFTA award-winning Bedlam Productions that also produced “The King’s Speech.” His work has been featured in NME and Empire and another of his works titled “Reel Love” made the National Writers’ Centre Escalator Scheme. In 2019, he published his first novel “Love Unscripted.” When he is not writing his fiction, he loves to watch the latest indie movies, go to the cinema, read to his children, and get lost in an interesting album or interesting TV show.

As far back as he can remember, he has always wanted to write. Lucky for him, he had teachers for parents and hence had all manner of books to read whenever he pleased. However, reading was something he did for fun as a child, until he was about fifteen when he started thinking that maybe he could make a career out of writing. It was while he was reading EMPIRE magazine that his thinking crystallized. The “how-to” article on screenwriting explained how people wrote the movies that he loved so much. From that point on he was hooked and wanted to tell stories no matter the medium. However, he would get into screenwriting even as he wrote a ton of manuscripts for a novel he never finished. “Love Unscripted” was the only time he persevered until he was finally successful when it was published in 2019. Unlike some authors, Owen Nicholls was influenced by a variety of media in his later writing career. As for books, he cites the influence of One Day, Dept. Of Speculation, The Little Prince, High Fidelity and anything by Laura Lippman. For film and TV include The Simpsons, A Matter of Life and Death, Pure, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Wire, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fleabag, WALL-E, Spaced, and The Big Lebowski.

The idea for Nicholls’ first work “Love Unscripted” was something he had in his mind for years. He had always wanted to write a romantic comedy and in his head, the novel had to be set over an eventful and long night. He Knew that selling an original screenplay by a writer that had never got any work produced in the genre would be tough. However, a friend said that he would have a chance if he wrote his story as a novel. He loved the idea and, in a few months, he had the manuscript ready and accepted by Headline who published it in 2019.

Owen Nicholls’ “Love, Unscripted” follows Nick Marcet as it ponders if love in real life could ever parallel that found in the movies. Marcet is a film projectionist that has had something happen to him that could change his life forever. On the eve of the McCain/Obama election in 2008, he had gone to a house party and met a girl named Ellie. They had hit it off as the evening was full of romantic spark, awkwardness, and banter common in the romantic comedies. It was a blissful relationship with no fights or huge disagreements for four years but now Nick is too complacent while Ellie is growing restless since she is approaching thirty. By the time 2012 rolls around, Ellie calls it quits and moves out leaving Nick devastated with everything in his life seemingly falling apart and he cannot figure out where it all went wrong. The story switches seamlessly between 2008 and 2012 as it chronicles the beginning and end of a romance like a movie. In the beginning, Ellie and Nick are vibrant and young twenty-somethings with desires and dreams. As is often the case, Nick is all pleasant, worried about saying the wrong thing and eager to impress the girl of his dreams. Meanwhile, Ellie is cool as she is dealing with some pain and Nick is there to make it more bearable. Things get worse towards the end as they are not happy yet they cannot find a way to mend their relationship with neither of them willing to make a sacrifice. Nicholls captures the messy yet wonderful kaleidoscope of love right from the fireworks of new love to the heartbreak when everything starts to fall apart. They are not a couple that has stopped loving each other but rather one that is out of sync as they want different things at that point in their lives. Nick is still clinging to his youth while Ellie is a grownup who now desires commitment. Nick is gradually realizing that a choreographed movie love is almost impossible.