360 Script Writing Festival 2011

Just a quick note! For those who don't know about it, there are still places on this year's 360 Script Writing Festival, which is currently taking place at the BBC in Belfast. We've already had the first day, so hard luck if you missed out on that, I'm afraid. But still plenty going on. Details below...

360º Script Writing Festival 2011

360º is an annual festival of inspiring and professional workshops offering craft skills and industry knowledge across the different mediums: TV, Screen, Radio and Theatre. The festival is one of the best opportunities through the year to meet likeminded and industry people in Belfast.
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WHO IS IT FOR?
Workshops and talks for people interested in making a living from script writing in TV, Radio, Film or Theatre.
WHEN?
Wednesday 26th until Friday 28th of January 2011
Workshops will take place during the day with a social event on Friday evening between 6-8pm
WHERE?
Studio One, Broadcasting House, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast.

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PROGRAMME:

Wednesday 26th January RADIO DAY

1.30 – 4.30pm

Studio One:
MASTERCLASS and WORKSHOP:
Kate Rowland, the Creative Director, New Writing, Commissioner of the Wire on R3 and previous Head of Radio Drama will give a masterclass in Radio Drama. Listen to exerts of a diverse variety of plays ranging from 'as live' to monologue and get started on writing your own radio play.
25 Places – if your play is chosen you need to be available Thursday and Friday to redraft, rehearse and record your play

Breakout Room:
EXPERIENCE: HITCHED
An opportunity to hear Dough Lucie’s radio play which satirise our obsession with weddings and happy-ever-afters. Emma and Richard’s wedding day arrives – will it go without the proverbial ‘hitch’?
10 places

5 – 7pm
Studio One:
TALK:
Doug Lucie is an acclaimed dramatist and playwright who has written successfully for stage, TV and radio. With a razor-sharp observation and ready wit Doug’s voice is one which chronicles and exposes the hypocrisies and obsessions of our time with passion and humour. He will be sharing his experience writing for radio and telling you how he thinks it shouldn’t be done. To help your own writing he is going to give you an insight into how he constructs a scene. All food for thought for the scripts you are working on whatever the medium.
100 Places

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Thursday 27th January THEATRE DAY

Breakout Room:
10am: the 360 radio drama writers need to hand in a hardcopy of their script.

11 – 1pm
Studio One:
TALK:
What happens now you’ve finished that play? How do you target your work towards production? How do you find support in developing it? How can you manage your career? Sarah Dickenson, Senior Reader at Soho Theatre, will talk about the work and vision of Soho Theatre and Writers’ Centre, the Verity Bargate Award, Soho’s national competition for the best new play by an emerging writer, and more widely on approaches to professional development for playwrights within the UK theatre landscape.
100 Places

2 – 4pm
Studio One:
WORKSHOP:
An in-depth and practical look at writing characters for the stage. We will look at how far you can take your characters and the theatrical space they inhabit. We will look at different approaches, angles and tricks of the trade. A workshop with Soho and Tinderbox theatre.
30 places

Breakout Room:
EXPERIENCE: EVERYTHING BETWEEN US
An opportunity to see David Ireland’s hit play from 2010 on DVD with a Q&A session with Tinderbox Artistic Director Michael Duke
10 places

5 – 6.30pm
Studio One:
OPEN NOTE:
The announcement of the 4 radio scripts which will be recorded with actors on Friday with a masterclass style note session for the 4 writers preparing them for the writing their 2nd draft.
30 places

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Friday 28th January TV DRAMA

10.30am – 12.30pm
Studio One:
TALK: What Is A Drama Series?
With John Yorke Controller, BBC Drama Production. John oversees the long-runners, as well as executive producing single dramas. As Head of New Talent John also created and runs the BBC Writers Academy the first full-time training course for new writers in the UK that guarantees primetime television commissions.
100 places

Breakout Room:
Rehearsal and recording of the 360 radio plays with professional actors will take place during the day. If you are one of the lucky people who have been selected to record your radio plays look out for information on your recording slot sometime between 10 am and 5pm.

2 – 4pm
Studio One:
WORKSHOP:
Create a series together. Run by John Yorke this is a practical workshop that will give you a chance to practice pulling together the essential elements of a drama series.
30 places

6 – 8pm
Studio One:
360 RADIO PLAYS:
Premiere & upcoming opportunities in Radio, TV & Theatre.We will hear the four newly recorded short radio pieces with drinks and nibbles. This will also be a chance to Network with industry people.

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HOW TO BOOK:
The workshops are free. There is a limited number of places so please book early by contacting Bronagh Taylor on Bronagh.Taylor@bbc.co.uk or call on 02890 338 845.

Please state clearly which workshops you are interested in. When a workshop or talk is full we will keep a waiting list.

The festival is organised by BBC Drama Northern Ireland and Tinderbox Theatre Company. Don’t forget that the deadline for Primetime is 14th February. GET WRITING!!

AMAZING new opportunity...

I don't know what it is at the moment, but here is ANOTHER opportunity that's come through today. And this time it's a bit of a corker. Well, if you're from Norn Iron that is. Sorry, everyone else...

Basically, it's an initiative between Northern Ireland Screen and BBC NI which offers the opportunity for two (previously unproduced) writers to have their 60 minute scripts produced in a 9pm slot on BBC 2 next year.

Send in a 60 minute script, synopsis and CV.

Deadline Feb 14 2011.

4 finalists will be announced in April and those scripts/writers will go through a development process with NI Screen and BBC NI.

In July 2 of the scripts will then be chosen and produced with a budget of 150,000. And broadcast on BBC2 at 9pm.

Wow! Best. Opp. Ever.

More info here from the NI Screen site (and copied below) and here from the Writersroom site. Both those sites also have links to other info, application forms, etc.

Details...

ATTENTION ALL SCREENWRITERS!!

An exciting new initiative for Northern Ireland resident screenwriters is being launched today, Monday 8th November, by Northern Ireland Screen and BBC Northern Ireland.

Primetime will give local screenwriters the opportunity to have a one hour authored drama produced and broadcast in the 9pm primetime slot on BBC One NI.

How does it work?

Screenwriters submit a completed first draft script for a TV drama (approx 60 pages).

Four writers will be selected for a five month development scheme with Northern Ireland Screen and BBC NI.

Two successful scripts will then be selected for production, with a budget of £150K per project. These scripts will be produced by a Northern Ireland based production company and will be broadcast on BBC NI in 2012.

Before you apply

To help you get your script ready for submission, three workshops on writing for Primetime (and TV drama generally) will take place on the following dates:

Tuesday 23rd November 2010

Time: 6pm- 9pm

Place: BBC Blackstaff House, 62-66 Great Victoria Street, Belfast BT2 7BB

Speaker: Tim Loane, BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee, (Teachers, Dance Lexi Dance, Minder) will speak from his experience of writing for TV, with a focus on moving from idea to treatment, to script and the importance of premise.

This first seminar will also include an information session about Primetime.

Thursday 9th December 2010

Time: 6pm- 10pm

Place: BBC Broadcasting House, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, BT2 8HQ

Speaker: Rob Ritchie (Script Factory) will discuss writing the 1st and 2nd Act: the importance of the set up and that difficult middle act.

Thursday 13th January 2011

Time: 6pm- 10pm

Place: BBC Broadcasting House, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, BT2 8HQ

Speaker: Rob Ritchie (Script Factory) will discuss writing the 3rd Act: the

importance of the climax and a resolution with meaning.

To register for each event contact: Bronagh Taylor, bronagh.taylor@bbc.co.uk

Places are limited – register early to avoid disappointment.

What are we looking for?

• A completed first draft script for an hour long drama (approx 60 pages); synopsis and a covering letter letting us know about any writing experience you have had to date.
• 4 new writers (who have not had an authored piece broadcast on TV in the English language)

and most importantly:

• Storytellers with original and imaginative scripts, depicting modern Northern Ireland
• Character-centred stories with a strong local voice.

What are we NOT looking for?

• Period pieces
• High action/special effects
• Previously produced work.

Who can apply?

The scheme is only open to Northern Ireland resident writers who have not had an original piece broadcast on TV in the English language.

Applications close at 5pm on Monday 14th February 2011.

Full criteria is available to download here:

How do you apply?

The call for entries opens today, Monday 8th November 2010.

Submit a completed first draft script for an hour long TV drama, 1 page synopsis and a covering letter outlining your writing experience, and a completed Monitoring Form (in a separate sealed envelope) by hard copy to Ursula Devine (details below)

Please ensure your name, address, email address and phone number are on you cover letter and title page for your script.

Deadline for entries: 5pm, Monday 14th February 2011.

The 4 finalists will be announced by April 1st 2011

360° Festival 2010, Report 1: BBC Writersroom Paul Ashton - "The Perfect 10"

Right, so apparently everyone's gone off to Leeds to hob-nob with the great and the good, leaving the rest of us here to... to....

well, gnash our teeth in jealously.

But! Not to be outdone! I thought it might be a good time to post the reports from the BBC NI/Tinderbox Theatre Company 360° Writing Festival held this year (and, by the way, isn't that just the snappiest blog title you've just about ever read up there? Go on, have another look... Back? Classy stuff, eh?) They've already appeared elsewhere, but if you haven't seen them, or you're slogging away on the first 10 pages for your entry to this year's Red Planet Prize (you are entering, aren't you?), these pearls of wisdom from Mr Ashton might just be what you've been waiting for...

For those of you who didn't see the reports from last time (have a look down the sidebar of the blog and you'll find the links), it's four fun-packed days of talks, workshops and mingling with other writers on Film, Theatre, TV and Radio. And lots of BBC tea. And biscuits. Lots of biscuits.

So, without further ado (I’ve never written “ado” before. Is that how it’s spelt? Call myself a writer…) here’s the report from Day 1.

Paul Ashton – BBC Writersroom: The Perfect 10

Paul is the Development Producer at the Writersroom and a very nice bloke he is too. He started off by giving us an overview of their work, and revealing a recent success story for the writersroom.

Jo Ho had never been commissioned as a writer before sending in a script to the Writersroom. That script was read and she was discussed at a regular meeting the Writersroom has with drama department heads, etc . Even though they didn't commission the script, they liked the characters she had created. So Jo was called in, met some producers from CBBC and was commissioned to write a new series, “Spirit Warriors”, which is one of the most expensive series CBBC have ever produced.

So it does happen!! Paul did point out though that this is quite unusual...

There is an interview with Jo on the Writersroom, here.

Paul then went on to “The Perfect 10”. Even though this was based on the same talk Kate Rowland gave last year, Paul came at it slightly differently, and there was loads of great stuff in what he was saying.

A few opening facts/advice....

• 15% of what gets sent to the Writersroom gets past the 10 page sift.
• The first 10 pages have to grab the audience. Theatre and television have the luxury of a captive audience. Television and radio don’t, so get them hooked quickly! The first 10 pages have to do a lot! Even if it is a multi-character, multi-strand story. Even if it is a “slow-burner” story, it HAS to grab us immediately.
• DON’T send your script to them in a decorated box, with a hose inside and a poem on the lid. He then showed us a pic of someone who had done just that… And no, the script wasn’t very good.
• Very often the best letters they get with scripts are very simple. “Hello. This is me. Here’s my script. Hope you like it.” Let the script speak for you.

And on to the Perfect 10…

1. MEDIUM AND FORMAT

Choose the right medium/form and then challenge and subvert it. By form, Paul was talking about the form of television writing and the rules that go with that. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel. KNOW the wheel and then you can worry about trying to improve on it, but you can’t do it the other way round. There is a reason that tv writing works in a certain way and has certain rules – because it works. TV writing doesn’t come naturally to anyone. You have to master the form. To give a simple example, the more white on the page the better. Not to do so doesn’t mean that you are being clever, it means you have not mastered the form.

Say what you mean and mean what you say. Quite often they find with scripts that people think they know what they are saying, or that they are saying something, when in fact they’re not. Your theme needs to be stated early on, and stated clearly, and then followed through. It’s no use sending a script through saying “this is about loss” if that isn’t stated and followed through.

You have to write things that actors can do/show and you have to show in the script not tell. And by the way, there is a n actor on the Writersroom reading team.

In relation to putting camera angles, etc in your script (which has come up often on this site!), Paul said something which I thought was quite interesting. As a writer your job is to be in control of the character, story, plot and dialogue (and everything else that conveying the story might mean), so you don’t need to be in control of camera angles too! Don’t direct the camera. Mmmm… That’s gonna ruffle feathers…

2. GET THE STORY GOING

Hamlet. Act 1. Scene 1. A ghost turns up. Something’s wrong…! Shakespeare gets straight in there. There is no time to warm up. Hook the attention and hit the ground running. This does NOT necessarily mean an action sequence, but it does mean that the story should have already started when we come in. If the writer is using the beginning to work out the story and where it is going, fine, but that is a first draft. Don’t include it in the script you send in. Your story should have:-

• Momentum, purpose and direction
• Show characters in action
• Scenes should be the middle of a moment or near the end, not before the moment
• Don’t preface, set up, introduce – show, show, show!
• Beware of exposition and backstory

3. COHERENCE

• · Know your world and story.
• · Don’t try to do too much.
• · Know your genre and tone.
• · Give us a focused way in.

It works for Paul if he reads a script and he DOESN’T take notes, because he’s caught up in the script and in the world of the story.

A lot of writers want to be ambiguous. Be careful of this! It often means the writer doesn’t know what they want to say. Having said that, complex is brilliant! But ambiguous is tricky. To do either needs clarity in the writing.

Genre is not a bad word. It guides you and the audience. This comes back to that idea of some writers wanting to re-invent the wheel. Take something like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” It is incredibly complex, but it is still, at the end of the day, a rom-com. So, you don’t need to be slavish to the genre, but you do need to use it, know it, and know how to use it.

Have a focused way into the script. This comes back to the first 10 pages. Take Shameless. It’s the story of a whole family of complex, mad characters in a very particular world, all of which needs to be set up. The usual way of doing that would be to open episode 1 with them all around the breakfast table. We meet them all. They all get to show who they are and where the live. What does Paul Abbot do? He takes the daughter (the driving character in series one) and opens with her in a disco far from the estate. She meets a guy and they have a bit of a run around over a stolen handbag, his gallant effort to get it back, etc. Their relationship will drive the opening episodes in many ways so this is what he opens with. Then they go back to the house, trip over a drunk dad and wake up the next day to… that breakfast scene with everyone. Seen through the eyes of an outsider – the boyfriend (for us the audience). So, he still sets up everyone, but it’s focused.

4. CHARACTER

This is the one thing you CAN’T get wrong, in the sense that, if you get this right, people (meaning the Writersroom and all those prodcos out there) will forgive you a lot. In fact, Paul said that it is really distressing to see a script that is perfect in every other way, in form and content, and yet you feel nothing for the characters. If you are going to get anything right and everything else wrong, get the characters right!

Definition and Definitions: Character comes from Greek and means a stick which makes a mark, an indelible mark you can’t rub out. What is it that is DISTINCT about your characters? There have been hundreds of characters on EastEnders over the years. How many do you remember? Those are the ones you need to create. And its HARD!

Vivid and Compelling on an Emotional Level: If you don’t make the audience FEEL something for the character, you’re in trouble. The audience has to want to spend time with them.

Desire/Need/Problem/Obstacle/Journey: If your characters don’t REALLY need anything or have a journey then you are in trouble. We want to watch people trying to get something, and trying hard, and having lots of problems getting there, or not getting there.

Individual, not cliché, distinctive: What makes your characters not like characters we have already seen. Your characters individuality is shown by action, by what they do. In Robert McKee’s ‘Story’ he gives the example of a group of characters at a bus stop when suddenly there is an explosion. What each person does after that – runs away, helps, leaves their friend to help someone else – REVEALS character.

See the world from their point of view: Everyone sees things ever so slightly differently. How does your character see things differently?

5. EMOTION

Stories matter on a human level: Why tell your story? And why does it MATTER? Your story should not be a distraction, it should be ESSENTIAL.

Explore concepts via characters: It’s easy to get lost in concepts, but they have to be coherent. Always pull yourself back to the character.

Empathy/connection/vulnerability/fear: You have to feel something for the characters. How will the audience connect with them?

Emotion = the universal element: They Full Monty was a story which was VERY particular to a time and place in recent history and yet the emotion of a disenfranchised man who has lost his job is told well, so it works.

Physical Effect: A good script should have a physical effect on the reader. It should make you laugh, cry, sweat, have palpitations, and hopefully all of them. What is the physical effect that you are hoping each of your scenes will have on your reader? Every scene. That’s a good test of the worth of a scene! Make sure you have this in your plans for each scene. If the effect is “That’s okay”, well, that’s not good enough. And that works for all genres.

6. SURPISE

What have you done in your script that no other writer would do? Remember:

• · Cliché and predictability kills story.
• · There are a finite number of archetypes
• · You need to have a fresh take, a unique perspective, an original touch.

In “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?” the writers told the story of Odysseus by Homer. It has all the elements of the Homer telling, but it is totally different. Take the archetype and do something surprising with it. What are YOU going to bring to the story? Which is of course linked to your voice as a writer.

7. STRUCTURE

Unfortunately, Paul began to run out of time at this point and had a plane to catch (!), so the rest of the perfect 10 were summarized, but…

Story IS structure.

Beginnings, Middle and Ends – know the beginning and the end and then get your characters as lost and all over the place as you possibly can in the middle.

The story must be going somewhere, even if as an audience we are not aware of it, so that we get to the end and we think “ah, that was where it was going. Of course, it makes so much sense now.”

Make sure the structure has lots of peaks and troughs and is not just a flat line.

Make sure there is a dynamic purpose for EVERY story beat, sequence, scene, moment.

8. EXPRESSION

People don’t tell each other things they already know in an obvious way, so don’t have characters do it in your script for the sake of exposition.

Good dialogue expresses character.

Bad dialogue relates/explains.

Don’t write on the nose – subtext is key! However, you can’t write subtext, but with good writing and characters it will be there.

9. PASSION

Does your story keep you up at night?

Are you compelled to write it?

Expedience = Dilution and Second Guessing is Pointless i.e. don’t write what you think you should be writing to get on, or what you think Writersroom or anyone else wants.

10. YOU

Have an individual, distinct, original writer’s “voice”

Write a script that no other writer could have written the WAY you have written it.

And that’s it. Easy!

Oh, and one final piece of advice from Paul…

Send us a script, but not before it’s READY!!!

Paul gave a great session, full of lots of useful advice, a lot of which we may have heard before, but sitting there mentally ticking off whether I was including everything he was talking about in my latest script, I realized there is always something you need to go back to, something you’ve missed, something you can improve on.

So, get writing!

Actually, that was the first part of day 1, but I think that’s enough for now. And I’m falling asleep. And the cat’s trying to catch the cursor on my screen, stupid animal, so I’m going to bed. The second part of Day 1, Humphrey Barclay on Comedy Writing for TV, will come tomorrow. As will the lowdown on the networking session. Bet you can’t wait…

The Marvellous Sally Brockway...

My mate just won a competition.

BBC Writersroom announced a competition just after the election for 5-10 minute "quick reaction" plays to post online. And my old mate Sally Brockway from Sharpshooters got shortlisted and a good old mention here. Which I think is all rather marvellous. The divine Ms Brockway was also a runner up in the last Red Planet Prize. Talent oozing from her. She's one to watch, I tell you...

What a star!

360° Festival Report 3: Kate Rowland/BBC Writersroom...

More of the occasional series from the BBC NI/Tinderbox Festival...

Day 2, Part 2

Ok, so after Nuno had brought us up to speed on what the “kids” are doing “online”, we all felt very uncool and unworthy, and slunk off for a bit of a break before the BBC Writersroom Roadshow. Which reminds me of Swap Shop, or one of those Radio 1 roadshows. Do they still do those?

Hope Keith Chegwin isn’t gonna turn up….

Oh god, I’m old.

Anyway, this was the most attended event of the Festival, reflecting the amount of interest there is in the Writersroom and how is works. Which is a good thing. Just makes you realize how many other writers there are out there. Even in a place as small as Northern Ireland. And these are only the ones who’ve shown up... Eek!

The talk was led by Kate Rowland, who runs the Writers Room, and very nice she was too. She comes from a radio background, and indeed still commissions for the Radio 3 strand, The Wire (no, not the cop show …. find out about the Radio 3 Wire here and listen to it here).

Kate started off by telling us that the Writers Room receives about 10,000 scripts a year. The first thing they do is the 10 page sift, where they look at the first 10 pages of the script and if they like it, give it a full read. So, those first 10 pages are important. We then went on to have a look at the first ten minutes of Funland (you can read the whole script on the Writer’s Room site, here).

Kate got us to talk about what we had noted in those first ten minutes. For those of you who haven’t read or seen it (and you should have a look), it started with a guy on Blackpool tower, in an ape’s uniform, falling to his death (suicide...?) and.... then got even stranger. Lots of story, lots of characters, lots of quirkiness, in your face. You REALLY knew where you where with it tonally after 10 minutes, and it had also raised lots of questions. Whether you liked it or not, it was definitely different.

Kate then took us through the important things for the first 10 pages of your script. Well, some of them. Someone will always come up with others.

• Medium and Form. Use industry formats, don’t handwrite it, the usual stuff. They (The Writersroom are fairly flexible about this (although it's good to remember that a lot of prodcos may not be), as long as it is readable and in some kind of recognizable/standard format. Don’t direct from the page. This was interesting. We are constantly debating on this Sharpshooters and blogs about whether or not this matters, or rather how much it matters, and it was interesting to hear that Kate described it as a definite, unequivocal no-no.
• Get the story going – hit the ground running, show characters in action, don’t waste time with too much preface, set up, introducing characters/world and beware of exposition/backstory. Of course, you also DO have to set up the world and characters. Just don’t waste time doing it.
• Coherence – know your world and story, know your genre and tone, give the audience/reader a focused way in, don’t try to do too much and beware beguiling distractions…. which means cut that scene you love if it isn’t essential!
• Character is everything – they should be vivid and compelling on an emotional level. Make the reader want to spend time with them. Make sure they have an active goal, journey, obstacle, dilemma. Make sure they are an individual – not a cliché or stereotype and know the moral line that they will or will not cross. What is the world through their point of view? What is their “faith”? Not necessarily religious, that last one.
• Emotion. Stories matter on a human level. Explore the concept via the characters. Kate also spoke about the “squelch” principle. Meaning, make the reader/audience have an emotional response to the characters and story. The thing that makes them go “ooh…”
• Surprise. Clichè/predictability kills story. There are a finite number of archetypes, so you need a fresh take, a unique perspective, an original touch. Have you seen your basic idea before? What’s different about your version?
• Structure is key. Begin in the right place. The story must be going somewhere. There must be a dynamic purpose for each story beat, sequence, scene, moment.
• Exposition and Expression. People don’t tell each other things they already know. Good dialogue expresses character, whereas bad dialogue simply relates or explains. Inarticulacy is what you are after, strangely – the fact that people struggle to express themselves, and will often talk about something else rather than express what they really feel – subtext, not writing on the nose.
• Passion – gotta have it. Is your story keeping you up at night? What keeps you up at night? What are you compelled to write? Don’t try to be expedient. Don’t try to second guess.
• Be yourself – which kind of comes from your passion. Have an individual, distinct, original voice. Write a script that only you could have written.

Finally, don’t think first draft, but first read. Make sure it’s ready!

So, easy then….

Paul Ashton goes into the whole "first 10 pages" deal in great detail on the Writer's Room blog, here. And, indeed, Paul came over to the next festival to give his take on the whole first 10, which I'll put up at a later date.

Kate then took questions from the floor. One of the most interesting things here was the amount of questions around “So, will my script be produced if Writer’s Room likes it?” And the answer was...

...that’s very unlikely.

Most people’s scripts are taken as specs, and can lead to getting writers to come in for a talk, putting them on a scheme, etc, rather than actually producing that script. Very few scripts will be taken up through Writer’s Room and be made. There have been a few. But the BBC is not going to give a completely new, unknown writer 6 episode of a new series to write. Think of your script as a calling card for your writing, and as a way in through the door, not as a way of getting it produced.

People also asked about the readers and the process at the Writer’s Room. Basically, they have a team. They do read everything. If it gets past the first 10 pages shift, then it will have a full read, and if the reader has any doubts, they will err on the side of caution and send it to another reader, rather than dumping it. Most scripts do fall at this first hurdle, however (only about 20% get full reads). After the full read, the writer will get feedback and could be asked to send further work. And at some stage they could be asked to come in for a meeting or to go on a radio/tv/comedy workshop or course. It’s also a good idea to indicate when you send a script it, what it is you are interested in writing for. All writers/scripts are logged, so they can “follow” you, and they do check on a writer’s progress. They are currently “developing” about 150 writers – following their work, sending them on workshops, etc.

And that was it. The thing that came across most I think was the feeling that it is a huge system, and they have a lot of scripts, but they are very dedicated to what they do, and genuinely looking for that great script that they will get excited about. It’s not just a slush pile. If you have talent, they will find you.

Oh, and she collected a VERY big pile of scripts to take back to that big London. I hope Kate wasn’t expecting to check-in online going home. That lot wasn’t going in the overhead locker as handluggage…

That’s it for day 2!

Oh, and there was no Kieth Chegwin.

How it all began... 2010

Hey! And hello!!! Bet you thought I'd disappeared!

Ok, much more likely that you didn't even notice....

Right, well, I've just spent two weeks stuck under this:

In Lurgan. Lucky old me. But at least I was at home sitting in front of the fire watching lots of fab TV and eating soda farls and potato bread. So, I was a lot better off than both. Any road up, back in Rome now. The sun is shining. Life is good.

Soooooo....after the shenanigans of 2009, parts one, two, three and four (what was I thinking...?) let's get up to date with 2010.

January started off with the second BBC NI/Tinderbox 360° New Writing Festival. Which is a bit of a mouthful by anyone's standards. They had a cracking line up this year - Paul Ashton from the Writersroom, Comedy Writing by Humphrey Barlclay and Vanessa Hay, Michael Jacob from the BBC Comedy Academy, Tim Loane - Writing for TV, Hugh Costello on writing for radio, Matthew Dench on Agents, David Ireland on writing for the stage and current events.

There were the usual networking opps and the chance to get together with other writers and chinwag about writing. Last year I'd sat in the corner with a plastic cup of crap wine at these things, but this year I thought to hell with it and got stuck in. And it's weird, but you realise that chatting to some development producer about cheese n' onion crisps and neopolitan ice cream fetishes (rather than trying to push your script on to them) is actually a bit of a laugh, all the stress goes, and you find yourself suggesting that you send them a script. And they say "Course!" like your their best friend. So, lesson leaned. Networking: Good.

I've got some reports on most of the sessions so I'll bang them up here next week.

Another good thing was that I got to arrange another meeting with the radio producer there I'd been talking to at BBC NI. Last time we'd spoken she'd told me that she was taking one of my ideas to her Execs to talk through. But that had been about four months ago. We'd emailed and chatted but work, life and busy schedules had taken over and I hadn't really heard anything. It's difficult to know what to do in that situation. Which brings us on to the thorny problem of the THE FOLLOW UP.

You’ve had a meeting. They liked something. They’re taking it forward. You're gonna get a commission! You're career has just taken off!! Endless riches and power are yours!!!!! Ha-HA!!

Then they disappear.

Well, course they do. You have to be realistic about how many projects these people are juggling, managing, producing, directing, writing follow up reports on, reading, etc. They may even be trying to fit in a bit of a life too, the mad fools. And as a new writer trying to get in that door, you are not the only thing on their list. Developing those relationships with new writers is part of what they do, but only a part, whilst for you it is huge. So, you end up with this awful clingy feeling like you're back at school, desperately hoping the person you really fancy who spoke to you last week will notice you again.

Course, that could just be me.

So, what do you do? You don't want to send endless emails, saying,

"So.....??? What did they THINK?? Instant commission or what?''

On the other hand, you DO want to know. And what if, in their busy schedule it's somehow slipped, and they'll actually be really grateful of the reminder? It's always a difficult call, dependant on how well you know them, how busy they are, when the deadline is, etc. You just have to hold strong, keep you desperation and paranoia at bay and send a gentle reminder after a month or so that doesn't make it sound as if you're chastising them.

The only real way to deal with it is just to get on with other stuff, which is what you are forced to do anyway. After a week of checking emails every five minutes and eventually realizing that it's probably gonna take a while, you just get sick of it and go do something else. And all the better if that other thing is some writing. For when they come back and say "no".

Anyway, the festival allowed me to suggest we got together for an update and a month later I was back in rainy Belfast for a coffee and a chat, which was rather nice timing as the commissioning round for Radio 4 drama was coming up. I also re-sent my ideas just to make sure she had a copy at hand, which turned out to be a good idea as she then took it to her Exec and they chose a different idea to take forward this time. Except... I'd written a biographical/true life story set in the 80s.

(Or at least I was going to. This was still the one-page pitch. If BBC NI liked it enough to put it forward to the pre-offers then I had to re-write the one pager. If the commissioner liked it enough to put it into the formal offers round, then I would have to develop a two-pager. And if he still liked it enough to commission it, THEN I had to write it.)

My feedback from the producer and Exec was that they liked the themes and ideas, but could I write a modern version? Which meant no true life story about quite famous person, no 80s context (which was crucial to the way this guy's life played out) and err.... a completely different story. So of course I said,

"Yeah, fine! I'll do that! No problem! Where do you want it?"

The reasoning was that the Afternoon Play doesn't really do biographies or historical. At least, not from new writers. They have enough of that and want contemporary stories. Which is fair enough. They gave me a week to come up with the new idea.

So, off I went and re-thought the whole thing, did some research, developed a new story with the same themes and arena, and sent a new one pager off to the producer.

And waited....

Meanwhile, I'd also arranged a second meeting over on the mainland with the other radio producer who'd been waiting on my re-write of Francesca and Giorgio. Well, waiting is probably not exactly correct. She probably couldn't have cared less. But I'd done the re-write and sent it off to her, along with some ideas. We met and she was absolutely lovely and encouraging and informative. The reallly mad thing was that, having this meeting so soon after the other one, I was struck by how they both said exactly the same things about what works and what doesn't in terms of commissioning for Radio 4. With that in mind, we also discussed F & G. She still liked it but wasn't sure it was something the commissioner would go for (again, it was set in the past, had lots of flashbacks and some other stuff that wasn't usually commissioned). Also, she felt that after the re-write it still wasn't quite there. I had to agree with her. There was something not quite chiming with it. It had been my second script, and I'd learnt so much since then, that fixing it was taking more time and effort than starting something completely new. And to be honest, from my point of view, that little script had done so much for me - getting me these meetings and interest, getting me interest from Fair City too - that I really felt it had done its job and I was ready to leave it.

So we discussed my other ideas. Another thing I learnt that day was that (and this is quite complicated, so bear with me):

Two internal producers from two different geographical parts of BBC radio can't put the same writer in to the offers round for the same slot, even if it is with different projects.

Got that?

Ok, read it again.

Now?

Ok.

Remember, that is for internal producers. Independents may be able to do what they want. Oh, and new writers can only be put up for the Afternoon slot, not Woman's Hour or anything else. So, having two producers that you're talking to doesn't necessarily double your chances. With two offer rounds a year, that means that, as a new writer, you only really get one shot with one idea for each round. Oh, and the September round is really only to fill in the gaps. The main slot is March. So, that's kinda one chance with one idea per year.

And radio's supposed to be "a good way in"....

And yet, it is! I got two producers talking to me in a relatively short amount of time. And if I can do it, anyone can. So, go for it!

The upshot of our meeting was that we'd keep in touch and I'd send her some ideas over the summer and maybe we'd put something in for the September round.

So, I went home to wait for the news from BBC NI on how my new idea had gone down. Would it be going into the offers round and under the eyes of the commissioner?

The news came a few weeks later.... and it was good! The drama dept had had their meeting and my idea was one of the ones chosen to go forward to the pre-offers round. Excellent!! The commissioner would be looking at it, they'd have a meeting within the month, and I'd know if it was going to the next stage - the formal offers round.

Oooh, the waiting....

In the meantime, I also managed to get Fair City working again for me to watch, so that was back on! I got in touch with the script editor, told her the good news, and she advised me to get up to speed over a couple of months and come back to do the trial. Weh-hey!

That's it for now. Next time.... what the commissioner thought....