Peerage - peer review group

I have started a new scriptwriting peer review group called Peerage. It's based at Google so you will need a Google i.d., if you haven't one already.

There are a lot of guidelines at the moment but don't let that put you off, it's simply a place to hook up and do script swapsies on power of 3 principles.

It is basically a bulletin board where people arrange to exchange script reads via email but it's also a place to directly upload the first ten pages of a script rejected without any comments, to see if anyone knows why the readers didn't read the rest.

It's also a place for people to connect and meet offline or in groups. And I don't mean dating or orgies but for face-to-face feedback or table-reads/writing groups.

I'm making it up as I go along and the way it works may change but hopefully it will prove to be a useful resource. You get what you give.

Sharps 2

There's no greater motivating factor to finishing a script than pontificating in public that - "writing a 30 minute script for Sharps is easy and everyone should do it". But it worked for me and my first draft is complete.

I had the idea for my story when the competition launched and I could have started writing it then but my story involved using a common medical procedure used in drama and so I needed to think about the characters more and come up with an organic twist that the reader won't be expecting.

It all came together a week ago and the outline just poured out like a water from a busted dam . The characters had been kept quiet for so long that they wouldn't stop yapping and I was adding dialogue as well. I did wonder if I should just fire up the computer and start writing but I needed to be sure of where I was going and what the ending was. Rach also posted about how she was similarly tempted but it didn't work out.

My outline wasn't a detailed scene by scene and was more like an incomplete beat sheet. I knew the ending but I wasn't sure of the scenes leading up to that. Partly this was because I hadn't done the research. I started writing but had to pause for a couple of days to do the research towards the end.

Before starting I did research on the medical issue so I knew the basics but finding out the specifics I needed took much longer than I thought it would. I was actually on the verge of phoning up the condition's support group, when I finally found the info online. I could have blagged it but there was no rush.

In the end the truth of what happens made the story much more dramatic than what I was thinking of. I suppose it's about knowing when you are researching for proper purposes and not procrastination purposes.

Although, having said that, we are making fiction and we have some dramatic licence - as long as it's psychologically true and we're not making up stuff most people will know to be bollocks:

DOCTOR
You have hair cancer and need chemotherapy.
Here's a tube of chemo, rub it on your head and
the cancer hair will die and new hair will grow.


My first draft is 31 pages and about 5000 words. In my previous post I said that if it's under 6,500 words it's too short as that's what a pro TV writer told me. Micheál Jacob says that 6,000 words equals half an hour for comedy. It has 6,000 syllables. Does that count?

I never really understood the word count thing and always went on page count - please note the writersroom only go by page count as well - but the TV writer told me that television drama does typically have about 30% more dialogue than film and that might account for the discrepancy between the formats and word counts.

I will be moving scenes about and adding and deleting scenes in the re-write but I don't see how I could add 1500 words, even if I tried. I'll see what the final draft word count is out of curiosity but I'm not going to do anything about it as long as it's under 35 pages. Besides, my word count would work out at about 5 minutes under time which isn't worth worrying about anyway. The actors can just talk a bit slower.

What I will be worrying about is the content of the second draft, and the theme in particular. I had a vague theme when writing but now I've finished, it's much clearer what my story is about. In my re-write I need to focus on that clarified theme.

There are nice things which happened in terms of character later in the script that were pure accident but make me seem like I know what I'm doing. So I need to go back to the beginning of the script and change the characterisation to match the cool stuff that happened later.

Having an outline and character notes doesn't mean you have to stick with it exactly, it allows for flexibility when writing and re-writing, but you do have to make sure it's consistent and you make global changes.

The application form took a while appearing on the writersroom. Without that form you can't enter, so I thought it was deliberate, as I said on a messageboard last week:

"Puzzlingly, there's always a large percentage of entrants who think the quicker they send off their entry the better chance they will have.

There's four weeks left to the deadline and this might encourage people to re-write rather than sending in their first draft when the form is ready."

Piers also says something about this at the writersroom.

There's still time to put something together if you haven't started. For instance, Friday and Saturday thinking of the idea, Sunday creating the characters and outline and Bank Holiday Monday to start writing it. That leaves us three weeks for finishing writing, re-writing and peer review.

As I said previously, rather than bearing in mind the likelihood of winning, it could be seen as a chance to build or rebuild our portfolios.

If you're stuck for a story just go to BBC Health News or BBC News for literal or metaphorical 'health of the nation' stories. Behind the headlines are real dilemmas and big issues for individuals. It's just a matter of finding the right characters and right story.

It's a broad remit and they're being very careful not to restrict us in our choice of subject matter too much while at the same time giving us a little focus.

Some of us have had longer to write something but someone else could start writing now and come up with a better idea, story and characters and storm it.

This also applies to those of us who have had a false start. Don't walk back to the paddock and give up or keep flogging a dead horse. Get back in the saddle and ride a new horse you're happier with to the finishing line.

Sharps Tips - BBC writersroom
Sharps FAQ - BBC writersroom

"Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things"

Randy Pausch gives his "Last Lecture". Something to put competition rejection into perspective:





The original Last Lecture in full.

Getting Better versus Getting Angry

The reaction from some of those who didn't make it into the Comedy College has been a tad silly. Read the discussion at the end of Micheál Jacob's last post, if you don't believe me. Phill has written a must-read response regarding the right attitude for us all to have.

According to Jacob, "A few people expressed their disappointment quite forcefully, which is understandable". I reckon a reaction like that suggests what they'd be like to work with. If someone can't imagine there might be other scripts better than theirs then how will they take notes? "It's perfect as it is, just fuck off and produce it!"

One way of channelling that aggression is through an anonymous blog which is closed for comments. That's the Bitterness Speaking by "Failed Comedy Writer" suggests that even the pilot of Fawlty Towers would be turned down by Micheál Jacob/Lucy Lumsden.

That seems unlikely as it is a comedy classic but James Henry reminds me that it was actually turned down once in similarly negative terms. However, let's not pretend Fawlty isn't faulty and couldn't have done with a damn good script editing. I bought the box set excitedly to study the magic and learn from it but it simply wasn't as good as I remembered it was.

This was partly due to the 'reality' thing "Failed Comedy Writer" would like producers to ignore: there is no logical explanation why Basil hasn't sacked Manuel or Manuel hasn't resigned. Their relationship was to enable easy funny foreigner jokes and easy slapstick gags. Would it really have been less funny if they made up a reason why Manuel continued to work there or made him less obviously unemployable? Fawlty Towers is popular in spite of the logic flaws and the obvious contrivance and not because of them. We should still try and get rid of them in our own scripts if we can.

Anyway, I got into the top 40 of Comedy College and was chuffed to get that far. I believe I was number 21 and so just missed out on the shortlist but no-one has told me that officially or unofficially or hinted at it in any way. I just know.

I chose to submit sketches for my application because I had more chance of making them laugh with six different comic premises then with the first ten pages of one sitcom. I actually read a sitcom which didn't make the top 40 but which was very funny and ticked all the other boxes too. It's got the writers a meeting at the networks but the first ten pages didn't really do it justice and needed punching up and being clearer as to what was going on. It was still better than the first ten pages of most comedy scripts but there only had to be forty better out of 1400 to stop them progressing in the competition.

Jacob believes that you can't teach funny. I believe you can teach it as the first draft of my sketches was shite and people can learn how to make things funnier. Even now, I can still see ways of improving them which might have got me one place higher and into the top twenty.

It's true that 'funny' is subjective but only once you get to a certain level. There are no comedic masterpieces rejected at a lower level with a first, second or third stage writersroom letter. We might be able to write witty lines which make us chuckle every time we re-read them but are there several laugh out loud moments a page? Is there a good story and good characters that viewers will want to spend time with? Does it honestly have the potential to be a returnable comedy series worth investing millions of pounds in? Or is it just funnier to you than [insert name of sitcom you don't find funny]?

As clever as I thought I was, for next year's college I'm submitting a sitcom but ensuring a high gag rate as I reckon that will impress more. Nothing slow burn and too subtle that could be mistaken for a comedy drama or a drama - which I've done in the past.

Sometimes with competitions people want to see what the scripts that progressed further than theirs were like. It's only natural. We're hoping that they'll be much worse than ours so we can blame the readers and rest easy. Understandably, Jacob won't publish submissions "because I will not expose writers to trial by Internet, even if they were willing".

While you can't see the top 20, here's what I submitted, number 21.

Soundtrack

80's special!

New


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Mystery Jets - "Two Doors Down"


From the highly recommended second album.

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The Wombats - "Backfire at the disco"


This video pays homage to Cliff Richard's finest 3 minutes


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Flashback


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Duran Duran - "Save a Prayer"


The greatest bass-line ever of all time in history. Well, I like it.

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Roxy Music - "Avalon"


The title track from, arguably, one of the best albums of the 80s.

Augusto Boal, playwright, interview

Socialist Worker:

"So I believe that political theatre and culture is much more alive than it was before. Before it was acceptable to go to the proletariat and say "do this", or to the peasants and say "do that". Now we try and stimulate people to do what they are able to do and what they want to do."

"TV scribe to lend help to would-be writers at library "

Toronto Town Crier:

"Although there is not one right way to write a successful script, Varughese believes scripts that have a personal voice and involve life and death situations are more likely to succeed than scripts that are copies of already popular films.

“We love to worry when we go to the movies,” he says."

Deadlines Calendar - New Entries

Deadlines Calendar


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dumbFounded Comedy Sketch Writing Competition

Theme: Man Vs Woman

dumbFounded

Deadline: 23 May 2008

/ Free /


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Pygmalion Plus

The European programme for the development of projects for child and family audiences: Feature Film, TV Drama Series, Animation, Interactive and Cross-platform Media.

Pygmalion

Deadline: 2 June 2008

/ Free /

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‘Protect the Human’ Playwriting Competition 2008

iceandfire and Amnesty International UK launched the 2008 ‘Protect the Human’ playwriting competition on May 6th 2008. By pairing up to create the competition our aim is to harness theatre's ability to make real and relevant the impact of human rights on our everyday lives. To do this we are looking for insightful and engaging plays that imaginatively interpret this aim.

iceandfire create compelling theatre exploring stories of displacement and conflict. They are interested in

imaginative and excellent theatre, but are not seeking scripts that are didactic, preaching or dogmatic.


iceandfire

Window for submissions: 28 July - 1 August 2008

/ Free /

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The Alfred Fagon Award


The Award of £5000 is open to any playwright of Caribbean or African descent, resident in the UK, for the best

new stage play in English, which need not have been produced. Each entrant may submit only one play.

(Television, radio and film scripts will not be considered.)

Applicants for the 2008 Award should send two copies of their play (plus a Stamped Self-Addressed Envelope for

return of scripts), accompanied by a CV which includes the writer's Caribbean or African connection and a

brief history of the play, to:

The Alfred Fagon Award
The Royal Court Theatre
Sloane Square
London SW1W 8AS.


The Alfred Fagon Award


Deadline: 31 August 2008.

/ Free /


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The McLellan Award for Play Writing

1. Your play should be written in Living Scots .
It may be set in any period
It may be written in any form of Scots or Scots dialect urban or rural.
2. Running time should be a minimum of 40 to a maximum of 60 minutes.
3. The play should be for up to 3 actors with a maximum of three settings.


The McLellan Award

Deadline: 30 September 2008

/ under £10 /

The TV Comedy Forum

TV Comedy Forum

"Now in its second year, the TV comedy Forum brings together top decision makers and outstanding talent for a day of contentious debate, inspirational insight and entertainment.

The forum will help you to unlock the creative and revenue opportunities in comedy, leaving you educated and full of fresh ideas.

Chair: Jon Plowman, Producer, BBC

Duncan Hayes, Agent, United Agents;

Lucy Lumsden, Controller Comedy Commissioning, BBC;

Jimmy Mulville, Managing Director, Hat Trick;

Andrew Newman, Controller Comedy & Entertainment, Channel 4;

Henry Normal, Co-Founder, Baby Cow Productions
and many more!

18 September 2008, Central London Venue"