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U13783415

Listed below are comments made by U13783415 between Thursday, 5th March 2009 and Saturday, 29th August 2009.

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Writers Academy 17 8:04pm on 29 Aug 2009 Couldn't agree with Marc GW more: spot on.

I can only talk about my own experience of the BBC and Writersroom, but I have been very connected to them since they picked up on something I submitted 18 months ago. Since then, I couldn't have wanted for more support or encouragement: from Writewrsroom North and London; from Continuing Drama; from Radio Manchester; and from individual Screipt Eds and Producers across the board. As I was completely fresh to tv writing back then, and am still a greenhorn by anybody's definition, I can only be amazed at what they've helped me to achieve. I have so many things going on now that I can hardly keep up with myself, mostly through their relentless encouragement. Most of all, Writersroom and Cont Drama have said to me again and again - Write what you know about, dig as deep as you can, be honest, write from your passion, your heart. For me, that advice has worked incredibly well. I'm a big fan. My connections have been hugely professional, very down to earth, thorough and appropriate. They also let me know when I've done something a bit crap. I can take it, and I want/need it. For me, writing is re-writing, and what better sounding board is there for TV drama than Writersroom.

That's just me. That's all.
Writers Academy 11 10:04am on 30 Apr 2009 @ MartynPD

Yes, the shorlisted people have been contacted.
BBC Drama Writers Academy 2009 3:44pm on 22 Apr 2009 Most people can read PDFs - that's the whole point of them really. But, if you want to convert from FD to Word:

Save the FD doc as a .rtf (rich text format) - that'll give you something that look like Word .doc (but isn't), and then save that as as .doc: usually 2003-2007 Word.

What you'll find is that you'll have to reformat some of it as things like 'more' and 'cont'd's can get lost. And it won't carry sc numbers across...v.annoying. Otherwise, it's pretty good. Good luck.
Writers Academy 8 1:24pm on 15 Mar 2009 @greyslate

Do check 'em out - really top stuff. Criminal Justice just blew me away tbh...bit like Red Riding is at the mo...

Maybe you should give WR a chance. I thought they'd run a mile from my stuff...really...but they've opened doors for me I never imagined. I've never felt for a moment that they don't want me to be bold and really say what I think.

If you're writing's good, they will appreciate it, I'm sure.
Writers Academy 8 2:03pm on 13 Mar 2009 @greyslate

Why do refuse to send anything in to WR? I can only repeat that my experience of WR has been nothing but positive: intelligent, supportive in loads of ways I hadn't even imagined, welcoming, and, re my writing, nearly always spot on. It is entirely down to their support that I am where I am, and I've listened to them very carefully especially when I haven't obviously liked what they've said.

So what's your problem?

Like I said before: any arse can snipe. Offer something positive...some good suggestions as to how the BBC might improve things...for us and for you. At the end of the day, if you can't deign to be in productive dialogue, stop worrying about it.

Didn't Crminal Justice and Moses Jones, plus a few more I could mention, do it for you?
Writers Academy 8 09:25am on 13 Mar 2009 @MIKEANGEL

That's blatantly not true though is it?

But if it were, what would you suggest they do? At least we could use this forum to push positive debate - soundbites are pretty easy and lazy aren't they?

I can only speak from my own experience and I can say the BBC have been great. Simple as.

Plays, novels, screenplays: they're ALL hard. That's just the way it is.
Writers Academy 8 08:56am on 11 Mar 2009 @ P

Thanks P.
Writers Academy 8 6:45pm on 10 Mar 2009 I've just been asked a question I can't answer (a common occurance)...

When are application's open for WA this year?
Writers Academy 8 08:58am on 06 Mar 2009 @ greyslate

I'm not talking about you.
Writers Academy 8 09:26am on 05 Mar 2009 Is there anything wrong with writing to pay your mortgage? Is the angry person suggesting one should just write for nowt? I write for nowt a lot - how many treatments, how many ideas, how many 60 pages to hawk about? - so when someone pays me I really like it :-)

Ceri's hit the nail on the head of course: be passionate about it. If you don't like the shows, if you don't watch them, if you're not interested in them, why bother?

Ah, to pay the mortgage! Perhaps this where Mr Angry's frustrations stem from, I don't know. Perhaps because we can see a lot of CD on tv each week, we can become pretty good at sussing quality or otherwise. If people think the shows aren't good enough, that's great, because it encourages everybody to work harder to make them better.

I'm 100% sure that everybody at CD at the BBC wants the shows to be great, so long may WA/Writersroom continue in their efforts to do exactly that.

The Single Series idea is fab - a bit like the old play for today: give people a smaller budget and see what they can come up with - taking 'risks' in this way will only ever pay big dividends.

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