Sharps Tips

BBC writersroom are running an open call for new writing talent called Sharps, with a deadline of 16 June 2008.

Here are a few pointers about things you should be thinking about as you develop your idea and script.

World

All great drama sets out a clearly defined world. It might be naturalistic or heightened; real, surreal, or virtual; past, present, or future; dystopian or comic; tight in its focus or epic in its sweep; domestic, precinct, or out in the wide blue yonder. But it must be clear. And you must be able to make it clear in the format you choose. In 30 minutes, there will be a limit to how complex you can be – but there is no limit to how imaginative you can be.

Character

Great drama needs great character. Think of the most successful British TV dramas and you will inevitably find a roll-call of iconic personalities, from Frank Gallagher to Kat Slater to Gene Hunt to Jane Tennison to The Doctor.

What do they all have in common? They are unique and larger than life. But they are authentic and we connect with them. They drive stories forward and make things happen, they know what they think and want. But they have flaws that make them human. They surprise us with their actions and hidden depths. But we believe the things they do in their world. They have endless potential to keep going as characters. They make us want to spend time with them, to see what they do next, for better or for worse – to engage with them.

So be bold. Be original. Be surprising. Look at your favourite iconic characters. See what makes them tick. Understand why you tune back in to see them, week in, week out. And invest the same passion and intelligence in the creation of your own characters.

Emotion

You also need to make your characters human - even if they are a Time Lord, or a shameless drunk, or an anachronistic 70s copper, we still need to connect with them on an emotional level. We need to care about your characters. We don’t need to like them necessarily – but we need to empathise with them. So be emotionally bold with your story and characters.

Story

TV is a story-hungry and increasingly relentless medium. Look at any episode of any successful drama and break down the sheer number of story ideas that constitute the plot and the journey of the characters. As well as this, every good drama episode will have at least one hook, or story idea, or theme that defines and unifies it. What is your big story hook? Do you have enough story to fill 30 minutes?

Momentum

Great stories are always going somewhere. If you don’t create momentum, the audience will simply change channel. So where are the characters going? Why are they going there? What stands in their way? What will they do to get past the obstacles that they face? What will they feel and think and do when they get to the end of that journey?

So, what ideas do you need to generate in order to tell the story in an original and unique way, and to make the journey in your episode truly engage? If you find yourself filling in gaps, you probably don’t have enough story. If you find yourself floundering with confusion, perhaps you have too much story. If you suspect that you’ve somehow seen it before, then you need a fresh look and an original take on the story.

Structure

All good storytelling has structure – starting with the basics of beginning, middle and ending. You are writing a 30 minute script – so don’t try to be too ambitious with your structure (or the number of characters). Work out what genre and tone are, what the character journeys are – then work out how best to structure them in a coherent way.

We’re not looking for sitcoms – but it’s worth looking at how a great sitcom is able to set up, complicate and conclude a central story (and often some subplots) in just 30 minutes of screen-time. And a great episode of a soap can also show you just how much story you need and can handle in 30 minutes.

Beginnings

Start in the right place. Don’t preamble, introduce, set-up and preface the story – hit the ground running and hook the audience’s attention immediately. Dramatic characters and stories come to life through dramatic action – through characters being active.

For engaging momentum, you need an instigating incident that sets the direction in which the story and characters will go. Something that hits the characters early on - and perhaps sends them in a different direction from where they thought they were heading, or after which things can never be quite the same again.

Middles

Good structure means making sure your story doesn’t play out on one monotonous level. There should be peaks and troughs, ups and downs, leading your characters towards a climax at the end that makes the dramatic journey worthwhile. The middle should lead coherently from the beginning to the ending – but not in obvious, predictable ways.

Endings

You need to hit an ending that coherently, convincingly, satisfyingly, and surprisingly concludes your characters’ journeys. In a single drama, that ending will have a finite quality. If your script is the pilot for a series or serial, you should still aim to tell a self-contained episode story – to bring the story of the episode towards an ending. There may be more episodes to come, further for the stories to go, but decide what the main stories of the episode are and conclude them.

Passion

We want to hear your story from your voice. So write a script you really want to write, write characters that keep you up at night and get under your skin, write the kind of thing that you would tune in to watch. Write the script that only you could write.