BBC Writersroom - A Path to Success

I stumbled across the BBC Writersroom whilst looking for a writersroom equivalent for ITV, when I happily stumbled on some BBC writersroom success stories. I love reading success stories, they fill you full of enthusiasm and make you believe that you can succeed at television writing. And with so many more TV Channels these days, there's even more chance of succeeding.

One that caught my attention...

Paul Farrell
Paul sent in an unsolicited script that impressed us and was selected for a week long residential scheme to develop ideas for returning crime shows. He worked intensively on an idea and pitched it to BBC executives. It was soon commissioned to treatment, then to script, and his two-parter was broadcast in the 2006 season of Silent Witness on BBC1. Paul also took part in our BBC Films scheme to develop writers new to the department. He has since been produced for Waking the Dead on BBC1, commissioned for Primeval on ITV and is on a development scheme with Eon Films.

He worked on shows I am interested in, and I love that he can work between BBC and ITV. Some of the writers featured on the success stories page also did work for Channel 4, and a lot of the BBC Radio Plays too. There is great scope for working on a wide variety of projects for different companies. There are many opportunities out there just waiting to be explored!

The BBC Writersroom is full of writing tips, inspiration and sample scripts to read. They are actively seeking new talent, and have a page of opportunities with deadlines for you to check out.

Short Fiction Post - "Ghosts Of Time"

Here's a short piece of fiction I just wrote about a character I've come up with for my new Ghosts Of Time story idea. It's set in an apocalyptic future where we meet him. I've just written and not edited it or changed anything, so please don't expect it to be perfect!

"Jesse stirred slightly in his uncomfortable bed. He was lying on a dirty blanket and encased in wood, which for some reason was baking hot. His mouth was dry and parched as he tried to unstick his tongue from it. Blinking his eyes in the half-light, he turned to his right to peek through the vertical sliver of light outside his makeshift bunk. All he could see was a shaft of sunlight showing up the grains of dust that gently filtered through the air, down towards the weathered floorboarding beneath them. All was still and all was quiet.

In one weary movement, Jesse pushed the sliding door as far as it would go to halfway down his body, he rolled and slid out of the wall-lining cupboard. Around the edges of the room were dusty circuit boards and bits of clapped out old machines that no longer worked, laid out there just in case they came in handy. Jesse loved the pattern of circuits on the boards, they had a kind of art-form to them. One of the few pleasures left to him in this world. Making his way to his knees, and rubbing his eyes with his sleeve, he crawled over to another open cupboard and pulled out a small tin of food. The label was weathered, but if you looked closely, you could just make out it was an old tin of baked beans. Picking up a medium-sized screwdriver, which seemed to be left there for just that purpose, he carefully started to dig into the lid of the tin, and peel it open. Once he was in, in a well practiced move, Jesse slipped the screwdriver straight in his mouth and out again, in one sleek movement, and the shaft was clean. Carelessly placing the screwdriver on the side, without looking at it, his whole attention was focused on the juicy beans before him. Diving grubby fingers in eagerly, he scooped the beans straight into his mouth, guzzling them down cold."

What kind of writer do I want to be?

What kind of writer do I want to be?

I am asking myself this question so I can figure out what I want my 2011 Writing Plan to be. My end goal is to be a published writer. I would love to write for TV, but I would also like to write novels and short stories too. I've been looking at Sera Gamble's website, she is someone I admire greatly. I love the Supernatural tv series she writes for, which she has now become the executive producer and showrunner of. She has a great section for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) in which she answers many of the common questions she has been asked about becoming a writer. (Well worth a read). Reading this, and a recent blog post about why people stop following your blog (apologies I forgot where I saw it and didn't save the link), it's made me think more about my online presence.

I want to promote my writing on this blog, especially as I become a more skill writer (with lots of practice), but I also want to make it interesing and blog things people want to read. I recently read one blogger say they often type blog posts up ahead of time in their Word documents first before posting, and they always have a few ideas for blog posts they jot down before they actually come round to writing their blog posts. They also try to stick to a schedule for their blog posts, as there's nothing worse than a blog that's updated rarely.

With this in mind, these are my 2011 Writing Goals I want to work on this year:

1. Create a blogging schedule, possibly weekly.
2. Jot down a few blog post ideas so you have something to blog about when you do sit down to blog.
3. Comment on other similar theme blogs to increase your blog readership and make friends with similar interests
4. Practice prose fiction writing every day.
5. Create Writing Samples to show my work...
6. A Short Story
7. An Original TV Pilot Script
8. A Speculative TV Script of a critically acclaimed TV Series
9. A Movie Screenplay (original)
10. Create a new website as a Writer to show off my new writing samples
11. Practice Writing even more fiction!

A New Story for the New Year

For the New Year I want to write a new story. I have the idea of writing about an albino time travelling assassin/agent. She may travel back and forth in time, picking up people from different time zones. She could visit an ancient tomb, just before someone else is about to pick up a relic from there that will give them the power to conquer the world. Perhaps someone like Hitler, or Hitler himself would get hold of it if she didn't intervene.

They could be a specialist team righting the wrongs of the time space continnuum. I would love to have a Victorian gentleman, possibly a scientist. Though that would be difficult, as I would have to have an understanding of science, and an understanding of what science was around at the time.

What other specialists from time would you collect if you could? Who would you want on your team, that has died in their prime? Someone who you could travel back in time at the moment before their death, save their life, leaving all in the past believing they were dead.

I would love any ideas and suggestions. Who would you want on your team?

Short Fiction Post - 'Invisible Jet'

As it's the New Year now, I've decided to have a practice writing scenes and little bits of prose to keep my writing skills up, and hopefully improve them, if I just aim to do between a few minutes to half an hour a day, I should be able to make progress with my writing! Here's hoping!

Here's a short piece I wrote today inspired by the One Minute Writer Blog, whose prompt today is 'Jet.' Only I didn't time myself, so may have done a little longer than a minute! Ooops!

I hope you like it!

Invisible Jet

Anya brought the sleek invisible jet hissing gently down towards the shoppers on the main streets of London, reassured that the low hum of it’s engines would be lost among the hustle and bustle of local shoppers passing by and the festive music pouring out from the open shop doorways inviting you in with a warm glow to battle the chill December air outside.

Looking out the transparent view pane, Anya could see the shoppers completely unaware her invisible jet was there. She sighed, a little despondent at the sight of the humans so engaged with their shopping. As if it were a life or death situation whether or not they would have the best Christmas Log on their table, or if they would be sold out by the time they arrive at the shop.

With a deep breath, Anya tucked a lock of brilliant white hair behind her ear, the rest neatly swept back from her icy pale skin, and turned her dark red eyes back down to her console, twiddling dials and pressing buttons to emit a series of beeps as she ran the basic system checks she always ran when she landed.