It's Oscar weekend, and Writers Academy graduate Tom Bidwell has been nominated for his short film Wish 143, made through the Writersroom's scheme BBC Drama Shorts.

Tom's inspiring story as a writer is told in this Guardian article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/feb/24/oscar-nomination-tom-bidwell-short-film

And, if you haven't seen it when it was posted here before, here's his film:

Tom teamed up with Casualty director Ian Barnes to make his film, and in addition, former EastEnders director, Tom Hooper is up for awards for hot favourite best film The King's Speech. All in all a good week for Continuing Drama.

" A huge percentage of our continuing drama graduates have gone on to play major roles as directors, writers, producers, script editors and commissioning editors, across not only the British television industry but the American one as well.", says John Yorke, Controller, Drama Production and New Talent.

We even made a film about it...

In addition this week Continuing Drama has announed the appointment of an External Writers Ombudsman to look after the interests of writers working for the department. Tony Garnett, the hugely experienced and respected independent television producer has agreed to take on the role.

The purpose of an ombudsman will be to offer writers the opportunity to benefit from Garnett's wealth of expertise as a script editor, screen writer, director and producer when they feel they need third party guidance beyond the BBC or Writers Guild.

The new role is set to support BBC Continuing Drama's on-going drive to attract and develop the highest quality talent and place writers right at the heart of the drama production process. The new role has been set up with the blessing of the Writers Guild who work to protect the interests of all writers working in the industry.

And finally, Writers Academy applications will be open this year from 11th April. For details of the online application process keep you eye on this site.

Patrick Homes
Fiona Peek
Paul Matthew Thompson
Natasha Langridge
Peter McKenna
Matt Broughton
Andrea Page
Matthew Barry

... and we are really looking forward to working with them all over the next year.

To everyone else who applied - you should have had a "No" from us by now. If anyone hasn't - please get in touch with us.

We do not offer any feedback at this stage, and I wanted to try and explain why, as I know some people find this frustrating, after spending so long in applying and waiting for an answer.

- The scripts are all read several times by different people (we share the load amongst many of the Script Editors/Researchers/Readers/Producers who work in the drama department - i.e. the people you'll eventually be working with) and so focussed feedback on individual scripts is impossible with the sheer volume we're dealing with.

- So often I end up telling people simply that I thought the scripts that got through were better - sharper dialogue, clearer characters, better stories etc... not really what people want to hear. "So you're saying my dialogue's bad then? That's not what I've been told" is what they tend to come back with. Of course I don't mean that, but the fact is the Writers Academy is a competition - we take a decision on one script - it's rather brutal, but necessary for this scheme to work. I would say, however, that I and my team spend the rest of the year considering scripts from agents at (relatively) greater leisure, so get yourself an agent and you and I can have a longer conversation about your work in the future.

Finally, I broke down the final 24 according to what kind of scripts they were - as I always get asked this by people trying decide what to submit. It looks like this:

TV Screenplays - 9
Film Screenplays - 6
Stage Plays - 6
Radio Plays - 3

Interesting in the light of recent debates on the blogs about where TV development people source their writers from. Can I just say that I source writers from ABSOLUTELY ANYWHERE, and I don't actually care what medium the script is in if it's good.

If you haven't received an email today telling you you're no longer in the running, you will have progressed through to the second round of our selection process. We have "long-listed" down from 510 to 177 scripts. For me (and for some of you) this is the most brutal and nerve-wracking part of the process. I have a team of long-standing and very trusted readers - some of whom are writers themselves, and others who work, or who have worked, on the shows in the department as Script Editors. They read the first ten pages of each script, and I then check/read them too. We take three days to do this, and I like to think we've been pretty thorough. Tough choices have to be made, however.

I talked to the readers this year about giving some general feedback and this is what we came up with:

Positives (what made them thank me afterwards for the gig):

• There was a huge variety of subjects and themes this year - no one popular idea emerged - which is unusual.


• Comedy, joy and fun.


• Scripts that don't tell you everything up front and surprise you.


• Characters that aren't at all "nice" but you love them.


• Snappy, smart, intelligent rat-tat dialogue.


• Unresolved sexual tension - how we love it!

Negatives (what drove them insane and demanding chocolate):

• Nothing happening in the first ten pages.


• A lot of very static theatre plays were sent in this year. I lost count of the number of scripts that opened with two people meeting on a park bench.


• Short film scripts - so hard to judge when there's only a few pages.


• Hard to read formats - just be clear.


• Characters who don't have names - very hard to breathe life into someone called "Man" or "Mother".


• Badly handled exposition (e.g. characters telling each other what they both already know, photos where we're meant to notice something, etc...)


• Low stakes.


• Too many stage directions/writing camera directions/breaking up speeches with stage directions.


• Lengthy opening monologues.

The next stage is that each script gets two full reads from two different members of the drama department, so I won't be short listing further until the end of June. 'Til then....

I'm afraid we can't give anyone feedback at this stage, as there's just too many scripts, but I'll try and get some general feedback together from the readers to post next week.

Last week we finished the classroom part of the course, and the writers now all go off to start their commissions on the shows next month. They'll be writing Casualty, EastEnders, Holby and Doctors for most of the next year. These are real commissions for which they're paid a real fee, of course. No more dry runs. For all the preparation a course can give you - and I think ours is pretty good - there's no way a writer can know what's it's like until they actually start to work with the shows. They're not given special treatment - if they don't make it, they don't work after the first year.

So, for all of you thinking of applying next year, we're hoping to advertise in April. But I just wanted to also say that it's really not the only way to write for Continuing Drama. I feel like I've said this many times, but writers still tell me they think it's the only way in. It absolutely isn't! All our Shadow Schemes are up and running next year for each show (see our Continuing Drama webpages on this site for more info). We're hoping that the EastEnders online spin off - E20 - written by 16-22 year olds will run again later in 2010. We will also be running regular courses and events with the Writersroom, who also work very closely with us winkling out suitable talent from their massive pile of submissions to pass our way. It's all part of what is now a proper concerted development plan for the training and protection of new writers in this department. We've been doing some sums here. Five years ago most new writers on their first commission for Continuing Shows failed. The current failure rate is down drastically to 20%. 92 new writers have developped (and sustain) regular careers with us since 2005. Not bad in the current climate.

One further thought before I finish blogging for a while - in danger of coming full circle and repeating myself now. I just wanted to cut and paste this from the Writersroom's interview with Jimmy McGovern - who came to talk to us at the Writers Academy last week, as he wonderfully does every year.

He was asked...

For many writers the thought of going to write on a continuing drama series makes them worry they are going to lose their individuality, their voice, who they are. What would you say to that?

"Get real. You should be so lucky. There are brilliant writers on Coronation Street, on EastEnders. I know sometimes it can look naff, but that's often down to other things. These are really good writers. If you get the chance to write something that goes out in front of eight million, nine million people, how dare you turn your nose up at that? You should give your right arm for it. I loved and hated the show I worked on. But mostly I loved it."

Quite.

Happy Christmas
x

It's been a rollercoaster few weeks for us and them, and it always goes by in a flash, so it's hard to believe it's nearly over. They've written wonderful adaptations of fairy tales - some of which I'm sure will get made as films one day. They've stood on sets and watched filming. They've structured and restructured the same episode of Holby City. They've watched a lot of telly and lots of movies. They've had wonderful generous sessions with Russell T Davies, Richard Curtis, Tony Jordan, Peter Bowker and a host of other writers at the top of their game. But most of all they've written, written and rewritten.

So they're about to go off and do one of the hardest and most rewarding writing jobs in television. Any advice you want to give them, you writers out there? The experienced and the less experienced... what should we tell them?

So the course is up and running, and the writers have been working away for three weeks now up at the classroom in Elstree. I won't embarrass them by talking about them, but perhaps I'll persuade one or two of them to contribute to the blog soon. Anyway, it's all going very well. They've had lectures from John Yorke on structure, character, and from others on production, casting, acting and formatting. They've had set visits to EastEnders, Holby and Doctors, and are already working away on their first Doctors script. This morning we've had Richard Curtis in talking to the group - a huge treat.

Last night we had a bit of a reunion of all five years worth of writers. They all still seem to be mostly friends. And the sense of being together as a group each year, still helps them through the toughest commissions. That, and the paranoia that they think everyone else is doing better than they are!

Also today sees the launch of the new Continuing Drama pages on the writersroom website. We've put up a lot of information about the various ways we get new writers on to the shows - through our Shadow Schemes and the Writers Academy. There is also an interview with John Yorke, who talks about what writers need to write for Continuing Drama. We hope the pages will be a source of information for writers and agents alike, and much of what is on there comes from questions asked by regular contributors here. So... thanks.

...I hear some of you ask. "Don't you just give places to writers you know anyway?"

It's true we do know many of the writers who make it on to the course. But that's because me and the team spend the rest of the year reading work and meeting writers. It's our job to know as many writers as possible. We read submissions from agents, go to the theatre, speak at courses, attend readings, talk to other parts of the BBC, get scripts sent from the Writersroom - all year round. I have - oh - fifteen scripts from writers who's work I've never read on my desk at this precise moment.

However, the joy of the Writers Academy application process is that total unknowns (to us) make it through. I've had a look at this year's short list to give you an idea.

28 writers were shortlisted for the workshops. Of those...

Six were writers who's work we hadn't come across at all
Six had applied in previous years (one of those had got through to the interview stage and one had been shortlisted in previous years)
Six were writers whose work we knew because their agents had sent it to us
Five were writers whose work had been sent to us by the Writersroom
One was a writer I met on a Writersroom course
Two were theatre writers who we'd met after seeing their work
One was recommended to us by Radio Drama
One was recommended to me by a Script Editor

The Writers Academy 2009 will be:

Tim Price
Shazia Rashid
Kim Revill
Nicola Wilson
Simon Vinnicombe
Tahsin Guner
Stacey Gregg
Lauren Klee

Big congratulations to them!

We're now down to the final 13 who will be interviewed next week. The two workshop days last week were brilliant. Kate Rowland and I met twenty nine writers and they got to find out a bit more about Continuing Drama and whether it was for them. All the writers were good, but it was a process of finding who we felt could be the "all rounders" - those who'd be as a happy writing Holby as Doctors, EastEnders as Casualty.

The joy of the whole workshop process is we're uncovering talent, not just for the Writers Academy but for the whole department. Each writer who doesn't make it onto the Academy is given feedback and looked at by the shows separately - either for commission or for one of the shadow schemes which all four shows are running. The Writers Academy is just one way into writing for Continuing Drama, and it's by no means the only way, and I am really hoping lasting relationships will be formed with some of the shortlisted writers by individual shows too.

The involvement of the Writersroom also means that the writers will be given access to other parts of the BBC - advice on how to get seen by Radio, Childrens etc...as part of their feedback.

So, for those who don't make it past this stage the story doesn't end here....

It's been a month since I last blogged, and we've now shortlisted down to thirty writers. This means that everyone who entered should have received a "yes" or a "no". If you haven't - something's gone wrong - so you need to get in touch with us directly.

This is the longest stage of the process. Each of the 150 long-listed scripts was read in full by two members of the drama department and marked in eight categories: Dialogue, Character, Narrative Structure and Pace, Distinctive Voice, Emotional Appeal, Visual Storytelling, Credible World and "Did it keep your attention?". Each section is marked out of five and so the final score is a mark out of 80. It's tough "scoring" writing ability, but at least it gives us something to hang our responses on and it's the best system we've come up with so far. Anyone got a better suggestion I would love to hear it!

The team and I then read as many of those as is humanly possible (usually all those with marks over 50). We then (and only then) look at the application forms and factor those into the equation:
- Do they watch (or at least pretend to watch!) Continuing Drama? - you'd be amazed those applications that don't even mention the programmes... or television!
- Do they have some knowledge of the pressure they'll be working under?
- Do they come across as writers who can work collaboratively? - really difficult to judge, and this is what the workshops are all about.
- What's their writing CV so far and how does it show an aptitude for this kind of writing? (that doesn't mean only writers who've worked on continuing drama before)
- Do they want it? - do they really want it? Again impossible to judge from 400 words on a stuffy online application form, but you have to try get to the heart of what they're saying and make a judgement on this.

Then... we get input from the Writersroom for anyone on the list who's work they've read, we ask around, we ask for second opinions, we compare notes... basically we do everything we can to try and make this rather artificial process as fair and as exhaustive as possible.

I'll be meeting the final thirty at the workshops later this week. We're very excited about them, and the quality of work this year, everyone agrees, has been higher than ever. If you didn't make it this time, I would really encourage you to try again next year. I could have filled the workshops several times over with worthy people.

We've now completed our first sift. My team and I shut ourselves away in the WritersRoom offices for three days and have "longlisted" the applications down to 150. The rest will have received emails telling them they didn't make it this time. So, if you haven't heard anything yet, you're still in the running.

The process of the first sift involves us reading the first ten pages of each script. If we then want to read further, the script is put forward for a further two complete reads by members of the Drama Department. This is the Longlist.

We can't provide any meaningful individual feedback for the 350 entries we reject at this stage, there's just too many, so I've tried to put down a few thoughts here that may be helpful.

It's a very intensive few days. What amazes me is that the best scripts do stand out, unequivocally. A good script lets the reader know within the first ten pages why it needs to be read. There is nothing more frustrating than reading 10 pages of a script and finding yourself wondering why the writer selected these characters and this situation. Some scripts seem so intent on establishing their world that they forget that something needs to happen with this world to generate a narrative.

Personally speaking, I felt there was more variety and ambition to the scripts submitted this year. Subject-wise there was more teen drama, more horror and more funerals. No idea why that is. I blame Skins! Again, as last year, it was often the theatre play scripts that stood out for their originality, maybe because writers felt they had more freedom with the format. There were certainly many technically competent television screenplays, but some of these told rather boring stories, or that simply wallowed in depression.

I've also put down some general thoughts gathered from the team:

Positives:

- Most of the readers felt that the standard was higher this year.
- Lots of bravery - interesting original worlds.
- Sparky dialogue
- Technically accomplished scripts (although this meant the need to be stand out original was greater)

Negatives:

- Too many stage directions
- Scripts opening with several pages of monologues
- Dialogue that sprouted facts endlessly
- Spelling mistakes and hard to read script formats

So, now we begin the process of shortlisting down to the final thirty people who'll be invited to the Workshops in July. I'll report back on that process towards the end of June.

Well the entries are all in - around 500 this year this year - well up on last year.

We're going to shut ourselves away now and read them all, so I won't have much to say for the next few weeks.

The plan is as follows:

- By the end of May we will let everyone know who didn't make it through the First Sift.
- By Early July we will be able to let everyone know who hasn't made the Shortlist.
- In Mid July we'll hold workshops for the shortlisted writers.
- In Late July we'll hold interviews and the final selection of eight writers will be made.

I'll report back at the various stages, and announce the final eight on this blog.

TTFN

Make sure you have uploaded your writing sample when you submit your application. I'm told we've had a few sent through with no scripts attached. I'll try and chase a few of these and let them know.

12 days to go....