In 2005, Stephen Riley sent his radio script, The Birth and Death of Daylight, to BBC writersroom. A script reader recommended the piece highly and in 2006 it was eventually chosen for The Wire on Radio 3.Stephen takes up the story himself on the BBC Writersroom website.
To be honest, I originally wrote this piece for radio because I knew radio was a medium that's open to new writing. But I found the whole process to be genuinely collaborative, focused on the story, and extremely supportive throughout.
There were compromises and things I could have done a lot better, but the story is out there, and it was a lot of fun doing it. Now I've just got to try and do it again...
I'm not sure if this is meant to encourage the unestablished writer but lets look at some facts.
ReplyDeletePaul Ashton of the Writers Room in his spin to the UK Writers magazine said that out of 10,000 scripts received in 2005 three got commissions.
That is 0.03%
Now does that encourage you?
Fair comment. Writersroom does sometimes make it seem like success is only an unsolicited manuscript away. But always good to hear about a writer who does make it through the system.
ReplyDeleteJimmy Mcgovern says that TV does not need writers, TV needs fresh vibrant uncliched stories and you will not get that from established writers.The more experienced the writer the more hackneyed and cliched the story. Experienced writers see what is on TV and regurgitate it, because that's what is on TV, and that's what commissioning Editors want.
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