Monday, June 09, 2008

Sharps first draft done; weird roast lamb urges

My current shampoo describes itself as Rosemary Mint. It's lovely stuff, even if all I have for hair at the moment is a millimetre of stubble on my planet-sized bonce. However, it does have one weird side effect. The aroma of mint is so strong, combined with a hint of rosemary, that it's making me crave roast lamb. Lamb's never been the cheapest of meats and with food prices soaring, it's madly expensive right now, so my craving go unsatisfied. Such is life.

On the plus side, I've finished the first draft of my entry for the BBC writersroom opportunity called Sharps. Most anyone can enter, so long as they don't have a TV drama writing credit for anyone longer than 15 minutes. That eliminates everyone who's script an episode of Doctors, for instance, or any other continuing drama series. So that makes Sharps effectively an entry level opportunity. As a consequence, I expect there'll be a lot of entries submitted.

Curiously, I'm eligible to submit to Sharps but was also qualified to apply for the BBC Drama Writers' Academy, thanks to my 15-minute radio play. Like everyone else who applied, I got my holding pattern email from the BBC on Friday. All the applicants' sample scripts are being read, expect further communications by Monday July 14th. Nice of them to keep us all updated, I appreciate that. But this does raise a question, one that's been backing my noodle.

Writers' Academy applications closed on May 12th this, and everyone will get a final response by July 16th - nine weeks later. Fair enough, these things take time and there's probably a lot of people in the loop. The Sharps scheme deadline is next Monday, June 16th - but successful applicants chosen for a first stage masterclass will be notified by Friday June 20th, according to the web page.

That's only four days later. Sixty-three days for the Writers' Academy, only four for Sharps? Yikes. Speed reading at its finest, folks!

2 comments:

Lucy V said...

I expect they will be reading the Writers' Academy scripts in full, whereas they have said they're doing the "ten page sift" on the Sharps scripts, so probably 95% of the scripts won't get a full read?

Anonymous said...

You can get a frozen shoulder blade of lamb for about 3-4 quid. Defrost it, then wrap it up in tinfoil (throw in a few herbs, olive oil and seasoning first) then slow roast it on 150 or 160 for 3 hours . Falls off the bone when cooked, extremely tender. Schlllup, gawgeous.