Thursday, June 30, 2011
Been rejected? Shrug, and move on...
[This is a re-post from elsewhere, as Blogger was unhelpful earlier.]
Got my BBC Writers' Academy rejection email yesterday, as did many others. I didn't progress from the longlist of 156 to the top 30 candidates. Bad news: there were at least 30 scripts entered that were better than mine. Good news: I can now make plans for September-December.
Curiously, I was less affected than when I last applied in 2008. Back then the Academy seemed like the be-all and end-all of my ambitions. I'd done a successful trial script for Doctors, but couldn't get a story of the day pitch banked to save my life. I didn't have an agent, didn't have many prospects. It was crushing.
Fortunately, I had the Doctors shadow scheme ahead to help quell my disappointment. That led to my first commission in 2009, and things have snowballed from there. I now have an agent, three eps of Doctors to my name and have written five eps of Nina and the Neurons, due for broadcast on CBeebies this year.
The Academy is no longer the sole focus of my ambitions. Getting in would be a brilliant turbo-boost, accelerating me from 30 minute to hour-long drama. It's a big leap, and one not easily made. The Academy would have helped with that transition, giving me direct access to the likes of Casualty and Holby City.
But the Academy is not the only way to make a great leap forwards. Writing a great, original spec script can get you noticed. If you live in Wales, Scotland or Ireland, you could target one of the drama series made locally. The BBC runs shadow schemes for all its continuing drama series, in addition to the Academy.
Don't forget radio drama, a great place to hone your craft as a writer. The BBC commissions dozens of new scribes every year for that medium. One credit there makes you a more credible prospect. And there are plenty of other schemes and competitions, like Get A Squiggle On and the Red Planet Prize.
If you pin all your hopes on a single opportunity like the Academy, it's like staking your mortgage on a longshot at the Grand National. A few people end up smiling, but most lost out. So for everyone who got their rejection emails yesterday, I know exactly how you feel. It's time to shrug, and move to the next thing.
Onwards!
Got my BBC Writers' Academy rejection email yesterday, as did many others. I didn't progress from the longlist of 156 to the top 30 candidates. Bad news: there were at least 30 scripts entered that were better than mine. Good news: I can now make plans for September-December.
Curiously, I was less affected than when I last applied in 2008. Back then the Academy seemed like the be-all and end-all of my ambitions. I'd done a successful trial script for Doctors, but couldn't get a story of the day pitch banked to save my life. I didn't have an agent, didn't have many prospects. It was crushing.
Fortunately, I had the Doctors shadow scheme ahead to help quell my disappointment. That led to my first commission in 2009, and things have snowballed from there. I now have an agent, three eps of Doctors to my name and have written five eps of Nina and the Neurons, due for broadcast on CBeebies this year.
The Academy is no longer the sole focus of my ambitions. Getting in would be a brilliant turbo-boost, accelerating me from 30 minute to hour-long drama. It's a big leap, and one not easily made. The Academy would have helped with that transition, giving me direct access to the likes of Casualty and Holby City.
But the Academy is not the only way to make a great leap forwards. Writing a great, original spec script can get you noticed. If you live in Wales, Scotland or Ireland, you could target one of the drama series made locally. The BBC runs shadow schemes for all its continuing drama series, in addition to the Academy.
Don't forget radio drama, a great place to hone your craft as a writer. The BBC commissions dozens of new scribes every year for that medium. One credit there makes you a more credible prospect. And there are plenty of other schemes and competitions, like Get A Squiggle On and the Red Planet Prize.
If you pin all your hopes on a single opportunity like the Academy, it's like staking your mortgage on a longshot at the Grand National. A few people end up smiling, but most lost out. So for everyone who got their rejection emails yesterday, I know exactly how you feel. It's time to shrug, and move to the next thing.
Onwards!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
NZ holiday snaps: Random pics
This looks like Miami, Los Angeles or some tropical island, perhaps. In fact it's in Napier, a city all but wiped out by an earthquake 80 years ago. They rebuilt the city in the style of the day: art deco. I'll post a bunch of pictures from Napier soon.
I took several eps of Nina and the Neurons out to New Zealand to see if one of my younger nephews would enjoy the show. [Alas, now of the five eps I've written were available when I fly out.] My nephew fell in love with it, as proven by this picture of him staring at perky Nina on a TV screen.
This is a small creek, headed for one of the most northerly beaches on the South Island. Very close to the charmingly named Farewell Spit, which was unfortunately underneath a high tide the day I went for a look.
Proof - if proof were needed - that putting traffic cones on statues is a worldwide activity. Here some scamps have added not one but two cones to a statue in Auckland, just off Mayoral Drive. There's a closer view below.
This billboard caught my eye in Taupo, think it's for water heaters or somesuch. What tickled me was the salesman's enthusiasm, the eager response from the woman, and the sour face on her boyfriend/husband. A closer view below.
Last but not least, here's a native NZ bird called the Kakopo. It was at the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Center, home of the recently hatched white Kiwi, Manukura. Sadly, you couldn't see Manukura the day I visited. Sigh.
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