Writers' Festival 2011: Holby City - script to screen

August already? sigh. It's been weeks since the BBC writersroom staged the 2011 TV drama Writers' Festival and I still haven't typed up my notes. So here's the first in an occasional series, assuming I can decipher my very, very, very rusty shorthand and scribblings. Today: Holby City - script to screen.

“A nuts and bolts works on the story process from inception to execution with series producer Justin Young [JY], and script producer Simon Harper [SH].”

SH: There’s been a reshuffle at Holby. Justin was head writer, now series producer. [This change is about] making shows more writer-led. As story producer, I’m responsible for all scripts. On Holby we look for four things – head, heart, hooks and humour. I give out straight commissions to experienced writers, people who’ve written hour-long TV.

JY: Holby is an aspirational show about surgeons, ranging from very smart to smart in a different way. Subtext is crucial. A bad hour of Holby is the longest hour of TV of the week. You need a keen sense of structure. We look for really sharp, witty dialogue.

SH: Holby is so different to Casualty. It can be much more heightened, what we call 110% reality. Know and be passionate about the characters. There’s no emergency medicine, Holby doesn’t go outside the wards.

It’s elective surgery, so it’s seen through the eyes of the regulars. We’re trying to escape an hour of talking. We’re really driving incident and action.

I’ve just given out six straight commissions in a row [to writers with experience on one-hour dramas]. If a writer only has half hour experience, there’s departmental money to do shadow schemes.

On a shadow scheme, six writers spend a day at Elstree learning the structure of the show, about the world. We divide our show into A story [50%], B story [30%] and C story [20%]. More often than not, the story’s are all in different wards.

Shadow scheme writers are given six weeks to write a strand from a script. They go through three drafts, getting notes on each draft. Four of the six writers from last year’s scheme are now doing commissions for Holby.

The BBC Writers’ Academy has helped drive Holby [JY is a graduate of the academy]. But the academy isn’t the only way into Holby. I always have gaps, I’m always looking for new writers. Writing for Holby is about being good and passionate.

Holby isn’t a soap. We want you to write it as your hour, a crafted piece of drama – not just three strands of soap, bubbling away.

JY: It’s a remarkably authored show. You really can own your hour.

SH: Your guest story is very important to that. It can’t be superfluous. That’s a tricky balance to get right. I’m constantly liaising with agents, meeting people.

JY: We hold long term conferences for blue sky insanity, with the core writing team. Everyone pitches ideas. We’ll split into groups to tackle individual characters.

SH: Holby works in series, even though it’s on air all year round. Series 13 is on screen at the moment . Writing for series 14 is happening now, starts on TV in October.

We divide each series into quarters, with each quarter like a mini-series with its own arcs for all the regular characters. The story department, core writers and others will create a serial document for each quarter of a series. Then I book suitable writers for each ep.

JY: Each ep is a link in a larger narrative chain. The job of an ep writer is to craft their story link in the most interesting way.

SH: Once writers are contracted, they start talking about guest stories with the script editor(s). We keep an eye out for replication or duplication. Hold planning meeting for the whole quarter, everyone round a big table. That gives writers a sense of their ep within the larger arc. We thrash things out. When the commissioning doc is locked down, eps roll out in blocks of two e.g. 1 & 2, 3 & 4.

JY: The two day commissioning conference – two days locked in a room. Two eps, one script editor, looking at how the eps, the stories, the guest stories integrate. This gests writers tuned into the show’s characters, their specifics at that moment. I still get to the second draft of my own scripts sometimes and realise a character’s superfluous.

Day one focuses on ep 1 of the pair, but both writers are there to create a sense of continuity. Each story gets broken into beats, quite specifically.

SH: We’ll ask questions like why is that happening in the guest story? How is that relevant? Writers get research on medicine, it’s the writers job to make it sexy and interesting. Holby City is not a soap, it’s a medical drama. Medicine is the sword our characters wield.

The writer writes up their episode pitch over three pages. Gives it a title, outlines the thematic elements, breaks each story into five acts. Shows how guest stories play into the serial. What’s the big curveball that sets protagonist up for the day? Identify ad breaks.

JY: It’s really rigorous. Writers often comes to us with a character idea, not a story idea.

SH: You have got three serial stories, maybe an also story [like a D story, but deep in the background], and three guest stories. There can be up to ten strands, twisting and turning. It’s really challenging. We talk a lot about the four Hs of Holby City – Head [intelligent, smart writing], Heart [emotionally involving], Hooks [turning points that help drive the narratives] and Humour [sharp, snappy dialogue]. It needs erudition, smartness.

JY: Every scene should end on a question.

SH: The Holby City songtage [where an emotionally resonant song plays over a montage of the day’s storylines, often near the end of an ep] – that puppy dog moment is needed.

Holby used to be angsty, humourless, competitive. It needs banter and joy.

JY: Getting the tone right is very hard. It’s heightened but still needs to be real. Sexy and smart but still real.

SH: I teach the show quite regularly to new writers. There is a guest story formula.

After the 3 page document, writers move on to their scene by scene. There’s no virtue in rushing. You have to pin down the choreography of your story.

JY: An average script goes through five drafts. Sometimes you effectively end up writing three first drafts as part of that process.

SH: The US TV drama Grey’s anatomy is a wonderful model for aspirational and emotional appeal. Here’s a rough guide to have five act structure works in Holby…

Act One: set-up serial of protagonist’s wants and needs
Act Two: an explosive medical case comes through the doors
Act Three: coming as your medical case emotionally compromised by your situation
Act Four: it all goes tits up – emotionally, medically, etc
Act Five: Symbiotic resolutions – one plays into the other – resonance, not resemblance

JY: There really doesn’t always have to be resonance.

SH: In a spec script I need to see smartness, funny, a lightness of touch.

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!

My report card for 2010 - part 2

There's a lot of things I didn't do, or choose not to do this year. I stopped writing prose fiction after getting mucked about royally for much of 2008 on two proposed novels. To be honest, I haven't missed it. Teaching has filled that space, perhaps. I still have novels I want to write, but for now I'm enjoying other media too much.

I've also gotten out of the comics writing habit. Must be nearly two years since I scripted a new adventure for the Phantom. It got lost in the shuffle, thanks to teaching and TV drama commissions. But I'm working on a couple of story pitches this week, so it's likely I'll be squeezing some comics writing into 2011.

Didn't do a lot of non-fiction during 2010. The publisher of The Complete Inspector Morse sold its list to another company and I've been in discussions with them about an updated edition. There's been a lot of Morse activity, with eight new eps of Lewis [plus four more next spring], and a Morse stage. So that's another project for 2011.

I started a new TV drama calling card script, but it got sidelined by pressing deadlines for paying gigs. That has to change next year. My present calling card isn't bad, but needs rewriting. Plus it's a period piece. Downton Abbey may have taken the curse off period drama, but only if you've got big name talent attached to it.

My new spec is a contemporary piece, a project I'm really passionate about. Being away from it for several months has given me a clearer perspective [as is often the case]. Suspect that when I revisit it, I'll find it's over-stuffed with storylines and needs paring back to give the characters some room to breath, to establish themselves.

I marked a lot of student work in recent weeks. Nothing like seeing the flaws in somebody else's story to make you think on the niggling issues of your own. When in doubt, I've a tendency to add extra plotlines and story threads, rather than digging deeper into the characters I've got, their attitudes, their needs, wants and flaws.

So I have to keep that at the forefront of my mind when I return to my spec. Happily, it's got no further than the scene by scene. I can take it back to treatment stage, strip away the extraneous crapola and get to the heart of my characters. That's where I need to make the writing shine for the calling card to work on my behalf.

What else didn't I do in 2010? Didn't apply for the BBC Writers' Academy. Agonised long and hard about that decision. I knew I needed a new writing sample and didn't have one that felt good enough to submit, for a start. My knowledge of Holby, Casualty and EastEnders was a bit rusty, so that was another factor against going for it.

Getting in the academy is one in 100 odds. In the unlikely event I ever did get in, it would mean three months living hundreds of miles away from home with no chance of commuting. It would mean giving up family, friends and teaching. It would mean writing Doctors, Holby, Casualty and EastEnders - and nothing else. Total commitment.

The academy route isn't the only way forward. I got on to Doctors without it, and am making progress with my career goals, my ambitions. But I'm taking the long, slow route. Getting in the academy effectively turbo-charges parts of your writing career, offers shortcuts that circumvent the long, slow route. It's an alluring option.

In the next month or two I need to make my decision again - go for the academy in 2011, or stick with my own path. Guess that's a watch this space not. In the meantime, I need to set myself some goals for the coming year. Can't guarantee they'll all be specific, measurable and the rest of the SMART acronym, but I'll do my best.

So, what are my key objectives for 2011?

1. Write a new calling card TV drama script.

2. Get at least one new commission for Doctors.

3. Secure a commission for children's TV.

4. Write a feature screenplay.

The calling card TV drama script and screenplay are done to me. The commissioned-based goals do rely on other people for the vital yes, but will only happen if I devote time, wit and creative energy to preparation and securing opportunities. All these are achievable, but require hard work and discipline. Twas always thus. Onwards!