WordPress are still threatening me with that editor coming to level up my layout and I wish they wouldn’t as I have no idea what that means or when it will actually come. Oh wait, apparently it’s here and I have to select it. It tells me I can now use ‘blocks’ and I have no idea what that means either. Why does everything have to use such technical language? Why can’t they just say ‘if you click on this thing which you will find in the top-left corner then it will create a box for you to type in’? I seem to have created such a box here and I don’t know if I want it or not but it’s academic because I can’t tell how to undo it.
Phew! Now I’ve switched back to Classic Mode which is fine except I’m still getting those annoying messages about a new editor…
I don’t know about you (I expect it’s probably my age) but these days I find that there are just too many things for me to get my head around. No sooner have I got used to an app than they go and change it, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes just for the hell of it. Well I guess at some point I’ll try out this new editor, but preferably at a point where I’m not actually trying to write a post.
I’m still off Facebook so there will be radio silence from me on there, but none of this is what I was intending to blog about. It was this: every six months or so the BBC in her infinite wisdom has a Window; and when this window appears it’s the time for drama writers of all colours and persuasions to submit to the great Clearing-House of Drama called Writersroom:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/
Doesn’t matter what it is; whether a full-length play or a short drama, a series or a sit-com; whether it’s for TV or radio, it all goes to Writersroom. A great sifting then occurs and if you’re lucky they’ll pick up your contribution, give it a shake and send it to the editorial team to be half-baked, whereupon it will be sent back and forth endlessly before being (if you are exceptionally lucky) Actually Produced, at which point you may finally see some dosh for your efforts (though I’m not entirely sure they don’t pay on broadcast.) Is it worth it? Financially no, not at all. But in other ways yes; the idea of telling a story through radio drama intrigues me. I have a good ear for dialogue and whereas I have no sense of ‘theatre’ in the physical sense I do have a good sense of what works aurally, so I think I’m in with a chance.
This is not my first attempt at writersroom. I have previously submitted at least one radio play as well as a sitcom called Waiting for Theo (no prizes for guessing that Theo was based on OH). With sitcoms you send an outline of the series (usually six episodes to start) plus one full episode. It didn’t get commissioned but I did get a letter back saying they quite liked it, so that was something.
I’m not starting from scratch with this current project either: I had previously laid down the bones and written some scenes, so the story and all the characters are in place. It’s coming on quite nicely. And to help me I’m listening to as many radio dramas as possible, including this one:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0000z5g
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 