Debbie Hill, a student on the Professional Writing course at Falmouth College, attended a question and answer evening held by the BBC for writers. Here is what she found. This article first appeared on her college's award-winning website. To see more examples of writing by Falmouth students, visit its website by clicking here: www.falmouth.ac.uk/bloc

It was the evening of the 25th of July and facing a packed auditorium of hungry writers sat three of the most important people from the BBC Television and Radio Drama department: Lucy Hannah, Pauline Harris and Joe, who was from Theatrical, but they were careful not to give his name.

The team sat on matching chairs around a table and gave a brief introduction to the evening. Then, as expected, invited the audience to initiate and lead the discussion. Apart from their casual attire, they resembled a panel of interviewers, although they probably went home with the feeling that they were the ones who had just undergone a gruelling interview.

The Drum Theatre in Plymouth was the setting for the BBC Question and Answer evening which was arranged to provide information and encouragement to the considerable number of writers living down in the South West. The evening was just part of a whole range of activities organised by the New Writing Initiative which was set up two years ago to target and discover new writing talent. The tickets were complimentary and the auditorium was filled with writers, wannabee writers and people who were curious to see the bigwigs at the BBC face-to-face.

I am coming to realise that writing can be a very disheartening and disenchanting business and it is this, I feel, that led to the atmosphere of aggression and suspicion that was present in the auditorium. Many people were downright rude to the speakers and many of the writers asked questions such as, "Why is there so much soap star-led dross on the television when there is so much exceptional writing talent going to waste?" or "Why is there never anything down in this part of the country to help writers?" in such an aggressive and unpleasant manner that implied that these things were the fault of the speakers.

In the circumstances, I thought the speakers were nothing short of diplomatic and understanding of the frustrations of breaking into such a competitive field. With this in mind, their honesty was refreshing. There was no point in them feeding the writers with rubbish about the chances of them seeing their original screenplay ending up on the television, when that is just not the reality. As it was admitted, that scenario has happened only once in the last ten years. The fact that only one script has been good enough to warrant immediate production illustrates the need for an initiative like the one they run, which promotes much sought-after writing talent.

The point of the initiative - that the BBC wants to read original scripts to see that the writer can sustain a plot, write believable characters and maintain a workable structure - seemed to be totally overlooked. Rather than realising that the initial script was a springboard for a possible writing career across different platforms at the BBC, people seemed more concerned with considerations such as having their ideas stolen and the pointlessness of writing about subjects in which the BBC has no interest.

Many of the audience were clearly not listening to what was being said as people were repeating questions that had already been posed and generally conveying that they had made up their minds to be disappointed before they had even arrived. It may seem harsh of me to suggest that these people had the wrong attitude to be writers, but I think this is not an unfair comment since it was very clear from all three speakers that the BBC needs us as much as we need them and that talent in any kind of writing would be picked up and nurtured.

Over the last two years the BBC has received between 8,000 and 9,000 scripts a year - which is an average of around 200 per week. To date, between 40 and 50 writers have been actually developed and put onto various screen writing courses and worked with on a variety of television and radio projects. Whilst these statistics may seem to convey the difficulty of actually getting anywhere, they also highlight that the BBC is committed to upholding a very high standard of quality writing. I was nothing but encouraged by the information that was shared that night, particularly since there seems to be more collaboration between departments than there has ever been. I was introduced to the possibility of writing for the radio, which is something that I had never considered before and I came away with the feeling that once taken on as a writer, the opportunities for writing in different mediums would be immense.

The most significant thing that came across to me from the night's discussions was that writing is hard work. It is not about giving up at the first hurdle and thinking that everyone is out to steal your ideas and exploit you. It is not about dashing off a script and thinking that writing is easy. It is about persistence, accepting criticism and being passionate enough about what you are trying to say. It is about caring so much about your script that you are prepared to write and rewrite it until it is as good as it can possibly be.

The BBC are desperate to find people who they can take under their wings and the New Writing Initiative positively welcomes unsolicited scripts, assessing them with a view to finding a home for writers that display real promise. Far be it for me to stand in judgement but I'd like to suggest that with such negative attitudes the majority of people sat in that auditorium last night are doomed to fail from the outset. Anyone wishing to write or considering a career in screen writing would benefit from taking heed of the motto: If at first you don't succeed, try try again.

© Debbie Hill August, 2000

HELPFUL ADDRESSES:

• Pauline Harris, Radio Drama
  BBC New Broadcasting House
  PO Box 27
  Oxford Road
  Manchester M60 1SJ
  

  Films & Single Drama:
  

• Terry Barker
  Development Co-ordinator
  Room 436, BBC Broadcasting Centre
  Pebble Mill Road
  Birmingham B5 7QQ
  

  Comedy (TV & Radio):
  

• The Comedy Script Unit
  Room 4006, BBC Television Centre
  Wood Lane
  London W12 7RJ
  

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