BBC Writersroom Newsletter

The new edition of the BBC writersroom newsletter is now available online.

The BBC writersroom website champions new writing talent in film, television, radio and theatre and runs schemes to promote new writing alongside providing resources to help writers hone their craft. For more information, visit the website at www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom

Highlights from the current newsletter include:

Continuing Drama Series
-----------------------
We've launched a new section on the website to talk about the BBC's Continuing Drama Series and how the process of finding writers for them works.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/continuingdrama.shtml

John Yorke
----------
Interview with the Controller of BBC Drama Production and New Talent.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/john_yorke.shtml

Tony Marchant
-------------
Read our interview with Tony Marchant, the writer of Holding On and Garrow's Law.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/tony_marchant.shtml

Jimmy McGovern
--------------
Interview with the writer of Cracker, The Street, The Lakes, Brookside, and many more...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/jimmy_mcgovern1.shtml

James Parriott
--------------
Interview with the showrunner of new SF Drama Defying Gravity.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/james_parriott.shtml

John Collee
-----------
Interview with the writer of Creation, Happy Feet, and Master and Commander.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/john_collee.shtml

Dean Craig
----------
The writer of Off The Hook and Death at a Funeral tells us about his career.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/dean_craig.shtml

Simon Maxwell
-------------
Interview with the producer of new drama Off The Hook.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/simon_maxwell.shtml



New Scripts
-----------
Our scripts are in PDF format - if you can't read them, download Adobe Reader from http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/categories/plug/acrobat/acrobat.shtml?intro

Holby City: Just A Perfect Day by Dan Sefton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/downloads/scripts/holby_city_s11e32.pdf

Holby City: Out of the Woods by Rob Williams
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/downloads/scripts/holby_city_s11e48.pdf

Don't forget you can browse through all of the scripts in our script archive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/script_archive.shtml

Submitting your script to BBC writersroom
-----------------------------------------
Want to write for the BBC? Find out what to send us on our script submissions page.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/submissions_writersroom.shtml

Stoke-on-Writing Submission Guidelines

At it's last meeting, the group adopted a set of guidelines for submissions. The purpose of these is to ensure that group members are submitting work to a standard that publishers would expect. The guidelines are those specified as the standard professional layouts for prose and poetry and apply to all group members when submitting pieces of writing.

Prose Writing

The following criteria are those specified as the standard professional layouts for prose writing:

· Text should be double line spaced

· Margins of at least 3cm at either side of the page should be used

· A 12 point standard font (Times New Roman, New Courier, Arial) should be adopted

· The first line of every paragraph should be indented, with the exception of the first line in each chapter or section

· There should usually be no space between paragraphs. A line space between paragraphs indicates a section break – a change of scene, or viewpoint or to indicate that some time has passed

· Asterisks can be used to draw attention to a section break that falls at the end of a page, that otherwise might be missed by the reader

· Dialogue – each person’s speech should begin a new paragraph (indented). Single quotation marks should be used for speech and quoted words within the text. Double quotation marks should only be used when they occur within another pair e.g.

‘I can’t explain it,’ he said. ‘It’s a complete mystery.

‘He couldn’t explain it,’ William said. ‘Just that it was a “complete mystery” to him.’

This is the modern standard for writing dialogue, which is widely specified by today’s publishers and editors.

· Alternatively, if preferred, the more traditional approach of using double quotation marks can be used instead for speech. In this instance further quoted words within the text should be enclosed using single quotation marks i.e.

“I can’t explain it,” he said. “It’s a complete mystery.”

“He couldn’t explain it,” William said. “Just that it was a ‘complete mystery’ to him.”

Poetry

· Stanza breaks and the gap between the title and the first line of the poem should be indicated by an extra line space, otherwise, poems should be single-spaced within stanzas

· Margins should be positioned to the left of the page (poems should not be centred). This requirement does not prevent the writer from indenting lines as part of the poem

· The title of the poem should be in bold type

Copyright notes

The issue of copyright was recently raised. Here is a very brief explanation. I suggest you look at the relevant chapters in a current edition of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, or read guides such as The Writer’s Rights by Michael Legat or An Author’s Handbook by David Bolt.

In the UK, if you write something original, it is your intellectual property. You own the copyright to that material. It does not need to be published for the assertion of copyright. Copyright means that no one is allowed to copy that material without your permission – which you give, for example, when you sell a manuscript to a publisher. You can give away or assign the copyright to someone else, should you wish (this may happen with some short story or poetry competitions, I believe). Copyright extends beyond the death of the artist (writer) by 70 years. Often, authors emphasise their ownership by adding © or (c) "your name" to a manuscript, but I don’t believe this is essential.

Remember: you can not copyright ideas. Any author has the right to produce work with similar themes or using the same facts. And of course, if you wish to include a quote (eg, song lyrics) in a story, you must gain permission from the copyright owner.
.

Ellen Datlow's Writing Tips

I contacted Ellen yesterday, and she gave permission for the following article to be reprinted on this blog.

WRITING TIPS BY ELLEN DATLOW

Are you writing for yourself or an audience? If you're lucky and good, you can do both at the same time. How accessible must you be? How accessible do you want to be? There are fine writers in and outside the sf/fantasy, and horrors field who are respected and read by editors and other writers but who don't sell very well.

This matters more in novel form than in short fiction. A writer can afford to be more experimental in short fiction because each story in a magazine or anthology does not sell the entire magazine or book. Each novel published needs to make money for the publishing house. You can and indeed must be literate in everything you write, but this does not mean you must be "literary."

When submitting fiction to an editor, send it in as finished and polished as you can. A story can only be read a first time once. In other words, impact counts. Editors are more likely to buy a story that hits them strongly on the first read. Whether a story is meant to be read more than once or not, the first read is the most important.

If you're having trouble with dialogue, I highly recommend reading the work of Elmore Leonard. You can pick up almost any of his books, turn a page at random, and find terrific, effective dialogue. People speak in idiom. Most people do not speak with perfect grammar or sentence structure. If you are using formal dialogue intentionally—for example, to show that a character speaks English as a second language—it's allowable. Leonard's dialogue runs fast and furious. It's not appropriate for every kind of story, but you can still learn from him.

The first line and paragraph of a story count. To see examples of effective first lines, check out William Gibson's stories in his collection BURNING CHROME. You don't have to start off with a bang, but something has to hold the reader—an image, a character, a hint of an event to come. This is known as the "hook." Practical advice on submitting a story:

• Always double space
• Paper clip your submissions
• Do not put tape on every corner of your submission envelope as it makes it exceedingly annoying and difficult for whomever is opening the envelopes to do so.
• Underline to show italics—do not italicize in a manuscript as it makes it difficult for the editor and copy editor to read.
• Use a standard, easy-to-read 12 pt font

(c) Ellen Datlow

Editorial advice

One issue that troubles many newer writers is how to get one's manuscript read by an editor. Ellen Datlow is one of the finest editors in the SF, fantasy and horror fields, but her advice is applicable to all types of writing. She says, "When submitting fiction to an editor, send it in as finished and polished as you can. A story can only be read a first time once. In other words, impact counts. Editors are more likely to buy a story that hits them strongly on the first read. Whether a story is meant to be read more than once or not, the first read is the most important." Read her advice on her website.