BBC Writersroom – 6 tips from former winner Laurence Tratalos
Before I say anything about entering this years BBC Writersoom (comedy), let me just say that I’m no expert. I’m young, inexperienced and most of the advice I’m offering has been handed down to me by far more knowledgeable people.
I entered my script for the BBC Writersroom scriptroom 9 (comedy) back in March. At the time I was living in Melbourne, and I actually wrote the script whilst sitting on a park bench as I had no internet at my flat. I wrote a pilot called Leonard’s Having A Baby, about a twenty-something who discovers his girlfriend is pregnant just before he can break up with her.
This story has been covered before but I guess what was original about my script was my take on a familiar subject. The writersroom are looking for your ‘voice’ to come across in the scripts they read. You might be writing a flat-share comedy or a sitcom set in a hotel, that’s okay as long as you make sure you have something new to say about that tried and tested subject.
Entering is really easy as well, you just go the writersroom website, click submit, create an account and upload your pdf. Don’t worry about including a layout of the whole series, I didn’t and it didn’t affect my chances. Just make sure your script is as good as it can be. Make it funny, make the characters stand out, the dialogue zing and the story surprise.
There were over 2,200 scripts entered so I didn’t hear anything until July. I was invited for a meeting at Salford’s BBC. I met with the head of the writersoom and one of their producers. We talked for a long time, our meeting ran over a bit, which is usually a good sign. They told me they liked my ‘voice’ –- there’s that word again — and we spoke about my writing plans for the future. I made sure that they saw how passionate I was about writing and the other projects I had been working on. That takes me onto my first tip.
- Make sure you have written other scripts before entering a competition. If you win something you want to be prepared for people who say, ‘okay, we liked that, but what else do you have?’ I’m not saying you need to have written tons of stuff but at least have a few scripts and a couple of ideas in the pipeline.
- As this is comedy, make the reader laugh on the first page. You only have ten pages to impress them but lots of readers will make a decision on a script after only reading the first few.
- Get to the story as quickly as possible. Don’t spend the first ten pages introducing your characters. Put them in a situation, give them a goal. Be as economical as possible. This mainly applies to sitcom as you only have 25-30 pages to tell a story but if you’re entering a 90 page script then you have a bit more leeway.
- Make sure it looks like a proper script. If you don’t want to shell out a hundred pounds for Final Draft download Celtx for free. I used it for years and it’s great.
- Great characters make great comedy. Think of all the great sitcoms, it’s the characters not the situation that keeps you coming back week after week. Make sure all your characters have different points of view. Comedy comes through difference, not just conflict. An easy way to highlight their differences is to get them talking about the same subject.
- Finally. Have an active protagonist. This is probably the most important piece of advice I can offer. Passive characters are the death of a comedy script. It’s the characters who get themselves into tricky situations (David Brent, Alan Partridge, Mark and Jez) that make comedies.
But at the end of the day, what do I know? Some people break all these rules and get hailed as geniuses. You might disagree with everything I’ve said and get chosen as one of the 2016 winners. But trust me on the sunscreen.
Laurence Tratalos
@loztrat