just write 4radio

A Book List for Radio Writers

June 15, 2013 by justwrite4radio

A BOOKLIST FOR RADIO DRAMA WRITERS

There are those who believe that somehow writing can’t be taught, it’s instinctive. They hold that writers are born not made. Well maybe James Joyce or Graham Greene were born writers but for the rest of us writing is hard work, a job of honing the craft and learning from everything that went before. Playwrights aren’t called playwrites. They are play makers and like craftsmen must learn their trade and practice it every day to stay in order to compete in the market place.

For the radio dramatist the best way to learn is to listen to as many plays as possible. Familiarise yourself with the methods, the techniques used, the themes, the rhythms, the dialogue, and everything that goes in to the making of a play. After this read as many scripts as possible. Radio scripts aren’t as commonly available as movie scripts but they are there if you look hard enough. The BBC Writers Room website has a section devoted to television and radio scripts, so click on that site and absorb as many plays in the original formatting as possible.

Then there are the how-to manuals. Again some people dismiss these as unnecessary. I couldn’t disagree more. There is plenty to be learned from these books for both the beginning writer and the experienced professional. A writer is constantly learning and if you only find a few useful ideas in an instructional book then that’s maybe enough. The writer’s mind must constantly be open.

The shelves of bookshops today groan under the weight of scriptwriting manuals for movies and television. Guides for radio are harder to find.

These are a few that I have found useful over the years. They are in no particular order.

Writing for Radio by Rosemary Hortsman
This is a basic text covering all aspects of writing for radio. It includes, as an appendix, the text of ‘This Gun in my Right Hand is Loaded’ the spoof play written by Timothy West to show how radio writing should not be done.
This book is, I think, out of print but here’s a tip, it’s currently available on Amazon at 1p. Get it.

Radio Drama by Tim Crook
This is possibly the most intellectual work on Radio Drama. It’s a highly opinionated but very enjoyable read. He brings in Roland Barthes and structuralism so that’s the territory we’re in. The work includes an excellent critical examination of ‘Spoonface Steinberg’, Lee Hall’s brilliant radio play.

Writing for Radio by Vincent McInerney
McInerney goes into the philosophy of radio writing and examines the theoretical aspects. He covers not only drama, but short stories, documentaries, drama documentaries and poetry. There is also a section on radio advertising.

Writing for Radio by Shaun McLoughlin
McLoughlin’s is an authoritative work, as he spent over twenty years as a drama producer in BBC Bristol. There’s a lot of anecdotal material among the practical advice. As well as dealing with writing, there are sections on directing radio plays and acting on radio.

Radio Drama Handbook by Richard J. Hand

Radio Scriptwriting by Sam Boardman-Jacobs

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged RADIO DRAMA, radio dramatist, radio formatting, radio play, radio writer, writing for radio | Leave a Comment »

Writing for The Archers

May 19, 2013 by justwrite4radio

WRITING FOR THE ARCHERS

Part One – The Spec Script.

Recently I was asked to script edit a radio writer’s spec script for the Archer’s on Radio 4. This encouraged me to look again at what it takes to write for a continuing series on radio and to make some observations on the whole business of spec script writing for television and particularly for radio.

Here I will examine the dos and don’ts of writing an episode for a continuing series.

If you want to write for a series like Coronation Street or EastEnders or Hollyoaks be sure to choose a series that you enjoy watching or listening to, and for which you feel best qualified to work. Make sure you know the programme thoroughly. Find out the name of a script editor by watching credits or contacting the programme office. Have a sample of your work available and send it to the script editor with a covering letter. If your work appeals then you may then be asked to write a ghost episode.

It is generally not a good idea to write a spec script based on an episode of the show. Script editors are more interested in seeing how you well can write first, before offering you a ghost episode. Send a play or a movie or radio script first.

If you are interested in writing for the Archers however, the producers there take a slightly different view. They will send you a script pack, which contains some writing tips, a sample script, sample synopses and a story line on which to base your episodes. You are then asked to submit outlines of a week’s episodes (that’s six episodes) and a completed script for one of these episodes.

A promising submission could win a place on a mock script-meeting day. This enables the producers to sound you out and to discover how well the sort of suggestions you make might sit within the shows ethos. If you appear to be of the right stuff you will then be given a further storyline to confirm how well you handle it in writing terms.

Be aware that this is a very difficult process and only a few writers are chosen. So be sure you really know and love the show before setting out on this journey.

Writing a spec script for any show is a particularly difficult venture. It isn’t enough to just write as well as the current writers on the show. You have to be great and you have to draw attention to yourself. You must have something which sets you apart.

The producer wants you to bring a personal voice and fresh ideas to the show. Do not slavishly follow the story outline you’ve been given. Follow the spirit of it but find new and interesting ways to interpret the story you’ve been given. Do not think that you are there to write clever dialogue. Yes, smart dialogue is important, but you must bring something new to the story too. The producer is looking for surprises. Find them.

If you do get a chance to write for the Archers also be aware that is very hard work. A writer is typically given 5 or 6 days to come up with outlines for 6 episodes then around 11 days to actually write the 6 scripts. That’s a very tight schedule. Also the stories might well be overtaken by events as in the case of the foot and mouth outbreak where episodes were being written and re written on the day of the broadcast.

However people working on the show really enjoy the work and wouldn’t have it any other way. So if you think writing for the Archers is your thing it is worth the effort to give it a try but be really sure what you’re doing and what you’re letting yourself in for first.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dialogue, Radio spec script, radio writer, script editor, script writing, The Archers | Leave a Comment »

The Browning Version on Radio 4

April 29, 2013 by justwrite4radio

DO NOT MISS THIS!

The Browning Version
You have just five days left to listen to this sensational production on BBC iPlayer.

I first heard this in June 2011 as I was driving into the city on a Saturday afternoon. It started up on BBC Radio4 and I was so captivated I drove around for an hour and a half, wasting petrol, polluting the environment and causing endless wear and tear on my battered jalopy-as well as on the nerves of other drivers.

The play is a masterpiece and a masterclass for writers. I broke down in tears at the traffic lights when retiring schoolmaster Crocker Harris is given a going away present from one of his pupils in the despised lower fifth. Michael York’s performance is up there with Michael Redgrave in the film version and the whole production reeks of class. Please don’t miss this.

Written by Terence Rattigan. A starry celebration of Terence Rattigan’s centenary. Michael York, Joanne Whalley, Ioan Gruffudd and Ian Ogilvy star in Terence Rattigan’s 1948 masterpiece. Set in an English public school on the last day of the summer term, buried emotions re-surface when unpopular classics master Andrew Crocker Harris is given a present on his final day.

A once-brilliant classicist, now known by boys and staff alike as ‘The Crock’, he is retiring due to ill health. When a pupil, Taplow, presents him with an unexpected gift (a copy of Browning’s translation of the Agamemnon) The Crock, also known as the Himmler of the Lower Fifth, is overwhelmed. His dammed-up misery, disappointment and humiliation are released and the way is paved for a series of surprising revelations and decisions.

A brand-new production directed by Martin Jarvis with an outstanding cast. Acknowledged as Rattigan’s enduring masterpiece, ‘The Browning Version’ shows the writer’s unrivalled ability to characterise repressed emotion, and provides a devastating portrait of a dead marriage. One of the finest, most moving and beautifully crafted plays of the 20th century.

In the second part of the programme Martin Jarvis, director of ‘The Browning Version’, reveals some of the play’s background and describes Rattigan’s hopes, fears and ambitions for its ongoing success. The reading – adapted from ‘Terence Rattigan – a Biography’ written by Geoffrey Wansell, describes some of the author’s ‘behind the scenes’ difficulties – and includes a number of surprising and very funny anecdotes concerning the play’s first production in 1948.
Director: Martin Jarvis
Produced by Rosalind Ayres

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Coming Up on BBC Radio4

March 8, 2013 by justwrite4radio

New Drama on Radio 4

Watch out for two cracker shows to be broadcast soon on BBC Radio 4.
These are two must-hear programmes for radio scriptwriters.

The first, Neverwhere is radio drama at it’s best and the second, Rhymes of Passion is the fascinating story of the fierce love affair between poets Eizabeth Smart and George Barker. Don’t miss them.

NEVERWHERE

Beneath the streets of London there is another London. A subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube stations. A somewhere that is Neverwhere.

An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his ordinary life into a subterranean world under the streets of London. Stopping to help an injured girl on a London street, Richard is thrust from his workaday existence into the strange world of London Below.

So begins a curious and mysterious adventure deep beneath the streets of London, a London of shadows where the tube cry of ‘Mind the Gap’ takes on new meaning; for the inhabitants of this murky domain are those who have fallen through the gaps in society, the dispossessed, the homeless. Here Richard meets the Earl of Earl’s Court, Old Bailey and Hammersmith, faces a life-threatening ordeal at the hands of the Black Friars, comes face to face with Great Beast of London, and encounters an Angel. Called Islington.

Joining the mysterious girl named Door and her companions, the Marquis de Carabas and the bodyguard, Hunter, Richard embarks on an extraordinary quest to escape from the clutches of the fiendish assassins Croup and Vandemar and to discover who ordered them to murder her family. All the while trying to work out how to get back to his old life in London Above.

A six part adaption of Neil Gaiman’s novel adapted by Dirk Maggs for Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra, sees James McAvoy as Richard lead a stellar cast which includes Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Sophie Okonedo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Anthony Head, David Schofield, Bernard Cribbens, Romola Garai, George Harris, Andrew Sachs, Lucy Cohu, Johnny Vegas, Paul Chequer, Don Gilet and Abdul Salis.

Beginning on March 16, 2013,[1] BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra will broadcast a new six-episode production of Neverwhere.[2] It will be available for worldwide replay on BBC iPlayer.
The one-hour pilot will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on March 16, 2013 with five half-hour episodes following on BBC Radio 4 Extra between March 18, 2013 and March 22, 2013.

The Show was produced in Belfast by Heather Larmour who had the brilliant idea of adapting the book for radio and was the brains behind getting the project produced.

RHYMES OF PASSION

About the Show
Laura Barton tells the story of the passionate, obsessive love affair that inspired the extraordinary poetic novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept.

Elizabeth Smart chanced across a book of poems by George Barker in a Charing Cross Road bookshop in 1939. It intoxicated her so much that she decided to marry him there and then, whoever he was. She tracked him down in Japan and embarked on an affair that would last for two decades and which led to Smart bearing four of Barker’s 15 children.

She would also produce the passionate prose poem By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept detailing the affair. It was an underground success when it was published in the 1940s but became both celebrated and reviled by the generation of feminists in the late 1960s.

Some might say Smart is an appalling role model for women, as she seemed utterly submissive to Barker. She was a single working mother of four in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. She moved to Europe in wartime and went on to become the highest paid copywriter in London. In many ways she was ahead of her time.

In this programme, Laura Barton discovers the real story behind By Grand Central Station… — a story of deceit and disappointment, but also, overridingly, of intense and passionate love.

Featuring Christopher Barker, Elspeth Barker, Sebastian Barker, Robert Fraser, Rosemary Sullivan and Fay Weldon.

Producer: Martin Williams.

The play will be broadcast on Monday 11th March 2013 at 11.00pm on BBC Radio 4.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged RADIO DRAMA, radio scriptwriters | Leave a Comment »

Getting Commissioned on Radio

February 4, 2013 by justwrite4radio

How to get commissioned

By John Morrison

By far the most important commissioner of radio drama is the BBC. Radio 4 in particular has a huge range of potential opportunities and its plays reach anything up to 1.5m listeners. Yet the opportunities it provides are sometimes overlooked by writers focusing on television and movies.

Radio playwriting provides many opportunities but it’s still very hard to be commissioned. In all writing there are far more writers than slots available.

Let’s look at the slots where drama can be heard on Radio4.

Radio 4 Drama

The Archers – this long-running soap opera totals 1 hour 15 minutes of air time per week, making for 65 hours a year

The Friday Drama – this is a 60 minute, post-watershed play. Right now it’s calledThe Friday Play, but is being rebranded.

The Saturday Play – a 60-90 minute play put on the afternoon

Woman’s Hour play – these are a series of five 15 minute ‘issues plays’ run over a week, during The Woman’s Hour magazine programme

Classic Serial – multi-part adaptations of contemporary and historical classics

The Afternoon Drama – an original 44 minute 15 second play broadcast every weekday – about 140 hours a year

Out of all those however, The Afternoon Drama is the only slot available to new writers. All the others have their own writing teams or are commissioned directly by Radio4. The Afteroon Drama is where we must turn our attention,

Understand the Radio 4 audience

I don’t want to be too prescriptive but it’s important to know just what type of an audience listens to the Afternoon Drama. They are mostly ABC 1s, they read the Daily Mail or the Telegraph, live in south-east England – mostly London- and are extremely well-informed. These aren’t my findings but the BBC’s own research. Of course all types listen to the Afternoon Pay but the majority of listeners fit this classification.

This audience is the backbone of Radio 4 and the Radio 4 audience is highly engaged and knowledgeable about current affairs. This means that plays that link with current affairs – or future current affairs – stand a better chance of getting commissioned.
The Radio 4 audience also loves reading, but it is highly unlikely that adaptations will be commissioned for the Afternoon Play, as the Classic Serial is already covers this territory. Instead, a different take on literature appeals to this audience.

Listen to Radio 4
Before writing for Radio 4 you have to listen to Radio 4’s plays. If you expect, tea and crumpets or “anyone for tennis” cosy dramas you couldn’t be more wrong. The Afternoon Drama engages with a huge range of topics and doesn’t shy away from the controversial. Very few subjects are really taboo. In my experience producers of radio drama want to be surprised and this is the perfect slot to take risks.

What makes a good Afternoon Play
As in all drama, the most important thing is story. No matter what the subject matter is, hook the audience into listening and the battle is won. A BBC producer described this slot as being “radio for curious minds”.

Plays that link into current affairs have a good chance of being commissioned. (upcoming elections, world events, environmental issues etc.)
Radio 4 listeners love history, but not “typical” historical biographies – the plays must reflect how people live now and be relevant to current society.

It’s only a personal observation but I would say that plays set somewhere other than places we our familiar with in television stand a good chance of being commissioned. Radio 4 likes to make plays set in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe etc as long as the story is good.

Make the play challenging. Avoid monologues or soap operas
It must be a single play that stands on its own accord.
Write in your voice – don’t try to emulate another writer. The best plays are ones that you, the writer are “desperate to tell”
Take risks. The Afternoon Play has the freedom to tell powerful, challenging, irreverent and disturbing stories

Straight through-line narrative is the best. So avoid cross-cutting or multiple thread narratives.

Dialogue is all-important – radio plays live and die on dialogue. If your dialogue is not superb, your play will not get on the air
Each Afternoon Play is precisely 44 minutes 15 seconds long – no shorter, no longer. In reality then you must be very close to this. No-one can be exact but plays will be cut or have added incidental music to fill this slot exactly.

But most important of all make sure you have done the very best you can with your material before sending it in.

Get Writing. What is a writer? A writer writes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged afternoon drama, getting commissioned, John Morrison, RADIO DRAMA, radio playwriting, Radio4, writer | Leave a Comment »

Script Editing and the Radio Writer

January 28, 2013 by justwrite4radio

Script Editing and the Radio Writer.

By John Morrison
Radio Opportunities
The BBC, easily the world’s most important producer and broadcaster of radio drama, receives thousands of spec radio plays every year. Of course there are loads of great opportunities across the range of BBC stations, particularly at Radio4. The Afternoon Play provides most opportunities for the new writer to break in to radio with over two hundred productions per year. There is also the Saturday Play, the Fifteen Minute Drama, The Archers and countless comedy shows. This is a vast amount of time to fill. Yet the supply still far outweighs the demand. Most of those thousands of hopeful plays, written by eager writers will not, alas, be produced.

Unfortunately most of these writers don’t give themselves a good enough chance of being produced. They submit their plays after only showing them to their mates or a school teacher or an actor they know or somebody who once went to school with Sam Mendes.

The First Ten pages
The BBC admits that it only reads the first ten minutes of plays and screenplays submitted to them. If they’re not grabbed by then they don’t read on. Only if they are hooked do they read the complete play. What chance has the new writer who hasn’t gone through a rigorous process of analysis and re-writing have of getting his bright new play read, let alone produced?

We are all far too close to our own work to properly see what we have on the page or understand what works and what does not. I have worked on radio and have had plays produced. I also write movie and television screenplays but I wouldn’t dream of submitting my work to a producer or broadcaster before I have it looked at and analysed by a script editor that I know and trust. Every time I’ve had my work analysed I’ve had fresh new insights into what works and what doesn’t and what can make it better. I don’t mean sometimes, I mean every time.

Give Yourself the Best Chance
Why would a writer not want to give himself the best chance of being produced by missing out this key element in the chain that starts with a blank page and ends up with a broadcast? We all need to be aware of this simple fact. Readers never say to themselves, “Oh yes I see what he’s getting at, I’ll just imagine the scenes that should have been there and not the one’s I’m reading”. Never.

You might think that of course I would say that. I’m offering a script editing service. Yes I am, but only because I have read so many plays that could have been much, much better if the writer had just consulted a good editor.

Somebody once said ‘there are fewer good readers than good writers’. I certainly wouldn’t go that far but a good reader can give your script that something extra that lifts it out of the ordinary and helps get it made. Isn’t that what we all want?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged John Morrison, radio script, radio script editing, radio writer, script editing, script editor, writer | Leave a Comment »

Check list for a finished radio play.

January 20, 2013 by justwrite4radio

Radio Drama Check list
By John Morrison

How to re-read your own work.

After you’ve finished writing your radio script put it away for at least two weeks then dig it out and read again. If you still think it’s great and needs no changes I’d be surprised but if you are unsure about what’s working and what isn’t (which you will be) use this check list to make sure your radio play is really as good as you’d like it to be. To be a real writer you must be ruthless in the checking. Try the John Morrison method.

Characters
Did you believe in them? If you’ve any doubts at all get back to work.
Is the speech pattern of each character (i) individual, (ii) true, (iii) consistent?
Do we know enough about everybody important to understand them fully? Are they written at sufficient depth?
Are their motivations clear? They must know what they want and so must the listener.
Do they develop or do they end the piece the same actual people as when it began? Your characters must change or to be more accurate they must grow and be different at the end. is is crucial to story telling.
Do they have a life of their own or are they puppets manipulated by the writer for his own purposes? Wtch out for giving characters opinions or dialogue that comes from you own opinions and not your characters. This is a common error we all make.

Conflict
Is there any? I mean that. There can be no drama without conflict so make sure it’s there.
Is the conflict something vague in the background. Someone struggling alone with their relationship with God for example would somehow need to be personalised.
Is anything of importance to the characters at stake? The ‘what’s at steak’ doesn’t need to be earth shattering for the listener but it needs to be that to your protagonist.

Action
Do people do things?
Does anything happen?
Does anybody make anything happen? (Or is it all a business of people chattering about things, or a mere portrait of an individual or a group?)
Does the play mark time while the characters unburden themselves?
Do people actually get to grips with things or is it all shadow boxing?

Plot
Is the story a mere succession of events (e.g. ‘This happened and then this happened and then…)?
Is it full of cause and effect? Can you say ‘therefore this happened’ or ‘despite that this happened’ between scenes?

Construction
Is there sufficient variety of pace?
Are the climaxes right? Do they appear at the right time?
Does the plot develop at the right speed?
Does the end work? What we look for is a surprise ending which still manages to appear inevitable.
Are the audience’s expectations satisfied?

Content
Is the theme implicit or explicit?
Is it clear what the piece is actually about?
Do the characters know?
Should they know?
Is it the right length for what you want to say?
Is the theme clearly illustrated or brought out by the plot?
Are you bringing your own individual point of view to the piece? This is very important. Sniff out any moments where you are trotting out a cliche or parroting someone else. This, more than anything could save your play.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged John Morrison, RADIO DRAMA, radio play, radio play writing, radio script, writer | Leave a Comment »

Writing Radio Drama – Some Great Links.

January 4, 2013 by justwrite4radio

HOW TO WRITE RADIO DRAMA – GREAT LINKS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/write-a-script/writing-radio-drama

The BBC’s own solid good advice on writing your play, getting it read and where Radio Drama can be found. The BBC is the world’s greatest producer of radio drama and this site is a must for all aspiring radio dramatists. Keep this on your favourites.

http://www.irdp.co.uk/scripts.htm

Tim Cook’s excellent site. He’s opinionated and controversial but dishes out some good sense.

http://www.storyinsight.com/techniques/media/BBCradio.html

This is good practical nitty-gritty stuff from the BBC back in 1981. It’s still relevant and a lot more useful than much of the stuff posted recently.

http://www.englishwordplay.com/writing.html

This is a brilliant fun site with a lot of wise thoughts and great clips from produced plays to illustrate the points made. A must hear.

http://charlieboddington.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/writing-radio-drama.html

This is a good interesting blog from a working writer struggling to write his first radio play. Well worth checking out.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged RADIO DRAMA, radio play | Leave a Comment »

How Not To Write A Radio Play. Part Two.

December 21, 2012 by justwrite4radio

Radio Drama Writing – The Classic Mistakes.

John Morrison, the writer, with the cast of Dan Quixote.

In an earlier blog I posted the first few pages of ‘This Gun I Have in My Right Hand is Loaded’. The classic how-not-to of radio drama.

This link will take to a recording of the complete play.

It’s a classic example of the mistakes new radio writers make.

It would be a worthwhile exercise to listen to it just before you sit down to turn your brilliant idea into a radio drama script.

In a later blog I will break down the play to discuss the avoidable gaffs.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged RADIO DRAMA, radio writers | Leave a Comment »

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just write 4radio

The Site for Radio Drama Writers by John Morrison

A Book List for Radio Writers

Writing for The Archers

The Browning Version on Radio 4

Coming Up on BBC Radio4

More Great Links-Radio Reviews

Getting Commissioned on Radio

Script Editing and the Radio Writer

Check list for a finished radio play.

Writing Radio Drama – Some Great Links.

How Not To Write A Radio Play. Part Two.

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