Paul Ashton
Blog posts in total 84
Posts
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Welsh New Writers
Writersroom, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Cymru Wales and National Theatre Wales are running an open event in Cardiff for Welsh writers who would like to come to masterclass sessions and surgeries to discuss writing for TV, radio and theatre. Take a look here for more details.
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Scotland Writes Masterclass
The 18 writers who progressed to the 'longlist' stage in the sifting process and beyond, including the final 6 sent to the judges, are coming along to the Scotland Writes masterclass this week in Glasgow (snow permitting). So if you haven't already heard from us about this event, then unfortunat...
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Imison Award Winner
Slightly late with this good news, but Lucy Caldwell who came on our 2007 Sparks Radio scheme, won the 2009 Imison Award for the best original script from a writer new to radio for her 2008 play Girl From Mars.
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UNSOLICITED SCRIPTS: AN UPDATE
Writersroom is updating the policy on what we do and don't accept, and compiling all our guidelines into one set of Terms & Conditions for anyone sending a script in to us. This is where it lives: Terms & Conditions. They will come into effect as of 1 December 2009. We will now refer writers ...
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Scotland Writes
Due to the recent postal disturbances we have a slight amendment to our dates for the Scotland Writes competition. The deadline for submissions remains the same. But in order that we receive scripts potentially caught up in sorting offices, we will start sifting them later than originally planne...
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Inverness Roadshow
We're sorry, but unfortunately the Inverness event scheduled for next week has been cancelled due to a lack of demand. All other roadshows are still scheduled to go ahead as planned.
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CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ final selection
The judges (Steven Andrew, CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Head of Drama and Anne Gilchrist, outgoing CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Controller) read the final shortlist of scripts and bowled over by the quality and range of work, we have selected the following eight writers for the residential: Kerry Drewery The Office of Imaginary Friends Ni...
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CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Masterclass
Yesterday we had our masterclass/workshop with 18 shortlisted writers, where we got to know them a lot better, they brainstormed children's drama, received feedback on their scripts, talked to writer Jo Ho about her forthcoming CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ show Bo and the Spirit World, and got to hear from the Controll...
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CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Competition
There has clearly been a flurry of comments about the CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ competition - I'm afraid I haven't been able to reply until today. But rather than deal with numerous individual comments, i'll try to make some more general ones about the submissions - We fully appreciate that it's frustrating to be...
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CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Competition
So the deadline for our CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ competition passed on Wednesday and we have received more than 700 submissions! Our crack team of readers are sifting through scripts as I blog and we will be contacting writers selected for the masterclass by the end of next week...
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CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Q&A
There are still spaces for our Q&A with new Head of Drama at CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and writer Ellie Brewer - if you would like to come, just turn up!
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CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ New Writing
A new call for original scripts from those who want to write Children's Drama has just been announced - take a look at our Opportunities page for more information
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Short Story competition
For those interested in writing short stories for radio inspired by classical composers, take a look at the new competition for The Verb on Radio 3.
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White Girl
You may have noticed that Abi Morgan's White Girl recently won a BAFTA for Best Single Drama. And the perceptive amongst you will have noticed we have the script on our website.
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The Perfect 10: 10. Be Yourself
And here's the last one, number 10: Be Yourself People have commented on the passion instalment how they were pleased to see it there as it's the kind of thing you don't usually get in script writing books etc. I think being yourself is just as important. Writersroom is primarily in the ma...
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The Perfect 10: 9. Passion
And here's instalment 9: Passion It's not an easy thing to explain, but one of the most important things we are looking for is that true, unquenchable desire in the writer to tell their story. You can tell very quickly when the writer really means it - and you can tell just as easily when ...
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The Perfect 10: 8. Exposition and Expression
Apologies for the late arrival of the next instalment, it's been extremely busy here... But here's number 8: Exposition and Expression Or in other words: dialogue. In truth, i think it's almost impossible to teach or learn how to have an ear for characters and their voices. It's perfectly ...
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The Perfect 10: 7. Structure
Slightly later than planned, but here's instalment 7: Structure Whole books have been written about this, so it feels foolhardy to try to tackle it in one blog. But I'm going to keep it focused and simple. In other words: story is structure. They are inextricably linked. A great story cann...
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The Perfect 10: 6. Surprise!
So, instalment 6: Surprise! It's a pretty obvious thing to say, but cliche and predictability kills story. That doesn't mean to say that you shouldn't be seeding anticipation and expectation of what might happen - and for them to make coherent sense. But if what happens feels consistently ...
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The Perfect 10: 5. Emotion
Happy New Year! And swiftly on to instalment 5: Emotion In Character is Everything, I talked about engaging with characters on an emotional level. But I think emotion is worth a discussion all to itself, because it is the thing that makes great stories resonate with us for years to come...