Small Children
This week's entry is prompted by one comment that suggested we might be excluding writers (mostly, it was assumed, women) who had to care for young families, because of the full on-nature of the course. Sally Abbott completed the course in December, and she's about to start her first EastEnders commission. She is happy to point out that she is of a "certain age" (40 last birthday), and is also a mother of two children under ten (9 and 6). I asked her to talk about her experience of the Academy....
"First off, the thing to get is that WA is HARD. Really really really hard. Long days. Long hours. Lots and lots of exercises, homework, TV and films to watch. Scripts to write and rewrite. Confidence crises, confidence boosts. Ups, downs, you name it. Even without children it's tough.
Through a friend I managed to get hold of Abi Bown (another graduate and mum) before the interviews and asked her for advice - it was simple - get very good childcare. With any job you need to get a good support network around you if you have children. With WA you just need to have a lot of contingency plans in there.
My husband was massively supportive and I couldn't have done it without him - he's self-employed and, after prioritising his career for years, we agreed that September to December 08 my career would take precedence - he'd be the first-call parent not me. It meant he had to turn a few jobs down but he still went out and worked. A couple of times he had to work away - but one week my mum came to stay and the other was a writing-at-home week so I was just about able to work around it. My brilliant child minder, Julie, agreed to do additional hours as and when and at last minute - in the mornings and early evenings (and she didn't go off on holiday - phew!!) and I had a load of friends in my village and my in-laws on standby. A big plus for me was that I only live about an hour's journey away from Elstree.
Many people at the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ (like Ceri) are working mums themselves - they know and understand what it can be like. Some stuff to sort out is simple - e.g. having a tutorial in the middle of the day to allow for school runs (once a week we used to go to TV Centre in White City for tutorials with John Yorke and Ceri). I had an agreement that if lectures over-ran and I had to get home then I could go. Simple. Also, for this year we've built in breaks for me in January and August - small things to keep the balance right for the year.
The work at home, in some ways was harder. I had to literally cut myself off from everyone to get through the workload and it was difficult. And mother guilt is a killer. The worst. Something has to give, to be compromised. However, I got a breakthrough about half way through when I realised that I could actually do part of my work with the kids: on the Academy you have to watch a lot of films - to identify your protagonist's wants and needs, the turning points, inciting incident, etc... tricky... Unless, as it turns out, you're watching it with a 6 and 9 year old who see things very simply and very clearly. They don't get bogged down in detail - so Saturdays became our day for being together watching lots of films. That was our family time - a good compromise, I thought. And they're now BRILLIANT at structure.
The other stuff's just hard - the writing, rewriting, structuring, restructuring but you just have to get on and do it. It's the same with any job. I didn't want to have special allowances made because I was a mum - I still hit all my deadlines (bar one which was two hours late... ahem). I was knackered and got emotional but I did it.
So... lastly, I just wanted to write and say to other mums (and dads) - it is possible to combine the Writers Academy with young children. And you know that, as a parent, you bring a wealth of experience and a voice to the shows that they want - that they need. Whatever you do, just don't let yourself be the person who stops you from going for it."