At the beginning of February WLW posted about BBC’s new Laugh Track competition. Now Paul Ashton, a Development Manager at the BBC has posted a blog full of useful advice on theBBC Writersroom Blog on How To Avoid Canned Laughter in Your Laugh Track Script. He recommends you keep the following things in mind while you write your comedy script:

• Studio - There are generally up to three large sets and perhaps a couple of small ones, there is a limited amount of location taping edited in later, and the action generally happens over a short period of time – because every new day demands a change of costume that slows down the recording. And remember, physical comedy works brilliantly in front of an audience – from Basil Fawlty goosestepping to the Vicar of Dibley dancing with Darcey Bussell to Miranda falling over anywhere and everywhere.
• Laughter - In non-studio comedy series you can do strange, subtle, unusual things such as in The Thick of It. In studio sitcoms, you have to make the people in the room laugh – out loud, and preferably as often as possible.
• Character - They need to be recognisably human rather than from some kind of artificial ‘sitcom world’. Make them authentic and give them a distinct voice. Find their weakness or short-sightedness and manipulate it. Don’t start with a catchphrase – create a great character in a funny situation and maybe a great catchphrase will come along…
• Situation You don’t need to reinvent the wheel and go out of your way to come up with a ‘sit’ that’s never ever been imagined before – because chances are it probably has and didn’t get developed/made because it didn’t seem like a good idea. Instead, bringing a truly fresh and funny perspective to a classic set-up – such as family home/flatshare or workplace – has always worked.
• Structure - Give your episode story a beginning, a middle and an end. And make sure you get the story straight before you start writing your script – otherwise you’ll be desperately writing hollow gags rather than telling a complete story that makes us laugh and leaves us satisfied.

Paul Ashton is Development Manager of at BBC Writersroom. He has previously been freelance script reader, script editor, scriptwriter, scriptwriting tutor, theatre director. How To Avoid Canned Laughter in Your Laugh Track Script was first posted on the BBC Writersroom Blog on the 2nd of February 2012.

Sally Quilford’s Writing Calendar is a great website that lists a large number of competitions and their closing dates. Each competitions will be listed in date order and click on the name of the competition for more details.

Here are the competitions for February:

14th of February:

• Lumen/Camden Poetry Comp

21st of February

• Norwich Writers Circle Poetry Comp

27th February

• The BBC International Short Story Award 2012

28th February

• Grace Dieu Writers Circle Short Story and Poetry comps
• The Templar/Staid Poetry Prize 

29th February

• Discover Wildlife Travel Writer of the Year 2012
• The Kelpies Prize
• The Multi-Story Short Story Comp

BBC Comedy Commissioning and BBC Writersroom join forces for a second nationwide talent search to find new comedy gold. The challenge is to write an original comedy studio script with series potential. We’re looking for writers that reflect modern Britain, comedy voices that have not yet been heard, and talent that’s just bursting to get out. So no matter who you are, or where you’re from or what you’re sitcom is about – if you think you can make a live studio audience laugh, then we want to see your script.

You will need to send us a half hour sitcom script with a one page outline of how your series would develop and our application form. The work must not have been previously commissioned, optioned or produced and this opportunity is for writers who have not yet had a network commission.

We’re really excited to announce that Laugh Track will be judged by the amazing Dawn French, along with the BBC’s Cheryl Taylor (Controller, Comedy Commissioning) and Kate Rowland (Creative Director, New Writing at the BBC).

How to enter:

Entrants must submit:

• a script (one copy) for television studio comedy, 30 minutes in length (approximately 1 page per minute).
• an outline for how the series would develop.
• a completed application form - download the application form.
• a completed equal opportunities monitoring form (optional) - download the equal opps form.

Please note that due to an office move we can only accept submissions between the 1st and 21st of March.

To enter, send your script, outline and completed application form to:

BBC Writersroom
W1 NBH 07C
BBC Broadcasting House
Portland Place
London
W1A 1AA

Read the full terms and conditions for Laugh Track.

Dates

• Launch: Tuesday 31st Jan 2012
• Open for Entries: 1st March 2012
• Deadline: 9am, Wednesday 21st March 2012
• (With application form)
• Writers notified: 1st stage of selection – early April 2012
• Masterclass: Tuesday 24th April 2012
• Writers notified – 2nd stage of selection – mid May 2012
• Residential: 11th – 14th June 2012
• Edinburgh Showcase: August 2012
• Salford Festival: October 2012

*Selected writers will need to be available on these dates in order for their work to be considered for the Edinburgh and Salford festival events

Fantasy-Faction Anathology is a new anathology looking to do things a little differently. They want to full their publication with a mixture of published and unpublished authors giving you the chance to showcase your work and gain the recognition that could propel you towards a career in writing.

How do you get involved in this project? Well there are six publication spaces available for the first issue and to get these (along with a cash prize for their favourite three entries) Fantasy-Faction Anathology are holding a fantasy writing contest which will run from the 1st of February 2012 till the 30th of June 2012. To enter go to their Online Entry page and fill in the form that is there.

For your story to be considered it has to meet the following criteria:

• Your entry is classifiable as ‘Fantasy’
• It should be no more than 8000 words
• Entry is in English
• The story is unpublished and original.

You are allowed to enter up to 3 short stories and there is no entry fee. However, if you want feedback on your story there is the option of Entry Plus which costs £7. This gets you:

• Full story critique
• Unbiased feedback
• Advice for future competitions
• What to work on as a writer

For our second meeting of 2012 saw another great turn out with nine people turning up. This was probably down to the fact that poet Jane McKie came along to present a short workshop focusing on the words and metaphors people use in their work (a full post on her workshop will be posted shortly!) We also saw the arrival of two new members Bill and Ionwen.

The news from tonight’s meeting was:

• On Thursday night Ironstone are having a Burn’s Nicht @ Waterstones to celebrate Burns Night that is on Wednesday.
• Also Quill are involved in a Burn’s Night Ceilidh on Saturday night (28/01/2012). Tickets are £25.
• There was a quick reminder that the Reader’s Digest 100 short story competition is closing on the 31st of January.
• Mslexia have just opened a new short story competition which closes on the 18th of March.
• Finally, Elspeth Murray is doing a workshop to celebrate Livingston’s 50th birthday on the 24th of March.

Sediment & Ancestor/Descendant – two poems from Barbara. The first was about a cup of tea with the second one being about family resemblances.

For Audrey – a short story by Anne. On a dark and stormy night a group of Bohemian women sit around the fire drinking wine and discuss a local ghost story.

Powerful – an autobiographical poem by Mary about her Dad.

Kibera - a poem from Ionwen about the main shanty town in Nairobi, Kenya.

Leopard Print High Heels – two short 100 words short stories about the topic of prostitution told from two different perspectives.

Tamasha is offering the opportunity for an artist(s) to present a response to Snookered, a play that is a part of their Small Lives, Global Ties season and win a £500 bursary. You could be an actor, director, writer, film-maker or group of artists presenting a piece of writing, performance poetry, actors’ response etc.

The work will be presented on the TDA Networking night at The Bush Theatre in the auditorium on the Snookered set on Monday 5 March before the show (6pm – 6.45pm).

How to apply:

Write 300 words briefly describing your proposed response, include your CV (and for any other artists involved) and complete the Data and Equal Opportunities Form and send to Felicity at admin@tamasha.org.uk

To inform your proposed response, please look at all the Snookered information on Tamasha’s website including the background to the show, promo video and interview with Ishy the writer on our blog. The selected artist(s) will be given the script, and be able to interview the writer Ishy Din.

Deadline: Monday 30th January, midday

This competition was seen from the BBC Writersroom.

Mslexia – the women’s writing magazine – have launched their 2012 short story competition. Your story can be up to 2,200 words in length and can be on any subject. Only women can enter this competition sadly. The head judge this year is Tessa Hadley.

Tessa has written four novels and a couple of short story collections. She says “There’s no recipe for a good short story – in fact, they need to be unexpected, surprising. The most familiar material can be surprising if it’s seen freshly.”

The prizes are as follows:

• 1st Prize: £2,000 plus a week’s writing retreat at Chawton House Library* and a day with a Virago editor**
• 2nd Prize: £500, 3rd Prize: £250
• Three other finalists win £100 each.

All winning stories will be published in issue 54 of Mslexia.

CLOSING DATE: 19 March 2012

Please make sure you read the competition rules thoroughly before entering.

* The Chawton House Library (CHL) retreat is accommodation only: dates to be agreed between CHL and the competition winner.

** The day with a Virago editor: date to be agreed between Virago and the competition winner.

Both of these additional prizes are optional. The winner is responsible for any other expenses involved with attending the CHL retreat and the day with the Virago editor, i.e., travel, food etc. The prizes must be taken by 31 May 2013.

The Scottish Poetry Library is looking for one poem to represent each country participating in the 2012 Olympic Games. It can be traditional or contemporary, should be already published (they are not asking for new poems) and shouldn’t be longer than 30 lines. It should give outsiders some sense of the country, for example, its landscapes/animals/ vegetation/ food/ people/daily life/history.
The poem will be read aloud on the radio as well as available in text form on the Scottish Poetry website. Please submit your nomination with either the text itself (in its original language, plus translation into English if appropriate) or a weblink to it, the name of the author (and birth/death dates if possible), publication date and publisher to:

reception@spl.org.uk

or by post to:

The Scottish Poetry Library,

5 Crichton’s Close,

Edinburgh

EH8 8DT

The Red Planet Prize for scriptwriters is now open to entries.  The prize awards the winner a £5,000 cash prize and entry to a mentoring scheme – which currently hosts more than 40 new writers found through the initiative. Red Planet also hope to option the winning script, but this will be discussed with and decided by the winner.

First launched in 2007, the competition previously “discovered” Robert Thorogood, who wrote new BBC1 drama Death in Paradise for Red Planet Pictures.  Chris Lindsay and Malcolm McGonigle, two other finalists, have also found writing success, following a stint on the initiative’s mentoring scheme, by joining the writing team of Kudos children’s drama MI High. Over a dozen previous winners and finalists are now developing projects with Red Planet and Kudos.

Tony Jordan, managing director of Red Planet Pictures, will lead the judging panel with Kudos chief executive Jane Featherstone. They will be joined by BBC Wales head of drama Faith Penhale.

The competition is open to anyone in the UK. Entrants must upload the first ten pages of an original 60-minute script for TV along with a short synopsis; this can be a single play or a pilot for a series. Should entrants then proceed through to the second phase, they will be asked to submit their full script.

To find out more and submit an entry, visit the Red Planet Pictures website.

Deadline: 16 January 2012