Off The Shelf at Black's

19 August 2011
Posted in Books and Poetry

Off The Shelf at Black's is a new literature collaboration between Black's members club and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Books Committee. It’s a series of monthly, one day residencies for fiction writers that are held on the last Monday of the month.

This autumn they are:

26th September - Lindsay Clarke (The Water Theatre and Whitbread winner for The Chymical Wedding) www.fictionuncovered.co.uk
31st October - Jemima Hunt (The Late Arrival and director of The Writers Practice)
28th November - Jake Wallis Simons (The English German Girl) www.fictionuncovered.co.uk
19th December - Richard Bradbury (Riversmeet - a biography of Frederick Douglass, escaped slave and anti slavery campaigner). Supported by actor Nick Bailey who played Douglass in Become a Man, the play commissioned by the GLA for the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery. www.muswell-press.co.uk

The day starts at 11:00am with coffee and ends at 4:00pm after lunch and an open mic session. All writers will read from previously published work as well as work in progress. An audience of up to 23 will then discuss the work and writing processes, chaired by Jan Woolf of the WGGB Books Committee. After that - lunch - then an open mic session during which participants can read short extracts from their own work if they wish.

This is an opportunity for established authors to receive mature critical feedback and for the audience to get some guidance too. Cost for each day is £25 (£20 to Writers' Guild members). This includes coffee, bread and olives, two - course lunch, and all day and evening membership of Blacks. You will also get automatic reference if you want club membership.

To book a place, email moira@blacksclub.com (stating that you are a WGGB member) or for more information janwoolf@hotmail.com

But hurry, there are only 23 places and it is an incredible bargain.

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Minimum fees increased for radio drama writers

31 August 2011
Posted in Radio

The Writers’ Guild has agreed increases of 2 per cent in the minimum fees for BBC radio writing – in line with the salary increase for lower-paid BBC staff.

The new rates (pdf), which took effect from 1 August 2011, bring the key rate for writing original radio drama to £89.05 per minute, or £5,343 for a one-hour play (two transmissions), and £892.50 per episode for The Archers. Our agreement with the BBC provides a sliding scale for other types of drama: pre-existing format 90% (£80.15 per minute); dramatisations 85%, 75% or 65% (£75.69, £66.79 or £57.88 per minute) depending on extent of work required; semi-dramatised narrations 55% (£48.98 per minute).

Minimum rates for short stories and abridgements are also increased. The attendance payment remains at £60. The rates were agreed in negotiations between the BBC, the Guild, the Society of Authors and the agents’ trade body the PMA.

Guild General Secretary Bernie Corbett commented: “With the BBC agonising over yet more cuts, we must be grateful for even a small increase in writers’ fees, even though it is below inflation. But it is worrying that the number of plays commissioned is declining year by year, and Radio 4 is axing at least a third of its short stories. The Guild will continue to fight all such cuts.”

Higher minimum rates for BBC Radio Features and Talks Contributions (pdf) have also been agreed.

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Event: Developing writers with the BBC

22 August 2011
Posted in TV

A Writers' Guild & Birmingham Book Festival event with Paul Ashton from BBC Writersroom

Monday 10th October 2011

6-7:30pm

Library Theatre, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3HQ

How do scriptwriters get themselves noticed? How do they then get themselves developed and commissioned? And how do things really work at the BBC for new, emerging and even experienced writers?

Demystifying the process will be Paul Ashton, Development Producer at BBC Writersroom whose job it is to find and nurture writers for BBC drama, comedy and children's programmes. He recently published The Calling Card Script, a book designed for anyone wanting to write an original script that speaks their voice and gets them noticed.

£7/£5

Writers' Guild Members £4

Box Office: www.birminghambookfestival.org 0121 446 3232 (via Midland Arts Centre Box Office)

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Children’s Media Conference

09 August 2011
Posted in General

A report by Jayne Kirkham, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain's children’s representative

Last month I attended the ever growing Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield. Three days of debate, training, and socialising for professionals from right across the children’s media landscape: players from traditional TV, online, games and books gathered in Sheffield. It’s billed as 'Everything you need to know about the business of creativity in kids’ content, and everyone you need to meet in one place at one time.' So it was good to see a number of Guild members there (and it would be interesting to hear their perspectives).

The theme for this year’s event was 'Think Differently' with the opening speech by Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE, challenging delegates to do just that – he said that the days when creators of moving images assumed they had exclusive control over content are gone forever, that the pronouncements of critics matter less than the users of Facebook and Twitter and that the old financial arguments of levies and tax relief in a time of hardship are no good when Exchequer funding is in short supply.

He talked about us needing to re-engage the younger generation and to think differently about education. He talked about students digitally mashing war poets, 60s protest songs and clips from Saving Private Ryan for example to explore war, and said that it is ridiculous that we saddle ourselves with a legal system that makes it impossible for schools to be as inventive as their students in their teaching. He added however that hand in glove with the right to sail digital seas, come a whole wealth of responsibilities – 'do as you would be done by and respect creator rights'.

The rest of the conference continued the theme of Thinking Differently, looking at finding new ways of meeting the media needs of young people and there were some superb examples of innovative projects that are finding success. Moshi Monsters is a case in point, an online game with a strong public service ethos at its heart that is bulldozing (you couldn’t find a rake big enough) in the cash.

Details of every session at the Conference, all the speeches, debates and even the parties can be found on the Children's Media Conference blog: In the final session came the announcement that after five years, Save Kids’ TV is merging with the Children’s Film and Television Foundation to form a new group, The Children’s Media Foundation. Joining together gives us both a bigger voice and means that we will no longer focus primarily on lobbying for TV but can launch a broader media campaign. Initially the board of this new not-for-profit organisation will comprise Anna Home OBE as chair, Children’s Media Conference editorial director Greg Childs, Children’s Film and Television Foundation chairman Linda James and Zodiak Family and Kids’ boss Nigel Pickard.

Many of the Foundation’s endeavours will be in research, partnering with academics, so that rather than fire-fighting media hyped panics the Foundation will be the voice of measured response. But as Lord Puttnam said, crises in UK media, such as the News of the World phone hacking scandal, and some major reviews underway or on the horizon (Lord Smith’s Film Review, the monitoring of the Bailey Report, and the Communications Bill), mean that now is the perfect time to lobby the Government for change. The Children’s Media Foundation will be seeking to influence the terms of reference for the Communications Bill so that the needs of children are very much part of the agenda. Now that will be ‘thinking differently’.

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Adopt A Playwright Award

08 August 2011
Posted in Theatre

OffWestEnd.com are running their Adopt A Playwright Award for the fifth year and nominations are now being invited for playwrights who might be eligibile to win up to £10,000.

All submissions and enquiries should be sent to Sofie Mason at sofiemason@tiscali.co.uk (the Writers' Guild is not involved with running or supporting this scheme)

Here are the full guidelines for the award:

Guidelines for selection of candidates

(with special thanks to Fin Kennedy)

What constitutes a playwright in need? How do you define a ‘quality’ play? How do you spot a ‘promising’ writer? How can you assess whether they are a ‘different’ voice? Different to what? How do you know your endorsement as a talent scout isn’t too coloured by your own filters of cultural background and personal taste?

These are some of the questions it is necessary to ask as part of the Adopt A Playwright scheme. Judgements of any artistic endeavour are usually largely subjective, and this document is no exception. Rather than a definitive guide, this is intended to be the start of a debate among the many professionals involved in this scheme.

Our aspiration is that it becomes a ‘living’ document, constantly being amended, updated and expanded by many different people, until we have a sprawling ‘bible’ of assessment criteria, as thrillingly diverse as its contributors. While we are unlikely, if ever, to all agree on all the points in a document of this nature, our best guarantee of getting it right most of the time will be the diversity of backgrounds and professional experience among the people conducting the search. A scheme like Adopt A Playwright will only ever be as good as you, its scouts and judges – good luck and good scouting!

Guild joins protest against Radio 4 short story cuts

18 July 2011
Posted in Radio

The Writers' Guild has added its voice to the protests against the announcement that Radio 4 will reduce the number of short story readings from three to one next Spring.

Writers' Guild General Secretary Bernie Corbett said:

'Here is yet another meaningless cut that will save Radio 4 in a whole year less than the cost of a single coat of paint on the shiny floor of a TV talent show. For six months the BBC has been endlessly “consulting” on its next round of cuts, named without apparent irony Delivering Quality First (DQF), necessitated by the six-year licence fee freeze agreed with the incoming coalition government without any public consultation at all.

'Every time DQF is mentioned we are told that the days of “salami-slicing” under which every BBC service has to deliver the same percentage cut, are over and from now on the BBC will have to concentrate on the areas that no commercial broadcaster is interested in. Short stories, that literary endangered species, would appear to be exactly the kind of material that should be protected.

'The new Controller of Radio 4 has finished her honeymoon period. Now it is time for her to beat down the door of the Director-General and inform him that Radio 4 – and more to the point the listeners of Radio 4 – will simply not put up with any more of this pointless cultural vandalism.'

Update: The Society of Authors has published actions that people concerned about the cut to short stories can take.

Update ( 20 July 2011): In today's Daily Telegraph, in an article called Why Radio is the Ideal Home for Short Stories, Allan Massie largely agrees with Bernie Corbett's fury and argues that if the BBC offers fewer examples of the art of the glimpse, listeners as well as writers will have the right to feel cheated.

Update (8 August 2011): Gwyneth Williams, Controller of BBC Radio 4, revealed a partial climbdown from her plans to axe two-thirds of Radio 4’s short story output when she met Writers’ Guild General secretary Bernie Corbett at the end of July.

There was outrage when a BBC press release stated that 'from next spring, the number of short stories will be reduced from three to one a week on Radio 4'. An internet petition quickly gathered more than thousands of signatures, including many wellknown writers and performers. Williams, however, told Corbett the figures 'were not precise' and that she would be cutting the number from 144 to 102, most of which would be broadcast first on Radio 4 with 'a small number' premiered on digital Radio 4 Extra, but repeated on Radio 4 later. In addition, more short stories from the BBC archive would be repeated on 4 Extra.

Corbett warned Williams she risked a perception building up that Radio 4 would drift away from creative, cultural and literary writing and instead focus on news, current affairs and international coverage. Sacrificing short stories to make room for an extra 15 minutes on The World At One seemed to confirm this view. Williams countered that she was scrapping Americana and would replace it with a new Sunday night comedy.

The change in policy on short stories has failed to satisfy campaigners who demand that the full 150 per year should be retained – pointing out that until recently there were five per week, or more than 250 per year. They also believe that the new slots on Sundays and Fridays are less user-friendly than the mid-afternoon slots on weekdays.

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