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Being able to take rejection is one of the best skills you can have as a writer, because if there’s one thing you can be guaranteed it is that you will be rejected a lot.

When ever I hear writers moaning about the rejection they just got I always have serious doubts over their future in the industry, because as much as anything becoming a successful writer is about getting through all the initial rejection without going insane or giving up. One of the best compliments I’ve ever been given is being told that I seemed like the kinda guy who would never get disheartened by rejection.

I guess that is somewhat of a disclaimer because the rest of this blog is about my latest rejection and how lame it seems. I just wanna make it clear that I’m not one to moan about rejection normally, but for some reason I felt compelled to blog about this one and get it off my chest. So given this is a bit of a rant I may well sound a bit bitter and like I am complaining over nothing.

OK, so it goes like this…

I applied for the BBC training scheme called North East Voices. The application process involved writing a short logline for an original TV drama and then writing a one page synopsis of the drama. In addition to this you then had to submit a writing sample of 30 to 60 pages.

The idea I had pitched was an ensemble drama featuring 8 principle characters as well as a whole community of other characters. Think something like Shameless where is has the central family and then also has the neighbours, and the people at the pub and the corner shop, and other families, and the police and and and…. My idea wasn’t quite that big, but it was definitely an ensemble drama set in a certain large community.

So basically I had this problem of how on earth do I set that up with just one side of A4 to do it.

I’ll be honest, having never pitched an ensemble TV drama before I was a bit at a loss as to which way to set up all these different people in a way that is both clear to read and still engaging, but to do it on one single page of A4? Ouch!! It would be hard enough if I had as many pages as I needed, but 1 was gunna be hard.

I decided that since my 8 characters were forced together by outside circumstances and forced to live together that the best option would be just to set up all the main character’s and their one or two inherent flaws or quirks which would leave the reader wanting more (or so was the idea).

Eg. A had this super chavy character who was an academic genius to the bemusement of her chavy parents who can’t understand how she ended up so smart, and despite being a genius this girl spends most of her time getting into fights and going shop lifting with the chavy friends she grew up with on her estate. I ended it by saying something like “Her problem is whether she will manage to stay out of trouble long enough to graduate”.

I was kinda aware that I hadn’t really gone into the specifics of how any of these stories might develop over the series, I was instead trying to set up 8 really interesting premises that interweaved with each other that you would want to know more about. I couldnt see any other way to do it on a single side of A4.

So off I sent my application, not entirely happy but quietly confident.

Alas, I ended up only making the “long short list”. One of the perks however of being on this long short list is they gave you written feedback on your idea rather than a stock no thank you letter.

I got the feedback in a letter today and reading it gave me with no surprises over their main criticism…

The synopsis resembles a list of character bios, rather than an outline of how the series might be sustained by developing interviewing and resolving distinct character journeys.

So I guess the flaw I knew I had before I applied was what eventually screwed me??

Well, in the next paragraph of the letter it goes on to say…

If the writer shies from developing the drama inherent in such a colourful ensemble, the series may be steered toward a “sketchier” feel that is likely to run out of steam and be less gripping as a result. How might the odd co-dependence between Jenna and her priest evolve, for example? Does John’s love for Frankie remain unexpressed? [edit - then it goes on to list a question for each of the characters I wrote about]

Bottom line then, I failed to give them what they wanted. What I wrote was too much setting up my really interesting characters and not enough of what then happens to those characters. I can’t expect them to just take a leap of faith and assume that I can write all these stories in a lovely overlapping interesting way just because I can set up some interesting characters…

but at the end of the day I just can’t see how I could have done all that on one side of A4! I filled the page just describing the characters, how am I expected to then tell you how each story progresses as well?

Sure I could have just bunged a sentance at the end of each character’s paragraph that crudely sums up where they are are at the end of the series, but that isn’t going to give you a sense of how the stories evolve either, plus some characters can’t really be summed up like that.

This is where I hold my hands up and say I don’t really know enough about TV show development. Maybe all TV shows are pitched on a single side of A4 and there is just a knack of getting an ensemble drama to fit? I just feel like had it been 2 pages rather than 1then I might have been able to explain some of the developments I have in mind for the things I set up.

Please BBC Writer’s Room, make it at least 2 pages next year. OK?

I guess I’m a bit miffed that my idea seems to have been rejected as much as anything because of the restriction of having to fit an entire TV series and all its developing character arcs on a single side of A4. It seems to be that the application process for North East Voices with its one page synopsis being everything is inherently biased towards shows that have a small selection of characters and more similar content from episode to episode (like a cop show that has the same formula each week), because surely if I had set up a show with 3 characters doing the same thing each week then it would be based purely on its potential rather that what is or isn’t shoehorned into the synopsis.

But then again, maybe I just plain suck and it is entirely possible to do all this on a single side of A4 but my suckyness prevents me? I’m totally open to the idea that maybe I just suck at this. Anyone out there is welcome to leave a comment saying I’m a synopsis writing retard, but if you do then please also tell me how I should have summed up a big ensemble drama on one page in a way that gets across all their individual character developments. I’m eager to learn!

That said, this was not the only reason my application failed. The other criticism was the fact my writing sample was a feature film aimed at the US Market and thus

it’s difficult to tell whether the writer will make the adjustment to a series that specifically targets British mores and humour

Yeah because being a gruff Northerner I can only write stuff for people in California!

I wonder if the tone was really any different or whether it was more that my feature is set in a US High School which is such an intrinsically American thing that he or she assumed there was no way it could be similar to something shown on British TV.

But hey, even though I disagree with their assumption that despite being a British writer I can’t write for a British audience, the point is the writing sample was different enough that it put doubts in their mind, and perhaps ultimately they would have given me the benefit of the doubt over my 1 page synopsis had my writing sample been a similar 60 minute TV show script to the one I was pitching.

I think in order to effectively pitch TV ideas I’m gunna have to develop some TV scripts to show people, because I can only see myself running into this problem again, even if the next feature film I use is set in England! So with this in mind I might actually continue developing this idea off my own back anyways.

Also, I guess if they run the scheme again next year I will be way more concious to make sure what ever I hand in gives some indication of how the stories will progress over time!

Anyways, rant over.