We’re launching our spring season this Wednesday, 17 March, with the first in a set of four online dates taking us through to early May. These include our debut Pitch Night at which you can try out your ideas in development — find details in our full listings below.
Follow the four familiar simple steps to join our Zoom meetings:
- Tap or click the ‘I’m attending’ button in the meeting listing below (find the button on this newsletter’s webpage). A panel headed ‘I’m attending on…’ will appear.
- In the ‘I’m attending on…’ panel, tap or click the PayPal logo and follow the instructions to contribute your £2 subs using your debit or credit card.
- When you’ve made your payment, check your email inbox for a message from Southwest Scriptwriters titled ‘Thank you for your subs payment.’ If you don’t find this email with PayPal’s payment confirmation and you’ve checked your spam and junk folders for it, please be sure to get in touch using our ‘Email us’ form to let us know it hasn’t arrived.
- The ‘Thank you for your subs payment’ email includes the Zoom meeting ID and password. If you’re unsure how to use these to log in to the meeting, follow our handy guide.
Have you checked?
Our subs payment system sends your Zoom login details to the email address you have registered with PayPal. Some of you have former or abandoned email addresses listed with the online payment service and so haven’t heard from us after making your £2 contribution. To avoid this, please make sure that you have your current email address listed with PayPal.
Wednesday, 17 March at 7.30pm on Zoom: Dotty Wood n Stik by Briony Pope
Tonight we’re exploring part of Briony’s youth musical centring on a love triangle at a triathlon at which members of a pet superstore’s native and escaped insect community go for gold.
Wednesday, 31 March at 7.30pm on Zoom: Crosshairs by Carole Boyer
Carole brings us an extract of her story of dastardly deeds in 13th Century England.
Wednesday, 21 April at 7.30pm on Zoom: Pitch Night
Do you have a fresh idea for a stage, screen, radio or TV script?
If so, Pitch Night’s your chance to find out if your idea’s got legs.
It can be anything from the kernel of a concept to something you’ve had brewing for a while. Either way, we’ll help you build on your idea.
To take part, you’ll need a logline plus a 500-word (or thereabouts) pitch for your new scriptwriting project.
A logline is a one- or two-sentence summary of your script. It’s a really pithy statement of the who, what, why, when and where of your story. Learn more about creating one at bang2write.com and scriptadvice.co.uk.
You get to flesh out your idea a bit more in your pitch, but keep it to broad brushstrokes to snag the interest of those who hear it — location, conflict, character and the stakes. You need to put in enough attention-grabbing story detail without describing the whole plot.
We’ll ask you to share your logline and pitch at the session and discuss your ideas. The time we spend on each depends on how many pitches we have, so please let us know using our ‘Book a workshop slot’ form if you’re pitching in.
Wednesday, 5 May at 7.30pm on Zoom: Open Workshop
We’re planning another themed evening featuring sitcom scripts at an upcoming date, so if you’re situated to turn in some serial comedy, we’d love to hear from you! We’re open to offers for our first May meeting, though — get in touch using our ‘Book a workshop slot’ form.
BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Competition 2021
BAFTA and Rocliffe offer aspiring scriptwriters the chance to have their work read before an audience of media professionals for script development advice and career guidance.
The organisations’ New Writing Competition has a rolling series of deadlines for work in various forms. This year’s call is for scripts for Children, Family and Young Adult Media (including Family Films), which has a tight deadline of 5pm on 23 March, and TV Drama mini series, the submission window for which opens in mid July.
Writers submit scripts via an online entry form and pay a £46 fee per submission. BAFTA and Rocliffe make a number of bursary payments to writers who cannot afford the entry fee, but the deadline for Children, Family and YA Media bursaries has passed.
UK International Radio Drama Festival online next week
International Arts Partnership’s seventh annual UK International Radio Drama Festival is happening online from 22 to 26 March.
The festival offers a five-day programme of audio entertainment and creative discussion. To take part, register for free using Eventbrite.