Okay. Cards on the table. We love Caroline Moran. She’s funny, insightful and wears ace hats. And, oh yeah, she co-created and co-wrote one of the freshest and most heart-warming series to hit our screens in years. Raised by Wolves. She’s also rocked journalism, theatre and stand-up comedy, so we were delighted when she found a few mins to chat to us about bad advice, the horror of networking and paraphrasing Della…
BBC Writersroom: How did you get your first break in writing?
Caroline Moran: I had a really big moment at the age of 7, during the second of the two years I went to school. I wrote an essay about the second-hand Mini Clubman my parents had just bought (a bizarre choice of family vehicle given they'd already had five children by that point but then that was around the time they decided we needed three dogs as well as two cats and a fish tank so they were clearly on some sort of crazy roll). I won a pencil case with a rainbow on it, as my essay was judged to be the top one and I can still remember that pencil case and the word 'funny' the teacher had written on the margin in red pen (she'd written it several times, actually, but I don't want to brag).
That was the moment I realised that writing things you think are funny can also make other people laugh, which went deep in my young mind and was the start of the idea of devoting time to writing comedy. In case you want to know, the pencil case served me extremely well for several years until it was badly chewed by one of the three unnecessary dogs.
BBC WR: In terms of writing, what’s the worst piece advice you’ve ever been given?
CM: I was once told (or read in one of the many screenwriting book I've bought over the years) to spend as much time networking as writing. That might work for some people but I'm far too socially anxious to get anything out of standing sweatily in a 'breakfast networking meeting' holding a croissant I'm too self-conscious to eat, whispering 'go and pitch at someone' to myself under my breath until I reach peak anxiety and flee.
I have since realised that going to things that genuinely appeal to me and chatting with interesting people (with no intention of pitching at them) also kind of counts as networking, in that it means you get to know cool people and that maybe the topic of what you or they are working on might come up (or not, and that's cool too – it can't all be 'business, business, business', right?). So, I've stopped beating myself up about being 'bad at networking'. But I definitely spend far more time writing than I do socialising and I'm pretty sure that's the right thing for me.
I very well might be dead wrong about this, of course, and thus be sabotaging my own future terribly. Maybe networking is vital and I'm just an anxious fool missing out on free pastries and incredible opportunities.
BBC WR: Raised by Wolves was your first big telly hit. What surprised you most about the process of making the show?
CM: How many craftsmen and craftswomen are involved in taking the script, which is very much just the starting point of the show, and turning it into something good enough to be on the telly. Suddenly there are dozens of high skilled, incredibly dedicated people working incredibly hard to make your words and ideas look and sound their absolute best, by adding layer after layer of their talent, skill and energy to the project, which takes on its own momentum and becomes something we are all making together.
It's surreal (especially when it's moments taken directly from Caitlin and my childhoods) and a very wonderful thing to be a part of. Plus, you can have pretty much all the free tea and coffee you could desire – there's a big urn on set and no one really monitors how much you take. It's the dream.
BBC WR: What was the last thing you saw that made you roar with laughter?
CM: I am re-watching Silicon Valley at the moment and man that is a funny show. Having worked in web development for ten years I really appreciate the love that's gone into making all characters (who could easily just all be lumped into the 'geek' stereotype) into properly rounded people. Guilfoyle and Bachman are particularly rocking my world this time around, but it's different every time I watch it, which, I put it to you in a rather bold fashion, is the sign of a really great show.
BBC WR: If it was a legal requirement… Which one of Della’s lines would you have carved into your gravestone?
CM: I'd paraphrase her slightly and go for: “She was a prat. But she was your prat.”
Big thanks to Caroline Moran!
