Our residential workshop for Scottish female comedy writers took place last month in the magnificent surroundings of Cove Park on the shores of Loch Long. Lorna Martin is an award-winning journalist, formerly as Scotland Editor of The Observer, and author of the comic memoir, Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. She describes what happened and how it finally led to a positive outcome for her scriptwriting.
A few months ago I read an interview with the multi award-winning Transparent and Larry Sanders Show actor, Jeffrey Tambor. In it, he said the sound of a writing or acting career goes like this: “No no no no no no no no no no no no no yes no no no yes no no no no no.” I cut it out and stuck it above my desk.
I’d had a few years of nos and nearlys (the latter of which I, at least initially, found even tougher to take than the straight rejections) so the invitation to the comedy writers’ residential at Cove Park couldn’t have come at a better time for me.
Being away from the chaos of life with a three- and five-year-old, meeting other female comedy writers and performers (one of whom I’ve met subsequently to discuss collaborating on something), and being in the middle of nowhere in such beautiful surroundings were all useful and inspiring. As was meeting the amazingly talented Phoebe Waller-Bridge, creator and star of the smart, funny, painful but brilliant Fleabag.
But for me, there were two aspects of the residential that were invaluable. The first was being encouraged to focus on one idea for the four days. At home, I so often embark on something new with enthusiasm and then, when I hit a hurdle and start to doubt it, I all too often abandon it and move on. Here, we were urged to think about the show we really want to create and write; not the show we think commissioners might want; but the one that means something to us; the one that we’d be happy to devote at least three years of our life to.
The second factor was having unlimited access to producers and development execs from both the comedy department and BBC Writersroom. Again, for me, when writing at home alone, my ideas often meander, grow arms and legs and lose focus. So, what might start as a relationship comedy about a single woman whose first love and his unhappy family move next door ends up as an ensemble comedy about a gang of misfit hackers who get trapped inside a computer. Not quite. But you get my drift. At Cove Park, we were in an environment where we could talk through our ideas, nail down the show we wanted to write, and where help, advice and support were always available.
A couple of weeks after the residential, when I heard that my idea was going into official development I was a little bit ecstatic. My five-year-old asked if I’d won a trophy or something. I know there’s still a very long way to go but, for a moment or two, it felt like that was exactly what had happened. A little yes after all the nos and nearlys.
Read another blog about the residential by comedian Fern Brady
