Some time ago, I began to think seriously about writing drama. As I had no experience and didn鈥檛 know a single soul in the industry, the first thing I did was go to the library and take out a book by a writer I loved, that book being 鈥楤y : An Autobiography in Six Acts.鈥� The second thing I did was apply to Salford University鈥檚 MA in Radio and Television Scriptwriting. It鈥檚 been a very long road since then, with a few successes and a lot of frustration along the way. My progress has been slow because I have been busy with family commitments but I tried to use what time I did have developing my ideas and my writing.
Pretty much the first thing I wrote was a very ambitious feature length script based on a real life woman who lived during the English Civil War. Once it was finished I tried to get it noticed by submitting it to a few film festivals. It won the Award of Merit at the Women鈥檚 International Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Best War/History script at the Gotham Screen International Film Festival in New York, which was quite a boost to my confidence.
I was beginning to realise just how tough the industry is and so thought I should try to be as broad as possible in my approach. I applied to the inaugural where I met some of the nicest and most talented writers in the city, whose friendship and support has been invaluable to me over the past few years.
My first experience of 大象传媒 Writersroom was their Rapid Response competition In the Red. My script, HAVEN, was selected as one of the winners. Following that I was put in contact with in Liverpool. I had several meetings with them over the course of several years and they were, and still are, incredibly supportive of me and my writing. One day I was asked into a meeting only to find it was with . Pretty much the first thing he said to me was 鈥淵ou can write.鈥� I came out of the meeting thinking that I didn鈥檛 care if my work was never produced, Jimmy McGovern thinks I can write, and that鈥檚 all I need to hear. That meeting eventually led to a commission for MOVING ON; I wrote Episode 4 of Series 9 NEIGHBOUR and the series went on to win the Best Daytime Series at the RTS North West Awards 2018.
I can鈥檛 remember where I first heard about the Alfred Bradley Bursary, but as I didn鈥檛 know anybody who worked in radio I knew it was something I had to have a go at. I had no expectations whatsoever that I would be the runner-up, but I knew I would kick myself if I didn鈥檛 meet the deadline.
Discovering I was a finalist was a huge shock to say the least. I was partnered with the radio producer Pauline Harris. She pushed me to take my script to the point of being the very best it could be and I am grateful to her for that. Writing drama is, at its essence, a collaborative process and I have been lucky to work with some incredible people, of which Pauline is one. We pretty much instantly had a richly creative collaboration and I always felt that I was in safe hands with her. I hope that this is a relationship which we can continue in the future. The three months of mentoring was challenging because I was trying to give the script everything I could whilst believing that nothing was likely to come from it. This however, is the stark reality of writing. It鈥檚 a leap of faith.
At the heart of the story is the relation between Cara and Monique, a daughter who is caring for her mother. Like many other people, I have had experience of being a carer, and so I wanted to tell a story on that theme. It was poignant to discover that many of the people involved in the making of MONIQUE & ME, had been, or are currently carers. There are experiences I believe are common to most carers, exhaustion, isolation, grief to name a few. However I wanted to push the characters to the very extreme of their relationship and so their story incorporates other, darker themes too.
As I鈥檇 tried a few different platforms for my writing before, theatre, features, television, I wasn't too worried about having a go at writing a radio script. It does require a different way of thinking about the script, but I tried to focus on the fact that the essentials are still the same, a good story, well told.
I didn鈥檛 grow up in a house where we listened to Radio 4. I suppose, because of that, I did wonder whether writing for radio was for me, but I鈥檓 glad I gave it a shot. What is lovely about radio is the intimacy, not just of the storytelling, but also the smaller cast and crew and I was chuffed to bits to discover that unlike television, radio writers are required to attend the recording. Radio, like MOVING ON, attracts incredibly talented actors, and the actors who Pauline cast all exceeded my already high expectations with their performances.
It鈥檚 perhaps no coincidence that MOVING ON and MONIQUE & ME are both forty-five minute original stories. The experience of having written MOVING ON probably did help me get MONIQUE & ME into decent shape. To have a script brought to life in this way and then broadcast to an audience is quite simply a privilege and to have gone through this twice now makes everything worthwhile.
Like most other writers, I don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 next for me. I am developing ideas and writing, as well as trying to get an agent. Whatever happens, I鈥檒l still write because I want to.
I have been asked if I have any advice for other writers. I suppose my best advice is to have a long, hard look at yourself and decide if writing is really something you want to do, because it is incredibly tough. However, if the answer is yes, then do what I do. Work hard and act like you don鈥檛 know when you鈥檙e beaten.
Listen to Monique and Me on 大象传媒 Radio 4 on Thursday 28th November at 2.15 or on 大象传媒 Sounds