Amy Arnold is just completing a year as a member of our Drama Room writer development group. We asked her for her reflections on the experience, including any highlights and top tips that she could share.
On a Thursday afternoon two years ago, my now-husband was quietly minding his own business when his AMY-PANIC radar began twitching. Opening the bedroom door, he could hear me downstairs, my voice clambering up an octave as I struggled to answer a question in an interview for the 大象传媒 Writersroom's Drama Room group.
I knew Sam, my partner, was listening in because I started to receive a flurry of random text messages to prompt me (yes, he鈥檚 a good egg). Despite this lovely softball question from a panel of friendly, brilliant people - the panic had bedded in like a weed and I choked.
I did not get a place in the Drama Room that year. It was the first time I鈥檇 made it to the interview stage after three previous applications had ended up nowhere. When I got the initial email to say I had been shortlisted I thought it was a really niche scam. I think I spent most of the interview just waving my arms around in disbelief like a lottery winner and telling everyone how grateful I was to even be in the same online meeting as them.
大象传媒 Writersroom is the holy grail of script competitions - not only is it FREE (cue the applause) but its reputation as a course and a birthplace of talent is almost unmatched across the industry. The Drama Room scheme comprises a year-long programme of workshops from some of the biggest names in UK drama, followed by a dedicated development process with a script editor to write and polish a complete drama spec script. So the thought that I had turned my only chance at impressing the people who run it into a bin fire broke me a little bit. But somehow, in the midst of the flappy arms, I must have said something of vague interest as I ended up being selected for the 2022 大象传媒 Northern Voices programme instead.
Voices is a three-month (now six-month) regional programme run by the 大象传媒 Writersroom. You become part of a close cohort of writers, all taking part in various workshops and sessions with writers, producers, agents etc, while working towards developing an original idea into a pitch document and treatment. It was my first time sitting in a room surrounded by writers in a similar position to me. We all had totally different things to say and ways of saying them, but were united by a shared desire to tell stories and learn more about how to make a career out of doing that.
It was only really during those three months that I genuinely started to believe that writing was something I could pursue seriously as a career. I can鈥檛 really remember a time when I wasn鈥檛 writing in some form or another - although I don鈥檛 think anyone鈥檚 going to be rushing to option the sketch show I wrote about French bread and electricity pylons with my cousins aged 11 - but it was always just an outlet and definitely not something I truly thought I would ever do professionally. Even in my early twenties, before Voices, it felt like a fantastical job, like being an astronaut or a mermaid - which I think is how a lot of writers feel. I just knew I wanted to be around stories, and people who love to tell them, so I did everything I could to get close to them.
Which is why when I finally did get through my second 大象传媒 Writersroom interview to be part of Drama Room without a complete mental evacuation, and got the email to say that I had been accepted onto the 2022/23 course, I felt like high-fiving my earlier self for persevering - I wanted to do that girl proud.
In classic writerly fashion, I have far too many words to explain how much I鈥檝e loved my year being part of the Drama Room, and I really genuinely can鈥檛 believe it鈥檚 about to come to an end. The writers I have met during this programme are all extraordinary and have such unique voices that I鈥檓 excited to champion and see flourish. Our Whatsapp group has been a thing of beauty throughout - a place for communal meltdowns, unabashed mutual praise and promotion, and plenty of perfectly-placed memes. It has been a massive year for me personally and professionally, but to be here at the finish line with everyone else holding a completed spec script (okay that鈥檚 bending the truth slightly, but give me two weeks and a printer) feels pretty euphoric.
I would definitely be singing a different tune if it weren鈥檛 for the exceptionally astute (and endlessly patient) Jeremy Page and Connor Richmond, who were the script editors assigned to work with me on my spec script throughout the year. As a script editor myself, it was illuminating to be on the other side of the table (the side of irrationally self-righteous denial, intense over-analysis, and spirals of overwhelming despair). But it was also so joyful to be able to discuss my script with people who felt as fully invested and immersed in the world and the characters as I did. They, along with the 大象传媒 Writersroom team, pushed me to create something that I was nervous to do but now feel proud of. They also made me feel safe to indulge in all the weirdest possibilities my brain wanted to explore so I could calibrate from there. Which is why you won鈥檛 find a talking picture of Barbara Stanwyck in my script anymore. Take it up with them.
For our first six months on the programme, we would convene three or four times a month over Zoom - plus a few in-person sessions spread across the year - to listen and talk to various different speakers about all aspects of writing for TV and radio. It鈥檚 hard to condense down my favourite moments and sessions from the programme as a whole because each speaker brought such a distinct viewpoint and journey with them. We鈥檝e been privileged to spend whole days breaking down story structure with the likes of and , while script and story consultant Josie Day talked us through character in a way that has changed how I think about the wants and needs of all my protagonists (and indeed of many real people I meet). We also gained more practical insights into the worlds of producing, commissioning, and agency representation - all the vertebrae that form the career backbone of writing, which helped to demystify and legitimise what had once felt to me like a cheese-induced fever dream.
Speaking of those鈥� Our session with writer, producer and story editor , diving into the world of writing for animation, was probably my surprise highlight of the sessions. Where else would you get to spend four hours crafting the perfect villain, in the shape of a devious rapping pigeon, to propel Danger Mouse and Penfold through a hypothetical episode?
Much like the crime-fighting mouse himself, I have so many more tools in my arsenal now when it comes to approaching the stories I want to tell. Most of all I feel empowered to be braver, to take risks with my writing (although not ones involving Barbara Stanwyck), and not to be afraid to fail. Recently I was invited to submit a short radio play via 大象传媒 Writersroom for The Verb, a Radio 3 programme which celebrates language. Despite initial reservations, never having written for radio before, the gamble paid off and my play was commissioned. Listening to actors perform my play was a really special experience and one that has fired me up to try more new things.
Immersing myself in the world of television drama, both as a script editor and as a writer, has proven to me that the biggest, most annoying obstacle I鈥檝e had to overcome when writing is me. Self-doubt can be so paralysing. It鈥檚 what made me panic in my first interview - what if everyone suddenly realises I鈥檓 terrible at this? What a relief looking back now that I didn鈥檛 just stop there. If I hadn鈥檛 submitted a script to 大象传媒 Writersroom that fourth time I wouldn鈥檛 have made it onto the Voices programme. If I hadn鈥檛 submitted a fifth time, I wouldn鈥檛 be writing this blog post (so some of you reading might wish I hadn鈥檛). So if you are umming and ahhing over applying - just do. It takes a lot to push that doubting voice aside, but it will always be more boring and depressing to keep listening to it.
Having worked in drama for five years now, starting as an editorial assistant and working up to become a script editor, I feel so privileged still to get to spend my time surrounded by people who love and believe in storytelling as passionately as I do. Being part of the amazing script teams that I have worked with has made me a better storyteller. Being on the Drama Room and Voices programmes and becoming part of the incredible network of writers that make up the UK screenwriting world has pushed me to take writing seriously for myself. There are so many things that uplift and enrage and inspire me, and I feel excited to commit them to paper (laptop screen). It is because of all of the people mentioned above that I now can and do call myself a writer. Maybe not as cool as an astronaut or a mermaid, but I鈥檒l take it.
Find out about all the writers who took part in Drama Room 2022/23
Would you like to be part of the next Drama Room or Voices writer development groups? To be considered you must enter a script into our Open Call script submission window. This year the window is open between 12 noon on Tuesday 7th November and 12 noon on Tuesday 5th December.