British Comedy Guide

Best and Worst moments of your Writing career Page 7

Quote: Tuumble @ June 18 2009, 2:49 PM BST

Should I call you Harry the Haddock then? If memory serves it was your comment in the first place that inspired the fisty-cuffs.

You're just jealous because you missed it. :)

Quote: Aaron @ June 18 2009, 3:36 PM BST

This kind of comment is not appreciated. However, if you want to be banned, then do carry on.

Oh ok, Well if that's the case I apologise.

Quote: Griff @ June 16 2009, 8:43 PM BST
Image

Awesome. I know Yacob Wingnut's written for them as well... I got a rejection from that quarter only last week saying "liked your sketch but not enough to use it sorry."

Smelly

I went for some M&W sketches a while back, Mr. Webb emailed me to say he liked them but Mr. Edwards, his producer, said they were rubbish barring one. And that was too Python.

Weird really, it was about a giraffe.

How did you guys manage to submit material for Mitchell and Webb? I want to be rejected too!

Quote: Griff @ June 22 2009, 11:37 AM BST

Guys, we're not going to put contact details for Mitchell and Webb on a public website so that they can be indundated with 1500 sketches overnight. End of.

Sorry, didn't really think about it like that.

Quote: Griff @ June 22 2009, 11:37 AM BST

Guys, we're not going to put contact details for Mitchell and Webb on a public website so that they can be indundated with 1500 sketches overnight. End of.

go on.

Quote: jdubya @ June 22 2009, 11:41 AM BST

go on.

Hmm. And I didn't really think about it like that.

It's Comedy Writer Apartheid. Segregation. Them and Us. ;)

I'm not going to add any highs. Mainly I've been watching this thread worrying that some of the writers who've had recent rejections may feel despondent and isolated. Yes, true, some will react with a bit of a gee-up to all the highs but everyone is different. Everyone comes here with different dreams, goals, targets. Reading success after success (admitedly with the lows but the human mind is very selective in what it chooses to assimilate and recall) isn't always the best pick-me-up. So I'm just going to add my lows.
:)

1) Getting a publisher interested in a second novel and having so many delays that I've given up hope and now have to restart the process of finding it a home.

2) Receiving a rejection letter that was not only crushing but went out of its way to be highly personal and incredibly insulting. The author probably had a bad day but the inexcusable intention of the letter was to crush, not reject. He / she was Welsh. All our interest has come from over the border. Oddly, that same script became one of our more successful (in inverted commas), so it goes to show how personal comedy is. I've kept the letter, it reminds me every time I want to quit that I will keep going.

3) Getting writer's block for six months. The plus side being it forced me to research and develop ways of writing through block. The reasoning being: any aspiring professional wants to write as a job of work. He / she can't allow for block when that moment comes. So you have to be ready for those dreaded silent days.

4) Missing out on the finals of Shoot The Writers. Yes, an almost universally condemned show but I owe those actors and the producer a huge debt. The plus side being that it arrived at the moment I was beginning to doubt. Getting to the semis was a lift.

5) When we first started out in 2003. Having a senior producer phone me and rave for 30 minutes over our first sketch show within an hour of it being emailed to him / her. Why is it a low? After raving over it and saying they were taking it to their boss, there was several weeks of silence. I sent an email, then after a few weeks, another. Don't want to seem pushy, eh? The producer refused to answer any emails. Just dead silence. From raving about "This is just what we need. I love it." to nothing. This was more confounding than a rejection. The plus being that it gave us a kick to continue, although it very nearly destroyed us.

As for my highs, my highs aren't high enough or long enough. And no matter how successful I could ever become they still wouldn't be. Why? Because I'm human. I'm an aspiring writer. It's the curse of the experiential creature.

Quote: Griff @ June 22 2009, 11:37 AM BST

Guys, we're not going to put contact details for Mitchell and Webb on a public website so that they can be indundated with 1500 sketches overnight. End of.

Maybe the site could do with some sort of private members area,a kind of exclusive forum for the slightly more successful to share info like this....

Why hasn't anyone thought of this before. ;)

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ June 22 2009, 2:52 PM BST

Maybe the site could do with some sort of private members area,a kind of exclusive forum for the slightly more successful to share info like this....

Writers sharing info... are you quite mad, DD? Laughing out loud

I've got Griff's email if anyone wants it?

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ June 22 2009, 2:52 PM BST

Maybe the site could do with some sort of private members area,a kind of exclusive forum for the slightly more successful to share info like this....

Why hasn't anyone thought of this before. ;)

To be fair.

If I had access to M+W I'd most likely keep the info to myself.

In fact not most likely - would!

As Griff says you can't go round putting private info on public forums.

Quote: Griff @ June 22 2009, 3:01 PM BST

Snipe all you like, people, but if you can't see why putting contact details on a public website without the permission of the person who gave them to you is a bad idea, then... well, heck I don't know what.

Yikes, I don't think anyone was sniping, Sir. And no one would argue with the logic.
:)
I did put a rather huge Laughing out loud as a sign of general amusement at DD's suggestion, not sarcastic bellowing at the non-disclosers.

The moral is that the world needs MORE emoticons.

Quote: SlagA @ June 22 2009, 3:05 PM BST

The moral is that the world needs MORE emoticons.

I'm currently working on 'Slight melancholy, brushed over latex dwarf silliness undertones'

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