Money Shot: your first time

Everybody remembers their first time.

Perhaps they received a few pounds from a BBC producer. Perhaps they were slipped a purple one after a nervy stand-up performance.

Getting that first payment is an important first step on your professional journey. It is something to celebrate.

For a writer, there are a number of ways to try and clear this hurdle.

For sitcom writers, the best thing to do is to write a sitcom script, and hope it leads to an option (a small payment) from a production company for either that idea or another you pitch to them. This is...