Bringing the radio back

I've just sent off a script to Big Finish, the company who release Doctor Who audio adventures. They were running an 'opportunity' for new writers to pitch ideas with the possibility of developing the script and maybe even being offered a shot at working as a writer. I had to have a go really!

Anyway, I'm really pleased with what I sent. I tried to avoid the cliched science fiction stories which resort to big, bad aliens. Instead I made a monster out of nature which I think makes a darker story. Apparently it'll take a month until we find out if any ideas are being taken forward, we shall see.

I'd never written for radio before, I always had an impression that it would limit what I could do, that it was a dying medium. Especially with blockbuster 3D movies like Avatar, how can radio possibly keep up? But the work has made me realised that it's actually a really exciting medium, it forces you to think of original ways to tell a story, you can't just shove a pretty image in the face of the audience - you have to work harder to involve them. It shows how talented Orson Welles was considering the reaction to War of the Worlds. Hopefully soon we will see a film is as visually striking as Avatar but which also has an original and well-written narrative.

I'm going to write more radio plays now. There's a greater chance of getting a break as a writer, and who says that radio plays can't return to the mainstream? That's my challenge.