You may remember that last month we ran a competition in conjunction with Cambridge University Press, where you could win a copy of the weighty tome The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing by David Morley. Copies are already in the post to our winners:

N.I. Jones, Kailash Srinivasan, Paul McDermott, Sue Millard, Bob Simms, Brian Fone, Cliff Bowes, Roger Woodcock, Mike Gerald and Bailey McLennan.

You know who you are, even if others don't. Congratulations to all!

Play & Record is the Beeb's latest new radio comedy writing wheeze. It's a new quick-fire sketch show coming on BBC7. They're looking for you to send in your bestest-ever sketch, and if they like it, and if you attended a sufficiently nice school, they might ask for more. This one closes soon, so email them your sketch by Monday 16th July.

Play & Record

Blimey - we're getting sent press releases now! Not from publishers you've heard of, but whatever - it's a start. The soon-to-be-huge Fidra Books (no, me either) have launched a competition to find a new book for their 2008 list.  They’ve also lined up an impressive panel of judges including authors Victoria Walker and Anne Digby and literary agent Michael Motley (again, who?). Fidra are looking for a full-length children’s novel that will sit alongside their list of rural adventure, school stories, pony books and iconic fantasy books. Impressively, they say, “We’re not looking for gritty fiction dealing with social issues and teenage angst...", so you can keep your stories of dead kestrels and Glaswegian heroin chic.

Most interestingly, the other bit of the press release tells us that Edinburgh-based Fidra Books specialise in reprinting unjustly neglected children’s books, sought after by collectors and which they feel deserve a wider audience. Look out for those new editions of Enid Blytons' The Three Golliwogs, coming soon. What? Oh, for crying out loud, you can't say anything these days...

A New Book for Fidra

If you fear your comedy sketches might never be performed like they are in your head, now's your chance for a bit of DIY. Channel 4's 4Laughs site (Hi Russ!) has launched an audio contest where you basically record as many of your own comedy sketches as you have breath for, then upload them, YouTube-stylee, to the 4Laughs site. Winner gets a chocolate orange. Or something. It's part of their Comedy Ladder thing which I still don't pretend to understand...

Upload Your Audio Gold

Radio writing is all about angsty middle-class kitchen-sink laminate floor dramas. Actually it still represents one of the best ways of breaking into TV. The Script Factory and BBC Radio 4 have therefore come together to put on an Information Day (their caps) and a masterclass in writing for radio. The Day is on the 7th June in London, and while admission is free, they won't let just anyone in. You'll first have to prove your worthiness through writing a radio play review and synopsis, and the deadline for that is 24th May. Get cracking.

A Radio Drama Project

If you can do that, and if you've had at least one film, television or radio drama script produced, or one theatre piece performed professionally, then you too could go for this 'job' on the BBC Drama Production Writers Academy, a 3-month training course that will turn you into an Eastenders or Holby City scribe before you can say 'Leave it! It's family...' Pretty cool placement opportunity this, but get those applications in sharpish - May 14th at the latest.

BBC Drama Production Writers Academy 2007

Got an idea for a film? Not a proper film obviously, but a British film? UK Film Council has a pot of lottery money to spend on developing original screenplays, and a £10,000 grant could be yours if you go all the way. Be sure to include at least one scene on a council estate, one chase in a multi-storey car park, and a character written for Robert Carlyle. You should be in like a shot then.

UK Film Council

Amusingly, Channel 4 have lowered their sights somewhat for this year's version of The Play's The Thing, which last time saw some apparently dreadful drafts of plays vying for square-footage in the West End, with a predictably least-worst winner contractually obliged to be shown.

This time round, the pressure for first-time writers has been eased off a little. Now it's a 15-minute radio play, with the winner shown on Channel 4 Radio (their web-thingy) and OneWorld Radio (which is on Sky or something...). Get cracking, entries close March 26th.

The Play's The Thing

Thanks to woody44 for this one. Charnwood Arts is supporting miniWORDS 2007, a flash writing contest with a top prize of £750 (or is it £1000? The information isn't too clear...). There are various categories available, and none of them expect you to write over 150 words. Suddenly that February 16th deadline doesn't seem so scary...

miniWORDS 2007

If you work in education, then specialist channel Teachers' TV (find it at the arse-end of Freeview, Sky or cable) is running a national competition to find the finest screenwriters of the staffroom. They're after fictional monologues on any aspect of school life from the perspective of someone who works in a school. Winning entries will be filmed and showed on the channel. Not proper TV, but digital TV as 'er indoors would say.

Staffroom Monologues