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Chain Gang is a collaborative storytelling project that BBC Radio 7 does from time to time. The basic idea: get a writer (award-winning Robert Shearman in the case of the currently ongoing series of Chain Gang) to write a few minutes of a story for radio. Broadcast it, and invite listeners to submit their storylines for what happens in the next few minutes. Choose a storyline, and have the writer turn it into another couple of minutes of full fledged radio drama. Repeat for about twelve weeks, and then let the poor writer wrap it up somehow at the end.
I listened to the 2007 series of Chain Gang, and thought that it actually worked remarkably well. The story had more twists and turns than an A.E. Van Vogt novel, but it was fascinating to see how people built on ideas from the previous episodes. So, when this new series rolled around, I decided I'd set myself the challenge of writing and submitting at least one storyline a week. I thought if nothing else, it would be a good writing exercise for focusing on plot, which isn't really one of my strengths as a writer.
Writing for radio was an interesting challenge. I had to reign in certain things that are rather instinctive in printed fiction. Long passages of physical description aren't goint to easily translate to radio. Nor are sequences of internal monologue, unless you're really going to have a character stand around talking to herself - possible, but difficult to make really dramatic. At the same time, I did feel as though it was important to try to convey some sense of place, and some sense of the character's thoughts.
I also worked very hard on making each storyline come to a good cliffhanger. I'll confess, in my head, each one ends with a camera zooming in on a character's face, and the "cliffhanger sting" leading into the Doctor Who end theme. Not entirely appropriate, since I was neither writing for television, nor writing Doctor Who, but that's the feel I was going for.
So, I sent in two storylines, and got a couple of nice auto-reply emails from BBC Radio 7, and didn't hear anything else. So, it was a bit of a surprise when I downloaded the new episode of Chain Gang off the podcast feed, and heard a BBC announcer say, "Episode 2 by Wendy Shaffer." (No, they don't know how to pronounce "Shaffer". But that's not the point. I've heard a BBC continuity announcer say my name! How cool is that?)
Although, what she really should have said was, "Episode 2, in which Wendy Shaffer had a daft idea, and Robert Shearman did all the work to make it work." But there we go.
They picked my favorite of the two storylines I sent. (The other one involved virtual reality.) It was really neat to hear it dramatised. One of the the things you'll notice if you compare the original storyline to the actual episode is that my storyline is still structured a lot like something written for print - it begins with Susan waiting for Brian to fall asleep, leaving the hotel, etc. Whereas Rob Shearman starts with Susan already confronting the Other Mrs. Ferguson, and fills us in on what has happened previously via dialogue.
Anyway, I am thrilled that I got to hear a bit of story by me dramatised on radio. By Rob Shearman, no less!
You can listen to Episode 2 of Chain Gang on your computer from BBC iPlayer until December 26th. I recommend listening to Episode 1 first (there's a link on that page) to get the context.
I listened to the 2007 series of Chain Gang, and thought that it actually worked remarkably well. The story had more twists and turns than an A.E. Van Vogt novel, but it was fascinating to see how people built on ideas from the previous episodes. So, when this new series rolled around, I decided I'd set myself the challenge of writing and submitting at least one storyline a week. I thought if nothing else, it would be a good writing exercise for focusing on plot, which isn't really one of my strengths as a writer.
Writing for radio was an interesting challenge. I had to reign in certain things that are rather instinctive in printed fiction. Long passages of physical description aren't goint to easily translate to radio. Nor are sequences of internal monologue, unless you're really going to have a character stand around talking to herself - possible, but difficult to make really dramatic. At the same time, I did feel as though it was important to try to convey some sense of place, and some sense of the character's thoughts.
I also worked very hard on making each storyline come to a good cliffhanger. I'll confess, in my head, each one ends with a camera zooming in on a character's face, and the "cliffhanger sting" leading into the Doctor Who end theme. Not entirely appropriate, since I was neither writing for television, nor writing Doctor Who, but that's the feel I was going for.
So, I sent in two storylines, and got a couple of nice auto-reply emails from BBC Radio 7, and didn't hear anything else. So, it was a bit of a surprise when I downloaded the new episode of Chain Gang off the podcast feed, and heard a BBC announcer say, "Episode 2 by Wendy Shaffer." (No, they don't know how to pronounce "Shaffer". But that's not the point. I've heard a BBC continuity announcer say my name! How cool is that?)
Although, what she really should have said was, "Episode 2, in which Wendy Shaffer had a daft idea, and Robert Shearman did all the work to make it work." But there we go.
They picked my favorite of the two storylines I sent. (The other one involved virtual reality.) It was really neat to hear it dramatised. One of the the things you'll notice if you compare the original storyline to the actual episode is that my storyline is still structured a lot like something written for print - it begins with Susan waiting for Brian to fall asleep, leaving the hotel, etc. Whereas Rob Shearman starts with Susan already confronting the Other Mrs. Ferguson, and fills us in on what has happened previously via dialogue.
Anyway, I am thrilled that I got to hear a bit of story by me dramatised on radio. By Rob Shearman, no less!
You can listen to Episode 2 of Chain Gang on your computer from BBC iPlayer until December 26th. I recommend listening to Episode 1 first (there's a link on that page) to get the context.
