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Lizzie Bates & Anna Emerson's Blog

18 July 13

Lizzie Bates and Anna Emerson will be taking their script New Habits to the New York Television Festival with Rocliffe.

The Script: New Habits

Synopsis: When Sister Adie decides she’s quitting the convent, Jules helps her get to grips with life as a single woman in the big city.

Meet Lizzie Bates

How did it feel to be shortlisted for Rocliffe?

I am over the moon! It's amazing to receive validation after all the hard work we've done, and I feel like this has really given me the confidence to believe in my ideas and writing - and to keep going!

What are you most looking forward to about attending the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum event in New York?

The chance to meet influential people in the comedy industry and receive proper feedback for our idea and script. I would also be so excited to have our script read and brought to life.

When did you get involved in writing comedy?

Anna and I started writing properly after university when we put our first Edinburgh Fringe show together, and started gigging on the London sketch comedy circuit.

What inspired you to write comedy for the screen?

I've always written for the stage so when we had the opportunity to write narrative comedy for the radio it was a really exciting new challenge, and something I enjoyed enormously. That played a huge part in giving me the confidence to start writing for the screen. There are so many fantastic sitcoms out there, it would be a dream come true to have ours alongside them.

Which part of the writing process do you find most difficult and which come most easily?

Writing late at night after a full day in the office can be really hard. It always helps to have a strict deadline so you don't mind carrying on into the night! I also find writing with Anna - throwing ideas around and trying to make each other laugh - the most enjoyable bit of the writing process. And when a joke really comes together it's such an amazing feeling.

Meet Anna Emerson

How did it feel to be shortlisted for Rocliffe?

To be recognised and taken seriously as a writer by top industry professionals is a real joy and an honour. We've been doing comedy for seven years now, but this is the first TV script we've attempted so it's exciting to feel that we have actually learned some useful things along the way.

What are you most looking forward to about attending the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum event in New York?

Seeing our work performed would be very exciting. We usually write and perform all our own material (as sketch trio The Boom Jennies with Catriona Knox), so to have actors reading our lines in front of an audience would be both strange and thrilling (and a bit nerve-wracking). I'd also really appreciate the opportunity to meet industry professionals and get their views on our script - it's always exciting to be able to learn from people who know what they're talking about.

When did you get involved in writing comedy?

Lizzie and I first started performing bits of comedy together at our local youth theatre when we were 15 or 16. I was terribly shy, but as soon as someone laughed at one of my jokes, I was hooked. It's since leaving university that we've really focused on it though - we took our first sketch show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006, where we performed in a damp, odorous basement, miles from anywhere, at midday. The next year, we were in a cave, later a Portacabin and by our seventh Edinburgh Fringe venture last year we'd graduated to a room in the Students' Union. It's fair to say it hasn't been a glamourous ride. But it has been very good fun.

What inspired you to write comedy for the screen?

The sitcom idea we submitted for the competition is the first piece of TV screenwriting we've attempted - I think that's because we felt we needed to build up our skills through live sketch shows and radio writing first. But there are certain things that will only work on TV and we could really see these characters being very physically funny, and imagine lots of visually entertaining scenes.

Which part of the writing process do you find most difficult and which come most easily?

Getting started is hardest. We always write together, huddled around one laptop, and we usually lose the first hour to tea-brewing, snack-fetching and catching up. It can also be difficult to really nail down a character so that they feel like a real person, especially when you keep coming up with lines you think are hilarious - but that these characters simply wouldn't say. On the other hand, ideas come quite easily, and I think we're good at problem solving together. If one of us comes up with the outline of a joke but doesn't know how to make it work, the other one usually does. And if they don't, it's probably because it's a rubbish joke.