Word Count 96: New prize for funny women in print, Jane Austen 250 celebrations, Sleeper Beach
Plus the most popular TV shows in the UK, Gatsby's secret, awful AI romance start-up, are levies the answer to TV's crisis?, Bella making biscuits and more!
Hi there,
Not quite such glorious weather this week, but spring has definitely sprung, with the pear and apple trees blossoming and lots of bluebells flowering everywhere.
Fieldwork: Colossal de-extinction fib, plus Fieldwork progress
You might seen the announcement last week that an American biosciences company has de-extincted (is that even a word?) the ice-age dire wolf, for no apparent reason. There was a lot of breathless, credulous coverage, but the reality was a lot more mundane. I wrote about what Colossal Biosciences actually did, and why it’s a problem, over on the Fieldwork newsletter.
You might remember that there are a couple of competition deadlines coming up at the end of April: Sitcom Mission and the Oxford/42 competition. I was going to enter Fieldwork into both of them, but I’ve not been able to prepare a 30 page version for Oxford/42, so I’m going to submit the first 10k words of Tag to that instead. It’s free, so why not?
Meanwhile, going through the Sitcom Mission feedback process has been profoundly unpleasant. The feedback has been negative and judgemental, rather than helpful, and has really undermined my confidence. I think I’ll need to step back from the project for a month or so once the script is submitted, in order to rebalance. It’s a shame, because I am always keen to take on feedback to make my work better, but when it’s all “There are no jokes” and “You’re supposed to be writing a sitcom!”, it’s not particularly helpful.
Opportunity: Comedy Women in Print Prize
The new Comedy Women in Print Prize, billed as “the UK & Ireland's first comedy literary prize dedicated to celebrating witty women's writing”, has recently launched. They have three categories:
Self-published comedy novel, published between 24 May 2023 and 23 May 2025
Published comedy novel, published between 15 October 2022 and 23 May 2025
Unpublished comedy novel (must have been completed)
The competition is open to women writing in English and resident in the UK and Ireland. The closing date is 23 May.
Wonder if I can get Fieldwork adapted into a novel by 23 May…
Events: Jane Austen 250 celebrations
If you’re in the area, Reading Museum has a program of events to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday. The Austen and her sister Cassandra both attended Reading Ladies Boarding School in 1785/6, in what is now known as the Abbey Gateway, which is not far from the train station. As well as a tour of the medieval Abbey Gateway, there are a variety of talks throughout May and the first half of June, so if you’re an Austen fan it’s worth making the trip.
Tweet of the week
Yes, yes, yes, I know it’s on Bluesky so technically not a tweet, but this from Sam Halpert is perfection:
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
Using AI to write is at best allowing your muscles to atrophy, at worst you’re actively de-skilling yourself.
What I’m reading
It’s been a good spring for books this year! Another one that’s coming up roses is Nick Harkaway’s Sleeper Beach. The sequel to Titanium Noir, PI Cal Sounder investigates another murder in a world where the incredibly rich and powerful can prolong their lives by taking a new drug, T7, which has the side effect of putting them through puberty-like growth spurts.
I’m only a third of the way through, but it’s an absolutely stonking read. Interestingly, I can occasionally detect tiny hints of George Smiley and Karla’s Choice in there, which makes me happy. But if you like a bit of alt future noir, then Sleeper Beach is a great choice for an Easter read.
Read this: Most popular TV shows in the UK
My Bluesky feed last week was alive with responses to this YouGov poll about the most popular TV programs of all time, amongst British adults. The top ten featured seven comedies or sitcoms, and three nature programs. Comedy is significantly more popular than TV commissioners might like to think, though it’s notable that people love the older shows more – Only Fools and Horses, Mr Bean, The Two Ronnies, Porridge, Blackadder and Fawlty Towers taking all the top comedy spots, with The Simpsons slipping in at no. 10. A lesson or two to learn there perhaps?
You can compare the tastes of Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, but I find the comparison between men and women far more interesting. The top five for men is:
Planet Earth
The Two Ronnies
The Blue Planet
Fawlty Towers
Only Fools and Horses
Where as for women, it’s:
Only Fool and Horses
The Vicar of Dibley (73 in the men’s list)
Line of Duty
French & Saunders (74 in the men’s list)
Planet Earth
Women like female-led programs significantly more than men, but are so very wildly underserved. Another lesson for commissioners, if they are listening.
Read this, two: Gatsby’s secret
This essay from American journalist Wesley Lowery makes a very compelling argument that Jay Gatsby, titular antihero of F Scot Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, was actually a black man who could pass as white. It’s a fascinating essay, and it’s really made me want to go back to read it again through a new lens.
Read this, and weep: AI romance start-up exploits authors
These days, I’m consciously trying to put the not-great bits and pieces nearer the bottom of the newsletter, on the basis that if people only read the first half, at least they’ll get the happy bits. Because this long read from Bloomberg is just all sorts of awful. Every time I thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse, it did.
The tl;dr is that a tech company called Inkitt is using AI to exploit romance writers, especially young and inexperienced writers. It publishes their work on its website/app, and then uses ghostwriters and AI to write sequels or short videos based on the content. It A/B tests everything, changing the book as test results come in, with or without the original author’s agreement. It pays poorly, treats authors badly and is hyper-exploitative. There’s a lot I could have quoted, but here are a couple choice excepts (my bold):
Money aside, Inkitt’s standard contract gives it the exclusive right not just to produce books in all forms and languages, along with film and TV adaptations, but also to exploit the creative material for plays, games, merchandise and “any other rights” it deems important. And it doesn’t require the author’s consent for editorial changes and additions.
[…]
It’s true that many of Inkitt’s authors might not have otherwise been published at all. None of the ones I spoke to had an agent when they signed on. Many were barely adults at the time.
Worse, founder Ali Albazaz says that whilst he understands no one wants to “nobody ever is going to pay money for AI-generated content”, the way round that would be to use AI to create personas, to “make it plausible that this is a human.”
Ugh.
Read th…oh you get the idea: Are levies the answer for British TV?
I’ve shared a lot of links recently about the crisis in British TV, and it’s good to see MPs on the cross-party culture, media and sport committee tackling the problem. They are suggesting that levies on major streamers plus some new tax breaks are needed to “help fund UK dramas produced by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 – the public service broadcasters who have seen their programme budgets squeezed while the costs of making shows have spiralled. The committee said there was currently a threat to such programming, which was vital to the UK’s identity, national conversation and talent development.”
Apropos of a conversation elsewhere, we also need to find ways to support the much smaller native language TV industries in Wales and Scotland, which produce some stonking dramas but whose industries are hamstrung by tiny budgets. You can’t, for example, buy a DVD or even a download of Welsh language dramas like Y Gwyll, Un Bore Mercher or Pren ar y Bryn. The reason is always given as ‘licensing’, but we all know that that could be solved in an instant with the application of a little money.
Threads – 2025’s least welcome reboot
Back in 1984, the national psyche was collectively scarred by the broadcast of Threads, a groundbreakingly realistic look at the aftermath of a nuclear strike. Following the stories of two families in Sheffield, it’s famous for scaring the shit out of everyone who watched it.
In deeply unwelcome news, the prodco behind the overhyped Adolescence are going to reboot it for the modern age. But, well, isn’t there enough misery in the world already? Don’t we need more hopeful stories? Maybe I’m just being naïve, but I’m pretty certain we don’t need to see a modern victim of a nuclear strike pissing herself.
Obligatory cat video
I had to rush back down to Dorset to look after my Mum again the other week, after her carers decided to abandon her. She can’t be left alone for more than a day or two, so I had to hop on a train and make sure she was OK until we got new carers in place.
Whilst I was down there, I got to spend a bit more time with her new cat, Bella. Having spent the first two weeks of her time at my Mum’s hiding under the bed, it was lovely to see her gain a bit of confidence and come out for fusses. Here she is, making very happy biscuits.
That’s it for now! See you again in a fortnight.
Ttfn,
Suw