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On the eve of the closing we catch-up with recipient James Bugg on writing comedy as a Freelance writer - he fills us in on how he's been getting on...

A lot has changed since I last wrote a blog post for Writersroom . I’m a little older, a little tougher (physically, not mentally - I had a spurt) and I now collect receipts like some kind of anorak who can’t afford a Panini sticker album.

Ah, the life of the freelance writer. In May last year I finished my bursary at Radio Comedy and passed the baton on to the next pair of joke monkeys. I learned a lot at the ±«Óãtv. But, honestly, in the end I outgrew them and had to move on to bigger and better things. Arguably, many people wouldn’t consider writing from home whilst looking after a dying cat ‘bigger’ or ‘better’, but to those people I say “I haven’t got time to argue, I need to give Rollo his antibiotics”.

But it wasn’t always this way. I didn’t always command the authority and respect usually reserved for Premier League footballers or Victoria’s Secret angels, as is the case for all main writers on .

… No. As I write this blog, I realise the most important thing on my journey to becoming the third best writer in the world (after and ) was… Erm… I don’t know.

That may be a disappointing thing to read in a blog about ‘succeeding’ as a freelance writer. I understand we’re all looking for some guaranteed success. A ‘magic formula’. But they don’t exist really. Look at your junk mail folder - we all know the miracle formulas on offer there won’t really make you a great lover or super-hairy. Or a super-hairy lover. So why wouldn’t you be skeptical if someone told you they could guarantee you success at something as difficult and as abstract as comedy writing?

Maybe I’m a cynic, hardened by life and feline mortality. But I think there’s truth behind this. Too often in life we look to take the shortcut. But in writing you really can’t. There is nothing I or anyone could write here which will guarantee you your own sitcom by the time you’ve scrolled to the bottom (but how good would that be? Read that blog instead.). The best thing you can do – especially when starting off – is take every opportunity you possibly can to learn, because you never know what one seemingly minor thing could lead to.

Some days you’re not so busy. Some days you’re not even funny (for instance, I really wish I wrote this blog yesterday because I was killing it). But it’s important to motivate yourself to use your time constructively. It’s easy to say you’re a writer and then put everything off until ‘tomorrow’ without putting pen to paper. Fortunately, the bursary gave me the opportunity to write sketches and gags all day every day. I’ve never worked for British Gas, but I’m assuming a job there would be different. Still, wherever you work, you would expect to learn the basics of your craft. So use your time to do that, and keep polishing these skills. Read some story-writing books, write some gags. Practice your pipette handling on a British shorthair. You never know when that will come in handy on .

I occasionally speak at ±«Óãtv events and conferences designed to help out budding writers. Mainly this is so I can sniff out any potential early and put them off before they take my money. But it’s also so I can steal good ideas. Still, if it’s early days in your writing career, going along to one of these could kickstart your own run of opportunities. I was recently on a alongside Radio 4 Producers. Here, not only do those in attendance get to listen to whatever nonsense I have to say, you also get to put a face to a producer whose work you admire, and can find out directly what they’re looking for. This saves so much time and guesswork. You’ll probably be by half four.

So do that. Then send some sketches to . Or . You could even submit your comedy scripts to , because nothing helps as much as feedback (unless it’s bad feedback right? In which case blah blah blah (note: this is the wrong attitude)). From here, opportunities collide to create yet further opportunity. This is what I did and now look at me! Other shows you can’t blindly submit to have begun to trust and employ me. I eat twice a week at Zizzi’s. And before long you too could have the kind of exciting lifestyle where you’re able to write a sketch for in the morning and then bury a cat in the afternoon (RIP :( ).

Because comedy seems to reward perseverance. And in no way do I feel I’m beyond the hard work – quite the opposite – but I at least now see how important taking each step was to make my ‘career’ even remotely credible, even if I didn’t realise these were important steps at the time. I can now think ‘where next?’ as opposed to ‘where do I start?’ And by the time I write my next blog, I want to be the most successful man in the world. Or at least bigger than Prince. So dream big, and don’t pass up any opportunity whilst getting there. There’s loads of jokes to write along the way.

And if that fails, you do what everyone else does. Grow your hair long and practice forging a well-known tennis player’s signature. You think cat medicine grows on trees?

For Rollo – my fluffy leg-buffer as I sat writing jokes.

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