The write time: Radio competition tests talent for writing under pressure
by Andrea Nemetz, The Daily News
November 20, 2007
Call it Canadian Idol for writers.
Benjamin Boudreau of Halifax will battle four other contestants for top honours on Canada Writes, CBC Radio’s National Writing Challenge.
Hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, the contest airs today through Thursday, at 11:30 a.m., repeating at 7:30 p.m. on CBC Radio One. It asks writers to be concise and witty on demand with competitors eliminated one by one.
Jazz songstress Dione Taylor, advertising guru Terry O’Reilly and comedian Elvira Kurt will judge the quintet which, besides Boudreau, a recent public relations graduate, includes: Rosemary Rowe, a playright from Vancouver; Amy Neufeld, an administrator and drama instructor from Edmonton; Jenny Ryan, a librarian and improv artist from Saskatoon and Derek Krismanich, a wireless account representative from Kitchener; Ont.
The show was taped on Saturday in Toronto.
“If I make it all the way to the end, I’ll have been writing from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” says Boudreau, sitting in a Halifax coffee shop the day before heading to Ontario. “It’s giong to be a lot of fun. I talked to the other people in the Top 5 and they all have blogs on humorous subjects. It looks like a fun crowd with great energy.”
It’s been a busy few months for the Lockview High School alum who graduated in October from MSVU as valedictorian and entered the CBC contest on the spur of the moment.
“I saw the notice of the competition a day or two before the deadline and it was asking for 200 words, so it wasn’t a lot and I thought, why not?”
For the first round, competitors would choose to submit 200 words in the form of a blog, humorous story, a movie pitch, ad copy, or a song.
Boudreau decided on humour and wrote an anecdote from when he worked at a recreation camp for children and a co-worker was injured.
“It does sound a bit sick,” says a reflective Boudreau, “but it’s about the irony behind the incident and she and I both laughed about it. I made it humorous despite the circumstances.”
He received a phone call telling him he had made it into the Top 24 and would have an interview and a written audition in which he would be e-mailed a topic at a designated time and he’d have an hour to write 200 words.
The assignment turned out to be a request for a movie pitch destined to be a Canadian classic.
“For the first 15 minutes, I tried to get my head around the idea, but it was good to work under that pressure and see what I could come up with.”
What he submitted was the story of a “hard-ass British lawyer who comes to Canada to investigate tax evasion for a big firm that has had great success in Britain. She lands in rural Newfoundland. It’s the juxtaposition of her personality, the London scene versus the towns and villages of Newfoundland.
“I wanted it to be truly Canadian but not over the top - no run-ins with beavers, but something that could be authentic.”
A fan of the reality TV show America’s Next Top Model, Boudreau will get his own turn in the spotlight performing the pitch on air.
Boudreau, who began writing short stories in junior high, notes that it is hard to be creative and concise at the same time.
Fortunately he honed his literary skills over the summer in a creative writing course taught by Clare Goulet at MSVU. “One of the things Clare taught us was that you don’t have to spell it all out for the reader, just lead him in the right direction. You don’t have the luxury of telling him what to think, or how to interpret.”
Boudreau has been writing a blog entitled No Ordinary Rollercoaster for about a year (find it at http://bensprblog.blogspot.com).
“It started because of a class. They thought it would make us produce better quality content. Having a showcase built in makes you work harder,” says Boudreau, whose goal is to be a full-time writer.
“Having a blog keeps me writing. It’s hard to sit down and decide to write a novel,” he says, noting he recently finished reading Elle, a Governor General’s Award-winning novel by Douglas Glover. “It had some shining creative moments.”
While he’d love to win, Boudreau says the national exposure provided by the contest is fantastic and great motivation to keep writing.
CBC listeners can test their writing skills by going online to participate in the same timed writing challenges featured on air. Canadians can then vote online for their favourite online entry for the People’s Choice award.
The winner of Canada Writes will receive a notebook computer. The remaining broadcast finalists will each receive a Sirius satellite radio with a six-month subscription to the service.