My mission to help new writing talent take centre stage

I started writing, not because I wanted to do it as a career, but because, through my involvement with South Leeds Youth Theatre, I enjoyed acting. I wrote plays for me and my mates to tour around community centres and small theatres. They were the kind of places very much ignored by what's called the established theatre.

Around the same time Max Stafford Clark and his Out of Joint theatre company were in Yorkshire researching A State Affair, the follow-up to Rita, Sue and Bob Too.

According to Max, at least three people mentioned to him a friend of theirs, "what worked in theatre and that". Some might have ignored the recommendations. Max contacted me, said he wanted to read some of my stuff and wrote a lovely letter to West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Ten years later, I'm working on Casualty and I'm at the annual BAFTAs ceremony missing out to EastEnders… again.

I think that makes Max my mentor (among others) – so it follows that I should at the very least attempt to make some Karmic repayments to other writers.

For me the enjoyment of acting still remains, but the writing takes precedence, so three years ago, I came up with the idea for Northern Bullits, a company that only operates for one month in every year.

On the surface, at least, it's a theatre production dedicated to providing a platform for fledgling Northern artists, not just writers, but actors, technicians, composers. Scratch a little deeper, and it may appear a thinly-veiled ego trip for me where I can do some acting, but honestly it is a means of finding new talent and one which will, hopefully, in years to come, benefit me as a creator of TV drama.

Ahead of this year's Northern Bullits we put a very informal shout out for short play ideas. The appeal went out via Facebook and Artsjobs. I think the wording was: "Seeking new writers to pitch one-paragraph idea for a short play based on the theme of More Than Words".

Within three weeks, we had nearly 100 replies and had to close submissions. There are a lot of people out there wanting to write and quite clearly not many opportunities.

We have found five great pieces and have worked closely with the writers to address, what is in our opinion, public enemy number one with new writing. A tendency for excess.

Unfortunately, new writers tend to do too much writing. By that, I mean they overwrite, the characters speak too much, they tell us how they feel, they fancifully create metaphors and attempt to achieve different levels of understanding.

It's not clever to show the audience how clever you are, it's clever to entertain them and have them fill in the gaps for themselves (I realise this won't catch on as a mantra).

Don't get me wrong, the dialogue is vital and we're not presenting five mimes, but the words should brilliant and vital, something which is easier to achieve if there are fewer of them cluttering up proceedings.

The skill of writing lies in the structure, not just the words. It is often what is not said that makes something dramatic and we have made all our writers this year (at gunpoint) take out as much of the dialogue as possible while at the same time retaining their original intentions.

The result I hope will be an hour-and-a-half of minimalist rabbitting-on and maximum entertainment.

There is always a worry that finding good new writers is going to bite the hand that feeds me in years to come. Especially in these austere times.

Jobs might be even harder to find and I could be scrabbling for work with some past Bullits. But the saying goes: "Be nice to everyone on your way up because you may pass them on your way down". So if I've helped someone on to the ladder in the first place, they may show mercy.

Northern Bullits, featuring new work by Mike Nelson, Morgan Sproxton, Emma Jackson, Fiona McKinnon and Dominic Yeates, will be performed at Theatre in the Mill, Bradford from today until November 26, 01274 233200, [email protected]

Mark Catley is consultant producer for Casualty. He has also written for EastEnders and Holby City. His first three plays – Sunbeam Terrace, Crap Dad and Scuffer – were all premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.