Thursday 2 October 2008

Back back back...

...and raring to go. Returned from holiday last week only to fall directly into a big load of man flu. I'm over it now, and looking to get busy with a short film idea for Digital Shorts, work on 'Santa Baby', further obsessive tweaks to the last 50 pages of my Red Planet script, and - not least - catch up with everybody's blogs from the last couple of weeks.


But I'm not doing any of that yet, because I have been reading "The Writer's Tale" by Russell T Davies, a weighty tome about the day-to-day slog and thought process of the showrunner of Doctor Who. I've only read the first few chapters, but it's enthralling. It takes the form of emails going back and forth between Russell and a journalist during the writing and production of the last series of Doctor Who. This captures lots of lovely detail that a traditional 'How To Write' book or even an autobiography would never mention.

I recommend it to anyone interested in professional writing...

...but I really ought to stop reading it and do some writing myself.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Welcome back - although I somehow can't get over the idea that this, like your previous post, was written in the past and you have simply predicted the man flu and the likelihood of reading and enjoying the Russell T Davies book.

David Lemon said...

Hi Stuart
the RTD book's ace isn't it? 've been urging any writers I know to get it een if they're not Whovians or fans of his work. He admits in the preface to a bit of editing (and spoiler removal) but otherwise it seems very honest about the pressures, sleepless nights and self doubt that must go with such a big gig.
Hope your new writing is going well. I'm reaching the end of my first draft of a new feature. Right now I hate it, but I think that's normal (ish)...

Stuart Perry said...

Helen - sorry for disturbing the space/time continuum with my post dated posts. I promise this is the current me, honest!

David, I'm now 200 pages into RTD's book, and yes, it's superb. It will probably inspire me to a couple more blog entries before I finish it. Hope your writing is going well too - let's face it, it can't be much more painful than things are for Russell when he's writing: his angst is palpable on every page!