A Writer has 3 Heads

Or How to be the Worzel Gummidge* of writing.

I am very vehement and opinionated -- we could put a full stop there but let us continue -- about how writers should feel about their work. I think you should love your work, love it now, love it in a year and enjoy reading it again in ten years.

Yes, you might see how you could have done it better, after all you have ten years more experience but you should be able to read it and enjoy it. I do. And I think it comes down to interchangeable heads.

Most people talk about the Writer and Editor heads. But I would also add the Reader head.

Everyone in the writing game will tell you: Don't edit when you're writing. This is excellent advice. When you're writing you should only be wearing your Writer head. If you wear your Editor head as well you'll be forever correcting your work and you'll progress so much slower, it's also confusing. And if you have the Reader head in place you'll be noticing how bad your writing is when it's first draft. Well the first draft of anything is shit as Ernest Hemingway eloquently observed. No reader is going to like it.

So then you get to the editing stage. Again the popular advice is leave your manuscript alone for two weeks to a month. Why do they say that? It's so you have time and space to remove your Writer head in relation to that piece of work, so that you can put your Editor head on properly. If you keep your Writer head on you will be arguing with yourself about whether something needs correcting or changing. The Editor head knows what's wrong. The Writer head does not. (And the Reader head doesn't get a look in for the same reason as before.)

What happens when you get notes from other editors or beta-readers? You put your Writer head back on, and see how you can creatively fix the problems. Sometimes it's obvious, but there are times when it isn't.

One problem writers have is knowing when something is ready. A writer is a creative person and can go on creating and recreating forever. Tweaking and changing. Same with the Editor head you can always make improvements. And that's why you need the Reader head, there must be a point where you can don the Reader head, and go through your work as if someone else, completely separate from you, wrote it. I'm not going to claim it's easy, it needs to be practiced.

And if the Reader head likes it, can enjoy it without running into poor sentence construction or plot holes, then you know it's ready.

As you become more skilled and experienced you will learn to swap heads faster and more completely, which is just as it should be. Cultivate your Reader head. (Possibly by planting it in compost - old Worzel would approve.)

* Worzel Gummidge - a scarecrow character from a series of children's books by Barbara Euphan Todd, and played in the 1979-1981 ITV series by Jon Pertwee (Dr Who) and Una Stubbs (most recently in Sherlock) as Aunt Sally. The character had different heads for different occasions.

Worzel Gummidge, ITV

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What's on the turntable? Closer to Your Heart by Clannad from Lore.

Thank goodness I'm not dead

Yes, it's the Incorporate an Indy Quote or Slightly Modified Indy Quote meme. Not really a meme just a little game to play.

So, yes. Thank goodness I'm not dead.

Why should I be? You may ask. It has to do with my inconsiderate neighbour, in the flat below, who insists on listening to TV late into the night (specifically, 00:40 on Thursday nights) and preventing me from sleeping. He actually went away for two weeks. It was bliss.

He returned on Sunday evening but didn't do the TV thing.

But last night. Last night.

Last night I was actually drifting off at 11:30pm because his TV wasn't too loud. Then a song came on that he liked, so he turned it up. And left it turned up. Incredible. He did stop at about 00:20 this time which would not have been so bad but for one little thing:

I'm in the last week of preparing the Comedy Central UK website for launch. There's a lot to do, it's not desperate but it will be tight. I need to be able to think clearly during the day. I need sleep.

So I got stressed, I got really really stressed. The noice stopped but I had got so stressed that I still couldn't sleep. It was a vicious circle: every minute that passed worsened the situation because I Had To Sleep. But I couldn't. Until 3:30am.

Reluctantly, today, I decided I needed to do something about it. I had never seen my neighbour. I knew he was male. But nothing more. I needed to confront him and get him to stop it.

You know how it is. You run through a million scenarios, you try to decide what's the best thing to say. Luckily words are something I have some skill with and I'm reasonably good at dealing with people - and I know that the majority of people are decent. But there was always the chance that he wasn't one of the decent ones. There was a chance there would be a bad reaction.

I needed to use the magic words: "Can you help me?" These are the most powerful words on the planet, it is only a tiny minority of people who don't respond to that request.

I planned it out: Arrive at the house. Don't go to my flat because then I'll chicken out. Make it the first thing to do. (I did some reading up on handling this sort of situation, it is recommended you try to handle it when the problem is not happening.) Knock on his door (rather than ring from outside), which will slightly discombobulate him: if I'm knocking directly on his door then I'm either another tenant or a landlord. When he opens the door, introduce myself as the person upstairs and ask for his help.

After that, improvise. But don't be accusative. (Tricky for me, that one, I find the accusatory tone slips out easily.)

So that's what I did. And that's how it played out, action for action, word for word.

To my surprise he was in his 40s, I was expecting 20s-30s, and quite civilised. I explained the problem with me having to get up early. I asked if I was disturbing him at all (apparently not). Then I accepted his excuse ("the walls are really thin" - actually they're not) so he could save face. He said he'd keep the noise down, so I thanked him.

And hugely relieved at not being dead, I came to my room. I hope that handles it.

In other news: the daughter has an audition at Bristol Old Vic tomorrow - journey time over 4 hours one way, for 15 minutes. As previously mentioned this is her number one choice, especially when she found out that some of her favourite actors went there (like Gene Wilder, oh yes).

However something far more important happened for her today. In this audition she has to sing a short song unaccompanied. When the daughter was in Primary School she tried out for the School Choir and the headteacher told her she was not good enough. She was crushed and from that point has never really believed she could sing - only good enough for big choirs. We did pay for her to have some professional singing lessons at one point but they were short-lived for various reasons.

Anyway we had suggested that she get a music teacher at college to give her a lesson just to give her some pointers. She arranged it and finally got the lesson today. She was given some coaching on her breathing which she appreciated - but the teacher also told her that she had a beautiful singing voice!

She's floating. Finally the words of that stupid man, ten years ago, have been erased.

The wife and I are so happy. Next Monday the daughter is in Oxford for another audition and a couple of weeks later at RADA. Both of those involve hours of work, in groups and singly. Bristol Old Vic obviously want to make it just like an audition for an acting job.

And that's the end of the news.

So does any of this have to do with screenwriting - my story about the noise problem can be analysed to see which story elements exist. An exercise for the reader.

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What's on the turntable? "The Book" by Sheryl Crow from "Sheryl Crow". Another superb songwriter, in a similar vein to Joni Mitchell, evoking powerful situations where the listener can see the story.

Onwards and upwards

If I hadn't been trapped in Reading this evening, I probably wouldn't have got around to entering Monsters for the Cheltenham Screenwriters Festival ScriptMarket competition - you know, the one where there was a big question about how many words should be in the synopsis.

It turns out that the right number was 250 words. So I took my off-the-cuff 230 words and edited it into present tense and pruned it back to 195 words. Then added other essential material, like a bit of setting; I kept adding and cutting with the word count wavering between 200 and 245 words, once reaching the giddy heights of 247. More items were removed as non-essential, giving me more space to fill in emotion and ensuring that the protagonist was clearly acting as a causative element of the story.

The final act was where the story flow seemed to jump in a complete non-sequitur right in the middle. Not good. In the actual script it all flows but, because of what had been chopped out, there was this discontinuity. So there was more pruning which freed up enough words to allow me to make the flow clear.

Done.

Then there was 50 words to explain why I wanted to talk to agents (as opposed to directors, producers, financiers and so on, which I could also choose). But let's be focused: I know that the probability of Monsters being produced is minimal. No matter how much I love it. It's a spec script. So why bother meeting with producers, directors and financiers? What I need is an agent to help me sell myself. I can come back to Monsters another day.

This is probably the most expensive script competition to enter in the world.

Except, of course, you do get 4 days of one of the most brilliant screenwriting experiences you could possibly have. With an opportunity to make zillions of contacts.

I probably give the impression I find it easy to talk to people and network.

That would not be true. Writing is easy. I've had lots of experience in writing so can write in a very relaxed and friendly tone (had you noticed?). Face-to-face is another matter. Having said that you need only adopt a "oh what the hell" attitude and just do it anyway.

Anyway, that's SWF'09 out the way for the time being.

I'm also contemplating whether to enter Unit X for the Scriptapalooza TV competition - trouble is you have do this complicated Brad-binding thing that they like in the States - and they probably want it on foolscap - quaint. And I'd have to send hard copy from the UK. Question is: Can I be bothered?

Mind you, it would be amusing to have success with Unit X in the States, it being a US series written by a Brit. Just like my mate Roger Ellory and his brilliant US thrillers. Hm, I've just noticed, from the photo of Roger on the Sky Arts Book Show, that he's started to sport a beard and moustache just like mine. He may be more successful than me, but That's My Facial Hair Design.

You can tell I'm bored, can't you? It's too late to start writing now and I'll be up at the usual time tomorrow to go to work so that this website will be launched on time in full working order.

Right. I shall do a little reading and then it's off to bed.

Nighty-night.

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What's on the turntable? "The Morning Fog" by Kate Bush from "Hounds of Love" (extended edition with great extra tracks of which this is one)

Sleepy in Reading

Neighbours. The real ones, not the TV soap.

Every Thursday the person who lives in the flat below me watches TV until 00:40am. He probably doesn't think the TV is on loudly, perhaps it isn't. But it's too loud for me. I like silence when I'm trying to sleep - or, at least, not something that might make sense.

I can't hear any word clearly enough to understand, but I can here that it is conversation, and it keeps me awake. Until 00:40. Then he'll switch it off.

Why? I mean, why 00:40? What is the magical significance of that time?

Still, I'm prepared this week - the 3rd week. Last week I was so tired you'd think I'd sleep anyway, but I just don't work like that.

Curiously it's the only thing about which my wife and I significantly disagree. To her having Radio 4 playing is "background". To me it is in-yer-face "foreground". To me music is background and it helps me concentrate (except when it has to be played at full volume - and let's face it, some things do). To her, it's irritating. She hates silence. I love it.

Apart from that we' re perfectly compatible - unfortunately for our poor children. We agree so completely on pretty much everything else that if a child tries the "asking the other parent" trick, they will get the identical answer for the identical reason. In fact they don't bother any more.

So I have 50 minutes to go. I made sure I got a good night's sleep last night. Still tired, of course, but not like I was last week. I've put on a CD that takes the requisite hour to complete.

Apart from during my computer-less-ness yester-eve, this week I have mostly been writing a treatment for Monsters for submission to the Cheltenham Screenwriter's Festival Scriptmarket. I wrote most of it Monday and finished it on Tuesday. This evening I took the editing pen to it and started ripping stuff out.

I'm really not sure about it, as it seems very disjointed. I do a lot of cutting between different people and locations often in quick scenes. It works well in its fully written-out form (I think it's quite televisual, and people who know seem to agree), but it doesn't seem to translate well to prose form. I'm trying to keep the flow natural and begin new scenes with something that naturally guides the reader. But I'm not a happy bunny.

I keep looking at it objectively and feeling that it really doesn't work. Oh well.

I'm going to keep writing until it gets to midnight and then post this blog. Then I shall write at least one more blog which will come through tomorrow afternoon - and maybe another for the weekend. Hm, Blogger seems to be 3 minutes behind my clock.

Another minute gone. Read "A Minute Passed".

Not long now.

(I wonder what the folks back home are doing...)

(We're not doing anything!)

Right.

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What's on the turntable? "Sirius" by Clannad from "PastPresent"

Lack of brains or more brawn?

Honestly I can be a right wally.

Last night I packed away my computer, putting the cables in my bag and headed off home ... idly thinking that carrying my laptop around was clearly making me stronger as it wasn't so heavy...

It would have helped if I'd put the computer in the bag.

It really wasn't until I got back to the flat that it dawned on me that I did not have it. I have no radio, no TV and I'd almost finished the book I was reading. So I finished it. Then I did some paper work that needed doing, then I did a bit of script planning ... and went to bed early.

To add insult to injury when I met up with my computer this morning it wouldn't connect to the Innertubes. All day. Despite having 5 bars of connectivity. It would try, go through the authorisation and then "Computer says no". I worried a bit about whether my account had been disconnected for some reason but I got back to the flat and it worked! On one bar.

Insane. I shall complain vociferously if it fails at work again tomorrow.

So I had a zillion emails, none of which were important. And 28 blogs to read.

So Red Planet announcement soon? Mmm.

Right, I'm all behind so best be getting on.

Missing you already.

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What's on the turntable? "Turn of the Century" by Yes from "Going for the One"

That snow joke

Getting back home was a doddle despite the snow.

Though the majority of the Underground was suspended, the Central Line was running. So I hopped on the Tube at Oxford Circus (barely 30 seconds from where I'm working) waited 10 minutes for a train (well, there was some Central Line disruption) went through to Lancaster Gate which is a 5 minute walk from Paddington.

At Paddington I walked straight onto a train to Reading (there were plenty of them, most trains from Paddington stop at Reading, even during disruption like this) and arrived half an hour later. Waited 15 minutes for the local train to take me to West Reading (a journey of 3 minutes) and I was back at the flat in just over an hour (total).

Easy. Mind you some people were planning to walk 6 miles home because they had no choice.

As you can see from the wonderful progress bar I have managed a few more pages of Unit X. It's tricky work, I'm now heading into the final part of the big action sequence which currently runs from page 17 to page 30, it'll probably need another 3 pages. Then there'll be the denouement and I'll fill up more stuff earlier on

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What's on the turntable? "Love and Anger" by Kate Bush from "Sensual World"

Yellow snow cones

Contrary to the rest of the universe I'm in work, I just felt that since it was my first day I really ought to make a point of trying, even if no one else did. I travelled in from Reading this morning and walked from Paddington to Oxford St - it's not really that far though a bit tricky in the snow.

I'll be leaving early though. My main fear is a lack of trains back to Reading. That would be bad.

I suspect now that I won't hear from the BBC about Winter since the relevant people may well not have made it to their meeting.

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What's on the turntable? Nuffink, I'm at work

In Reading again

My migrant lifestyle continues. I'm back at the flat in Reading, once again reduced to Rubbish Internet(tm). The trip down was appalling, there were engineering works between Oxford and Reading so I thought I'd go via London again.

Next time I'll go to Oxford and use the bus replacement. The Virgin train to London was fine (as previously mentioned the trip time is too short and the table uncomfortably high but never mind that). I then had to negotiate the Underground, half of which was closed due to engineering works. Then I got the slow train to Reading from Paddington, because I was too impatient to wait a further ten minutes for the fast train.

Progress on Unit X? For various reasons I was very tired and didn't feel up to creating new content so I thought I'd read through what I'd done so far. So I did a bit of editing, which means I was chopping out dialogue, cutting back action descriptions and generally making the whole script shorter. Thus making it harder to reach my target. Then I came to the place where I knew I needed to change one scene and add a related scene, so I did.

It was a Joss Whedon moment. I'm a fan. I needed to get over a piece of information, I was going through various ideas of how I could achieve this and then I thought: How would Joss write this scene? And it came to me. What he does is throw the script headlong towards a cliché and then makes a sudden left just before he gets there. (The scene in the crypt with Ethan Rayne is a classic example - I did search to see if this was available on YouTube, but I got my own description coming up on Google instead.)

I'm not sure this scene (and its precursor) are as good as they could be yet, but they'll do for now.

Anyway the end result is that the script ended up being a page longer (with the bits taken away and the bits added) so I'm now on 60%. Go me.

This is going to be a stressful week. Not only am I starting my new contract at Paramount Comedy tomorrow, but I should find out whether the BBC want "Winter" turned into a script (which would be my first commission if it happens), and perhaps we'll hear on Red Planet this week.

Hopefully I'll finish the first draft of Unit X as well, I'm happy to report the characters are beginning to become real for me now which makes the writing and editing considerably easier.

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What's on the turntable? "Orange Crush" by R.E.M. from their Greatest Hits - sometimes tracks just don't mean anything.

Dog ate my phone

Yes indeed, at the weekend our darling puppy chewed my phone to the point where the screen no longer works but everything else does. Makes it hard to read texts though I can make and receive calls. I have a new phone now but having trouble moving the SIM over.

I'm back in the Reading flat and have an interview with a big TV company in that London this afternoon to work on their website.

There were engineering works on the route that I usually take from Manchester to Reading, so I ended up on the Virgin train to London Euston (then across to Paddington and out to Reading). It has some advantages: it travels faster, stops less often, was virtually empty, I get first class service at the seat (unlike Cross Country trains on a Sunday). But... the speed makes it uncomfortable for working, and the table is too high for comfortable typing. And the journey time isn't compatible with really getting into some writing.

As it is I did do some work on Unit X. Back here I wrote the first character scene and it didn't work. Then I had my revelation about getting the characters wrong. Well, I edited the rubbish scene and it had much more punch and power, revealing character in a weird one-sided conflict (one character was trying to fight, the other wasn't). Nice.

Now I have to flip to Nazi Germany and need to do some more research just so I can get some sensible names in place. Names are so important.

And finally: Tony Hart has died. You know you're getting old when people who made your youth begin to disappear. I'm old enough to remember him in the BBC TV children's show Vision On which used sign language to make it accessible to the deaf, in the days when the BBC innovated and children's BBC innovated more than any other.

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What's on the turntable? "The Last Time I Saw Richard" by Joni Mitchell from "Blue"

A Feather for Bill

Bad things about Reading (continued from last post): Rubbish Internet.

Anyway what I'm really writing about is my kid fantasy series Air: I have finished the first episode. Yay!

I had written the first draft of the first episode after lots of detailed planning but it came up very short at only 17 minutes. I then printed it out and went through it making small changes and marking where I could add some stuff. That was back before Christmas.

Yesterday I finally got around to putting in those edits and adding the extra stuff, by the end of that I had got it up to 21 pages, well, 20 plus a few lines really. And it needed to be 25 pages to be at a usable length.

As mentioned in this morning's entry I decided the best thing to do was to go back to basics, my original planning and see what could be added without being mere padding. Another issue was that my structure for this series is quite rigid, with three separate but linked plot lines going on in each episode I couldn't add extra elements outside those plot lines without corrupting the whole concept.

My next pass through the script added one extra scene and some additional scene material. But it was getting dialogue heavy - particularly bad for fast-moving kids TV.

I did another pass mid-afternoon which extended another couple of scenes, breaking one of them into two (which made more sense). The length was then 22 pages.

This evening I did yet another pass, extended and broke up another scene, adding a new location and more action, and the feather, near the beginning. And much more useful scene action and dialogue in the second split scene - where a policeman thinks that Air is an abused girl who has gone into her own fantasy world.

25 pages! Let us dance.

But what's this about a feather? I was reading Bill Martell's scriptwriting tips yesterday (or the day before, or something) and he discussed throwing things into the script that expanded character and provided things that could be paid off later in the script. Even if you don't know what it might be for when you write it. One of his examples was a soldier that is killed in a particular location, later the protagonist is in the same place again and needs a gun ... of course the dead soldier had one.

Essentially in Air I did this: The main character, Air, is in her world but must escape, she's being chased by the Witchbrood and finds the only rune-weaver is an apprentice called Brendan. Brendan manages to make the rune-cast just as one of the Witchbrood fires an arrow at Air. The arrow clips Brendan as it passes but he's turned himself into a raven. Air is carried to our world, and a black feather floats down on to her where she lays. That feather will be important at the end, not sure how yet, but it will.

In my penultimate pass I was also looking at the actions of the protagonist, to ensure that she was the active, driving, leading character in all the scenes she was in at the start (she can be disorientated after arriving in our world but she needs to be established as strong). In the earlier version it had been Brendan that led the way to the roof of the tower, in the newer version I changed it round to being Air making the decisions.

In other news...

I'll be working Bristol from this Thursday for 1 week (I may well commute from Reading, the journey is only 1 hour), and then probably in Lancaster for at least 3 months. And I can probably commute from home for that one. Yay! (I kept telling my wife there wasn't a problem with me getting a new contract, but someone has to do the worrying in the relationship.)

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What's on the turntable? "Man of Our Times" by Genesis from "Duke".

I loved this weekend, BBC4 were doing prog rock. I'm aprog rock geek: Yes, Genesis, Camel, Gryphon, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, Gordon Giltrap, I love 'em all.

Brass monkeys

Here I am back in my flat in Reading having taken leave of my lovely family (and the dog) earlier today. I've been at home 5-6 weeks and the flat is cold. Really cold.

I've had the heaters on for the last hour and they're barely making an impression. The hot water tank is beginning to groan finally as it breaks the ice. I still have my hat on.

The train trip was reasonable, I got some writing work done, finally editing and adding to my kids fantasy "Air". Then, three-quarters of an hour out from Reading, someone said I was in their seat. Entirely possible since the electronic reservation system wasn't working. So I packed my stuff away and began to read one of my Christmas presents: Bill Bryson on Shakespeare. He goes to great pains to explain that, to be honest, virtually nothing is known about Shakespeare the man. Which is why his book is so slim. On the other hand it is a very interesting social survey of Shakespearian England.

I think the cost of taxis has gone up a bit. A £4.50 journey is now a £5 journey.

Good things about Reading? I've got my nice chair for writing. I have virtually no interruptions.

Bad things: I have virtually no interruptions. All the people I love and care about (apart from me) are 200 miles away. No job.

The no job thing is a pain. But that's why I am in Reading, I can hit a big chunk of the country and especially London from here. And most of the jobs are in London.

I have to get a job in the next three weeks or the family is up a certain financial creek without a paddle (no joke). Luckily I am quite employable. And tomorrow, when people finally get back to work it should all get very interesting.

Until then I have all the time in the world in which to write. So I better do it while I still have that time.

I wonder when the Red Planet Prize 2009 winner will be announced...

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What's on the turntable? "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" by Queen from "A Day At The Races"

It's behind you!

This is my first round-up of a year since I only started blogging in April. And I already sort of did this a little while ago, though it covered my life in writing.

So, 2008.

This time last year I lost direction and wandered in the wilderness for 5 months as far as writing was concerned. I was working at random, treatment for a major Hollywood feature that no one had asked for, a feature script that was rubbish (okay, it's only first draft but it was totally unlike anything I've ever written before). Then I got back on track with my spec TV script Monsters and it got short-listed for Red Planet. Plus it has opened doors in the BBC, and someone is very interested in actually trying to get it made (the thing we all hope for but realistically have to know probably won't happen with spec scripts).

Day-job-wise I did pretty well, but I'm currently without contract which is worrying. I have to get a paying job in the next three weeks.

Most of the year I lived away from home and I am heading back to Reading this Sunday after spending all of December at home. Which was great.

My son moved to secondary school and is learning to play the saxophone. It sounds so cool when he plays, and he really likes it. He also plays the tenor horn in various brass bands, but he likes the sax much more, apparently the tenor horn is too easy. Plus he has been shortlisted as one of the teams to go on the TV show Bamzooki, and he's being used for something on the CBBC website (apparently it was noted in his BBC file that he has brilliant telephone manners, is very clear and easy to talk to). He amazes us.

My daughter did her AS level exams and came away with As and Bs, and if her acting career doesn't work out she's going for Zoo Biology, she's been accepted without interview to four universities and she didn't want to go to the fifth one really anyway. She's also auditioning at three drama schools. And has her first real boyfriend. I have been oiling the shotgun.

My wife continues to manage the entire Foundation and KS1 at her school, though she hates the bureaucracy and would prefer to just teach. Unfortunately she's too competent at management to be "just a teacher".

So, that's the year gone, tomorrow I'll be looking ahead.

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What's on the turntable? "Revelation" by Gordon Giltrap from "Visionary" (music inspired by the poems of William Blake)

A Hard Day's Night

Which was a surprisingly good film considering it was a vehicle for the Fab Four. It has some brilliant talent in the supporting cast, but it's the writer, Alun Owen, who deserves the credit for building a real story into something so blatantly commercial. Owen has an impressively huge list of TV drama credits in a 30 year writing career, as well as being an actor. It just proves you can do a good job even when faced with major constraints - he was nominated for an Oscar for the film. And it was a taste of things to come: a mockumentary.

But that has nothing to do with this blog.

Last week I said my main concerns were: Job interview; finishing and sending the 1p pitch for Winter; promoting myself as a writer; and writing 13 x 300 words on French Wine for a website.

The job interview did not materialise (the company decided they could do it themselves), so I've been applying for jobs again, hum-de-ho. I did finish the Winter 1p pitch and sent that - I was told it was fine and passed up the line, so I need to forget that for now. I did the promotion thing (two producers and Red Productions), received suprising and good news from my old producer friend and I also got a rejection from an agent (I have no problem with the rejection, but I was amused by the irony that he felt he couldn't represent me because "Monsters" was too "youthful" in style, not his thing, when I happen to know he's 20 years younger than me). Finally I have written eight of the French Wine pages, which my business partner has popped up on the website. Oh yes and, not in my list, I have been working on my pet programming project, preparing it for launch.

Why is this blog titled the way it is?

Yesterday I drove 450 miles, waking at 5:30am and on the road within the hour. It was the annual Christmas present run, so with wife, kids and dog packed into car we headed south. But the first stop was way beyond my parents house, as I went to Reading to pick up clothes and other stuff from the flat - including my notes on the Air script. We reached Reading at 10:00am (one short stop on the way).

Must say that our dog, still a puppy but now a "medium sized" dog was very good and slept most of the time.

We spent half an hour trying to escape from Reading. I've only driven in Reading twice before and I don't know the one-way systems. Every time I tried to go in one direction I ended up going a different way. Eventually we left by a completely different route.

Spent quality time with my parents, saw my younger sister, husband and kids: The puppy was by now hyper, luckily my parents have a good garden which is puppy-proof so we were able to give him a run in the garden.

I have had three sisters: The younger one is an optician, she's 10 years my junior and we have always got on. It was her husband who was part of the crew who made my 10 minute, really bad, short. (Actually, he was the crew.) My next sister, Caroline, is 10 years older than me (yes, really) and she is an artist in Australia.

I had another sister, Susan, a year older again, who also lived in Australia, but she died of Pancreatic cancer. The particular trouble with this form of cancer is that by the time it's noticed it's usually untreatable and kills relatively quickly.

Anyway. We had a nice chat, a delicious dinner and came home by a slightly more direct route. We drove past a very nasty multi-vehicle crash on the other carriageway somewhere near Nottingham. It was a long, tough day especially as my driving muscles are out of shape. I was shattered and had an early night.

So, this week: Apply for more jobs (though I'm not hopeful this close to Christmas and I'm in Birmingham Thursday to Sunday visiting friends); Finish the wine pages; Get the first draft of Air wrapped up to the full number of pages; finish the amendments to the Pet Project; watch the DVDs I ordered for research purposes.

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What's on the turntable? "Guitar & Piano" by Gordon Giltrap from "Perilous Journey", a brilliant album originally but this is a rehearsal extra which contains all the themes from the entire album played in one go on piano and guitar (surprisingly). Complete with the occasional bum note and Gordon saying the entries and key changes.

Quanta of Solace, Solitude and Soul-searching

How do you like your Bond?

I was in two minds about going to see "Quantum of Solace", although I really liked Casino Royale, critics have a lot to answer for. Luckily Bond is critic-proof. I thought QoS was superb - Paul Haggis does it again.

If you insist on your Bond having gadgets, or don't understand the words in the title, or a simple plotline, then I guess you might not like this film. The nonsense about "having to have seen Casino Royale" is exactly that: nonsense. There are references but nothing that makes the story impossible to understand - but it is a more complex Bond plot than your average. And I see that only as a good thing.

The sequence set against the music of Tosca in the opera house was magical; and how many people got the relevance between the fall from the building at the end of the sequence and the end of Tosca? Precious few I'll be bound. Not that it detracts if you don't get it, but it adds so much if you do.

Speaking of which: the first episode of the second season of the Sarah Connor Chronicles (so glad this got renewed, it is excellent) was an example of excellent and logical plotting but completely understated.

### SPOILER WARNING###

A group of the main characters are stranded in the desert and the nearby cell-phone mast has been destroyed deliberately. As they hike through the desert they meet a truck coming the other way. Lucky coincidence?

Not at all.

Completely unmentioned in the dialogue but this is the cell-phone mast repair truck, it says so on the side. Love it. Completely logical.

### END OF SPOILER ###

I like my long train journeys usually, (back in Reading from my nice weekend at home), but not today. I usually take a seat in First Class (cheap upgrades on Sundays) where no one can look at what I'm doing, it's bad enough if I'm programming, but I can't have people reading my scripts over my shoulder as I write, horrible thought.

Ten minutes before the train is due to leave, 5 times as many people get on as usual. Really, the train was packed, not even standing room anywhere. Killed my writing opportunity, and I had really been in the mood. So I spent 3.5 hours being annoyed at everybody crowding around, even though it wasn't the fault of the travellers. Not my worst-ever journey but it was bad. (See what's on the turntable.)

Apparently Euston Station was closed and people were trying to find alternative routes into London.

Anyway I got back to the flat and spent abut half-an-hour writing out some planning for Air and then writing a difficult scene which will no doubt change. (It's got way too many new characters in it: Huwie, Louie and Dewie - well, Hugh Bland, Hang Po and Dorothy Keen.

Apropros nothing at all: Huwie, Louie and Dewey were, of course, Donald Duck's nephews (you all knew that, didn't you?) They were also the names given to the little robots in the terrific SF movie "Silent Running". Which, incidentally, allowed me to guess the password used for the lift in "National Treasure", even though I'm not an American.

And if all that seems obscure. That's probably because it is.

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What's on the turntable? "Reflections & Despair" by Gordon Giltrap from "Perilous Journey". How appropriate is that?

Chair lift

There was a meme going around a few weeks ago about putting up photos of writing workspaces. Not that I got memed but I did wonder what in the world I would show.

It is true that back up north I do have an office, but here in Reading? Nothing. Just the computer and sometimes bits of paper. No cards, no corkboards, no stick-it notes.

I also don't have a decent chair. For six months I've been sitting on the sofa with a pillow behind me for support and the computer perched on a stool. The only other option being the laptop on the table and me perched on the stool without any back support. Not good.

Today, having made a point of not completely knocking myself out at work, I decided I would buy a decent chair. So off I went to Argos and played with their high tech ordering system and located the very last of their (one person self-assembly, made in China) ergonomic chairs.

Excellent. I bought it and then discovered it was too bulky (20Kgs in a big box) to carry back to the flat nearly a mile away. Off I zoomed and located a convenient cabby, got back to Argos, loaded up, got the thing to the flat. Dragged it up a switchback flight of steps and collapsed into the sofa.

Having recovered I set about putting it together. Self-assembly is a lot easier than it used to be so just 45 minutes later I'm proudly enthroned in my super-duper ergonomic executive chair. The lumbar support is adjustable and I have it placed just right for me. It's really comfortable.

There is just one small problem.

I have nothing the right height to put the computer on. I need a desk.

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What's on the turntable? "Pentangling" by Pentangle from Light Flight.

Un-poetry day

I'm posting because I'm bored and at work. I'm doing overtime but I can't do any actual work right now because the main server won't play.

It's very prosaic.

I haven't posted recently for the same sort of reason, the project I'm working on is approaching launch, and I'm really busy with overtime and "ohmigodisitgoingtowork" kind of stuff.

Ah, we're back in business. Back to work.

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What's on the turntable? Had some dubstep on a while back but now it's quiet.

Breakfast and bed

It's almost 8:00am, Monday morning, and I've been at work for the last 23 hours ... awake.

I got home half an hour ago, had some breakfast and now I'm going to bed for about 3 hours before going back to work.

Hopefully the dust will have settled, we didn't make the target and we are so close.

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What's on the turntable? "Kid Charlemagne" by Steely Dan from "The Royal Scam"

I shouldn't be here...

... but I am.

It's Friday evening and I should be in my real home with my wife, kids and pets. But I'm not. I'm still in Reading because my job demands it. The website navigation that my team works on must be complete and running at a usable speed by Monday 9:00am (and miscellaneous other bugs fixed).

If it's not then 5 months work (mostly mine) gets thrown out the window.

Interesting to be in on this actually as I've never really been in this sort of situation before: I've run businesses, been part of businesses, but nothing bigger than, say, 50 people. And the ones I ran never exceeded 10 employees, usually just 3.

More to the point of writing: Stuart Perry has been blogging about 5 inspirations to who he is as a writer. It wasn't a meme but he suggested that other bloggers might like to take up the baton. As I'm still waiting for feedback on "Une Nuit a Paris" I shall take up this challenge. Starting in the next blog which I will write directly.

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What's on the turntable? "One More Kiss, Dear" by Vangelis from "Bladerunner soundtrack"

I can't write!

No I don't have writer's block ... I have a day job that seems to be eating into my nights.

More late nights this week re-writing some stuff that drives this big website, so that now it operates at a reasonable speed. The end of this week is the code freeze before launch which means that we're not supposed to write anything new, only correct things that aren't working properly.

We shall see.

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What's on the turntable? 'Incantations Part One" by Mike Oldfield from "Incantations"

Swimming against the tide

My wife and I have always agreed that if we ever came to write an autobiography it should be called "Swimming against the Tide". there are two types of people in this world (well, okay, there are more, but for the purposes of this blog, just two.) Those who do as they're told, and those that don't.

We've always been of the latter variety.

Hence my argument with Thames Water. They have been trying to make me pay for a whole year of water supply in advance. I refused. There has been an exchange of letters. Several exchanges.

In their last letter they expressed a veiled threat about failure to pay. In return I told them not to mistake a refusal to pay with an inability to pay. My position was quite simple: their rates meant that water supply costs £20/month, I refused to pay more than that. I did not object to catching up on what was as yet unpaid, as long as it was at £20/month.

On returning to my flat this evening I found a letter. It was a payment book for water at £20/month. Which meant I won.

Gosh.

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What's on the turntable? "This Flight Tonight" by Joni Mitchell from "Blue"