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Oct. 28th, 2006 07:10 pmI was just in the middle of a new entry when I was evicted from the sofa by three teenagers wanting to watch Robin Hood. The screen froze and I lost the whole draft. Oh well, it was only wittering on. Although it did include a good joke. I fished a dirty teaspoon out from the back of the sofa, now all we need is an open mind.
Somehow, I managed to get myself into another multi-chapter. Like Topsy it just grew and I decided to let it have its head. And like my last one it started out funny and then started going darker on me, and I'm not sure which way to let it go. Probably I need to decide on one way or the other and then stick to it. And let it settle for a week or two. I see such glaring faults in my earlier work if I expose it to the world too soon.
It must be very difficult to be a professional writer working to deadlines all the time. We soak up this stuff on things like soap operas and have very little respect for the sheer graft and professionalism going into it. Writing quickly to deadlines, making everything fit to timescales and resources, doing it all in the public eye. A real challenge. I'm much less snobbish about popular forms of writing than I used to be. I was processing some stuff for the school library the other day and it included the new DW story book. I read a couple of them and they were written by the same people who do the scripts for the TV series. I like the fact that they are considered equally important. In fact I was quite impressed by the way some of the stories were put together. The pictures sucked, though.
I think the hardest thing about actually playing the Doctor, as opposed to writing him, must be knowing that you are a god to little kids. Because he most certainly is. I work in a primary school and I know. In fact, I can honestly say that if I won an hour or two with Mr Tennant in a competition I would ask him to dress up and come into the school, just to see the expressions on the kids' faces. I think we older fans can forget about that a bit because naturally we want to dwell on all the things in the character that make him conflicted, adult and complicated. It must be a huge burden for any actor to carry. If he can carry on for longer than two series I will be very impressed.
If I was an actor in that kind of role I wouldn't go near any kind of fansite. It's hard enough to keep your own focus and belief in your work, without reading about everyone else's view of it. I've been thinking about the collaborative aspect of the fan fiction communities I've had contact with. It's as if the main focus is not the writers' egos, but the search for the character. It's a communal enterprise. My son says he is far more altruistic on WOW than in RL. That can happen on-line because you are only being judged in one compartment of your life at a time, so the stakes aren't as high.
This is complete woffle. Stream of consciousness. Ooh, I'm even beginning to sound like Ten. Bit worrying, that, really.
Somehow, I managed to get myself into another multi-chapter. Like Topsy it just grew and I decided to let it have its head. And like my last one it started out funny and then started going darker on me, and I'm not sure which way to let it go. Probably I need to decide on one way or the other and then stick to it. And let it settle for a week or two. I see such glaring faults in my earlier work if I expose it to the world too soon.
It must be very difficult to be a professional writer working to deadlines all the time. We soak up this stuff on things like soap operas and have very little respect for the sheer graft and professionalism going into it. Writing quickly to deadlines, making everything fit to timescales and resources, doing it all in the public eye. A real challenge. I'm much less snobbish about popular forms of writing than I used to be. I was processing some stuff for the school library the other day and it included the new DW story book. I read a couple of them and they were written by the same people who do the scripts for the TV series. I like the fact that they are considered equally important. In fact I was quite impressed by the way some of the stories were put together. The pictures sucked, though.
I think the hardest thing about actually playing the Doctor, as opposed to writing him, must be knowing that you are a god to little kids. Because he most certainly is. I work in a primary school and I know. In fact, I can honestly say that if I won an hour or two with Mr Tennant in a competition I would ask him to dress up and come into the school, just to see the expressions on the kids' faces. I think we older fans can forget about that a bit because naturally we want to dwell on all the things in the character that make him conflicted, adult and complicated. It must be a huge burden for any actor to carry. If he can carry on for longer than two series I will be very impressed.
If I was an actor in that kind of role I wouldn't go near any kind of fansite. It's hard enough to keep your own focus and belief in your work, without reading about everyone else's view of it. I've been thinking about the collaborative aspect of the fan fiction communities I've had contact with. It's as if the main focus is not the writers' egos, but the search for the character. It's a communal enterprise. My son says he is far more altruistic on WOW than in RL. That can happen on-line because you are only being judged in one compartment of your life at a time, so the stakes aren't as high.
This is complete woffle. Stream of consciousness. Ooh, I'm even beginning to sound like Ten. Bit worrying, that, really.
