Script Development

The last week has been full of script writing. Mostly this has been for 'Interviews With a Serial Killer' - the film Chris Jones invited me to work on. But today I headed off to The Art Organisation in Leicester and had a day of script development for the 'Memorabilia' movie, working alongside director Rhys Davies.

Memorabilia has been bubbling along on the back burner since the end of last year. It started as a one line idea, supplied by Martyn Quin. From there Martyn, Rhys and I figured out a rough three-act structure. And from there, after many re-writes, a long treatment.

Throwing ideas around is one thing. Sitting down to write a screenplay as a team is quite another. Would the creative chemistry work?



At 9am, surrounded by pictures and models illustrating Rhys's love for horror movies, we started scripting Memorabilia - a gentle and poignant comedy. We worked through solidly until 3.30pm - (other than the twenty minutes we took for lunch and the twenty we took to silence the building's alarm system.) I arrived home a couple of hours ago exhausted but happy.

Did the creative chemistry work? I'll give a big, fat yes to that.

Climate Change and Religious Communities

This morning I had the pleasure of attending part of a conference on the religious response to climate change. As port of this I was asked to give a 5 minute introduction to the Baha'i approach to these questions. I'm going to print my short talk below, but please be aware that this is not some definitive statement. This is merely my limited understanding of some of the Baha'i teachings on this issue:


We stand at a unique moment in human existence. It was only a few decades ago that we, the human race, acquired the capacity to completely destroy ourselves through nuclear war. And in this decade we have come to a certainty that continuing to pump greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere will derange the equilibrium of the global climate. These are not age old problems taken to a new level. They are fundamentally new because they are global.

Writing in the nineteenth century, Baha’u’llah, founder of the Baha’i Faith wrote: 'The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.”

This unity has an outer, material, organisational aspect. It also has an inner, ethical, spiritual aspect. The solution to the problem of climate change must include both these aspects.

If the problem of climate change were restricted to one city, Leicester for example, if we were producing all the greenhouse gasses and the pain of global warming were to be visited on us alone, then we would undoubtedly do all in our power to find a solution. Every individual, every household would make the needed changes in lifestyle. Because all would know the terrible consequences of inaction.

And if the problem of climate change were confined to one nation – similarly, the government and the people would work together to solve it. Passing laws, changing lifestyles. Knowing that if we didn’t, our water supply would run out, our crops would wither, our low lying cities would be inundated by the rising sea.

But the problem is global and the nations are at present failing to combat it. They are not acting with the unity required to solve this problem. They are acting like the last cowboys of the Wild West, accepting no law higher than themselves and their own guns.

Achieving a degree of material, organizational unity sufficient to combat global climate change requires new institutions and a new way of thinking. The Baha’i writings call for the establishment an international legislature and a comprehensive code of international law to regulate the global problems that we now face. In the words of Baha’u’llah: “The Earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.”

But that alone is not enough. Indeed, without an inner unity it would be quite impossible. This inner unity requires us all to widen the circle of our own loyalty beyond our race, beyond our gender, beyond our nation and even beyond our religion. It calls us back to the fundamental meaning of the word 'religion' – to bind together in common cause. In this day the highest manifestation of religion should be our being bound together as one human family, to be waves of one sea and fruits of one branch, unified in all our rich diversity.

Frost / Nixon

Watching the movie Frost / Nixon last night left me with a question. How did the writer produce such an entertaining, suspenseful story for an audience that already knows the ending?

I don't think I need to put in a spoiler warning before saying that the real Richard Nixon was confronted by the real David Frost in a series of television interviews and ended up giving a more complete apology and admission of error than he gave to anyone else. That's history. What room is left for suspense?



And yet Frost / Nixon works as a story. Superbly well, in my opinion. We all know the bare bones of where we are going. But we don't know how we're going to get there. And we don't know what effect the journey is going to have on the characters.

Stories tend to have an outer journey and an inner one. The outer journey is the obvious quest. A knight attempting to recover the Holy Grail, for example. Or Frost attempting to make a successful television program and boost his career in America.

The inner journey is often a byproduct of the outer one. It is the fact that in seeking the Grail, the knight comes to a deeper understanding, a greater wisdom. Perhaps the outer quest is a failure - the Grail is not located. But the inner quest may still provide a victory.

What is the inner journey for Frost? That is something the history books do not so obviously tell. And that is the real substance of this story.

I'd wanted to watch Frost / Nixon to figure out how the writers would tackle this problem. I hadn't expected to enjoy it so much or to find it quite so compelling. If you are looking for a thoughtful, beautifully textured movie to get out on DVD, this one comes highly recommended.

Research for novelists

"How do you do your research?" is the question I am most often asked at public readings.

"I don't!" is the first answer that comes to mind.

But the deeper truth is that I am not aware of doing research. This is because I accumulate so much strange information on account of my insatiable curiosity. Some might call it 'being nosey'. I prefer to look at it as a vocation.

Research is not usually a conscious process. It is a way of life.

How about this one: a safe door can get jammed closed in cold weather because a partial vacuum is formed inside. Or this: thieves sometimes try to steal slate gravestones from cemeteries because the slate itself is so valuable. Or this: Policemen trying to keep warm sometimes put their hands inside their stab vests.

I wouldn't have known where to look to find this kind of information. But it is all gold dust to a crime writer. And it is free. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open.

Perhaps this approach comes from my dyslexia. It is easier for me to see things than to read them. And perhaps it comes from laziness.

Happy-go-lucky review

Ever since I saw the poster image for the movie Happy-go-lucky, I have wanted to see it. There is something immediately inviting about the picture of Sally Hawkins playing the part of the protagonist Poppy. The open smile. The open gesture. The plastic bead necklace.



Last week I finally had the chance to borrow the DVD and am pleased to be able to say that the film delivered exactly what the poster had promised. Poppy is a delight to watch from start to finish. And although I couldn't really put my finger on the thread of a story plot, I was a happier, person with more of a bounce in my step after watching it.

Worlds are not in danger here. No one is killed. No banks are robbed. No dinosaurs are recreated. Poppy, her friends and her relatives are more or less unchanged from start to finish. The one person who changes is Scott, Poppy's driving instructor. So in a story-telling sense, he is the real protagonist. But that is not how it feels.

Confused? Sorry. That is what you get when you ask a structure-fixated writer to tell you about a film that is really about the audience spending a little time in the company of an extraordinary person.

That it works so well is testament to the superb acting and the director's achievement in co-creating these fascinating characters. Happy-go-lucky is a movie of the small, beautiful, everyday. It is a rare celebration of the breadth of the human spirit. And it is a reminder to writers such as myself to trust in what we are doing and not to feel the need to shoehorn a helicopter explosion into our screenplays.


Thank you Mike Leigh.

National Poetry Day

It is National Poetry Day. Of all the themed days of the year, this is one of my favourites. Yes, I think it even beats the international Speak Like a Pirate Day (September 19th).

This year the theme of National Poetry Day is Heroes and Heroines.

Tonight I'll be heading into Leicester for a poetry evening at the Writers' Club. Hopefully I'll be able to perform the following new piece (though of course without the hyperlinks):


Cutting with light

In the musty cinema
our awkwardness dissolved in darkness
and pale beams cut the smoke seeded air
of 1977

Gripping the worn velvet of the seats
our pupils huge and hormones coursing
we watched as knights sparked light
in an epic duel of right v wrong.

I read about it afterwards
That modulated double hum
ninety Hertz
and ninety-eight

with a Doppler shift thrown in
as Ben Burtt swung
his shotgun microphone
before the speaker stack

It was iconic from day one
The static hiss as beam hit beam
and heroes pitched their strength
was interference from a cathode ray

The crew would later
have to shush the stars
‘We put the noise in afterwards,’ they’d say
‘It’s just a sound man’s trickery.’

But in all our adolescent grey on grey
we’d have traded real life
in a flash
for such high-contrast clarity

To choose the narrow path
or let the dark side win
and know for certain
which was which

Or wracked and wreathed
in luminous blue pain
change sides
cast down the enemy

And when Vader’s helmet was removed
revealing a broken man
made whole by one good choice
were not our own half-sins healed also?

How to write great sex scenes

How to write great sex scenes may be a blog title that will get my site filtered out for adult content. But if your search engine has allowed you to reach this point, fear not. Nothing below should make you blush too deeply.

Here is the problem: A novel should take the characters through the full range of their emotions. That frequently means a journey to or from romantic love. The physical expression of romantic love is usually an act of sexual intimacy. Thus a good proportion of novelists will at some stage have to sit down and write a sex scene.

As a species we fixate on sex. But there are only a certain number of ways to do it and to describe it (however adventurous or flexible a writer you may be). Thus it is hard to be original when writing about sex. The writer risks becoming clichéd if he/she is not experimental enough and risks ridicule if he/she tries something a bit different.

Witness the annual ‘Bad Sex Awards’

The Bad Sex awards celebrate some of the most entertainingly ill-judged forays by authors into this well-trodden meadow. These are the authors who tried to put a fresh spin on an act as old as geological time. Read and be warned.

Unfortunately I have no great wisdom to share on describing the act itself. Any attempt would certainly get this blog blocked. My suggestion regards the build-up to the scene.

If you are writing a story about a terrorist planning to blow up a building, the explosion itself is just a moment. A couple of lines of description. It may be spectacular, but it lasts a couple of seconds of real time and contains little inherent tension. But the reader’s awareness of the bomb that may or may not go off – this has almost unlimited potential for drama.

Perhaps I am side-stepping the issue when I say that the part of the sex scene that writers should be most concerned about is the lead up to it or its aftermath.

News

Sorry for the long period of silence. I am once again rendered mute by Virgin Media. No telephone either.

Hopefully I'll be online again by Monday evening.

Virgin Media broadband customer review

The Virgin Media broadband fiasco continues. Late yesterday the household was blessed with connectivity and I managed to post up the blog entry I’d written earlier. The problem, it seemed, was solved. However, at 8.30 this morning I turned on the modem and found no service yet again.

I am now a master of the Virgin Media helpline system. Not through any natural ability. Rather, through repetition. I phoned up, keyed in the numbers before the voice could ask me for them and was put through to a charming Indian man who asked me to turn things off and turn them on again, report on which lights flashed and which lights didn’t, tell him which operating system I was using and eventually informed me that there was a problem in my area but engineers were working on it and the service would be back by 6pm.

‘How many more days will the service be out?’ I asked.

‘It will be back by 6pm today.’

‘That’s what I was told yesterday.’

‘Yes.’

‘And the day before. And the day before that.’

‘Yes.’

‘So when will this problem be over?’

‘At 6pm today.’

Whatever they are paying their helpline staff it isn’t enough. The guy must be
facing a screen which tells him to tell me this stuff. It is ludicrous, frankly. He knows it. I know it. But he delivers the lines faultlessly. He is polite, concerned and does not deviate a hair’s breadth from the script. I’ve spoken to seven or eight of these helpline workers in the last week. They have all been charming.
It seems that Virgin media have wisely invested in their complaints department. Shame about the broadband service.

If you are a Leicester customer of Virgin Media and are having problems could I suggest you phone the helpline on 151. Key in the numbers 2 followed by 3 and wait while it tells you to turn everything off and then on again. They’ll play you a bit of music, then someone will speak to you. Ask for a refund and they should credit you £5. Today I asked for a substantial refund and was told I would be credited £10. Tomorrow I intend to ask for an enormous refund.

But then again, if you are a Leicester Virgin Media broadband customer you probably won’t be able to read this.

Virgin Media – Broadband Service Review

Virgin Media’s broken broadband service is to blame for the lack of blog entries this week. Yes, let’s say that again so that the search engines find this page. My customer review of Virgin Media’s broadband service: in my recent experience it is highly unreliable.

For the last week or so Virgin Media broadband has been cutting out for chunks of five or ten minutes at a time. Then three days ago the service stopped completely. I called the help line and discovered I was not alone. The entire LE3 postcode area was apparently experiencing problems. No broadband and no cable television. But all would be well by 6pm. That’s what I was told.

The forecast proved correct. By 6pm we were up and running again. The problem was over.

Except that it cut again the following morning. I was getting used to the automated help line by this time and, having memorised the route through the maze, could key in the various number choices without waiting to be prompted by that insufferably cheery voice.

Yes there was a new problem, they said. A faulty fuse somewhere. But all would be well later on very soon.

When it happened again today I began to see a pattern. The service is on until work starts in the morning and then off until work finishes in the evening.

‘I suspect your engineers may be cutting me off,’ I said to the helpline worker.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘They are working to upgrade your area. But it will all be over soon.’

‘This was planned?’

‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Then why didn’t Virgin Media bother to tell its customers?’

‘It will be up and running by 6pm,’ she said.

‘And tomorrow?’

‘Your area is being upgraded.’

So here I am, composing my blog entry offline in the hope that the Virgin Media engineers may have a tea break and let me back onto the Information Superhighway at some stage.

Coincidentally, Virgin Media just hiked the price of their broadband. The justification? The service was going to be better.

Mr Branson, you are a highly successful dyslexic, an inspiration to dyslexics like me. But your Virgin brand is not looking so shiny right now. Quite frankly this service is shoddy.

Yarn - Podcast 6

Here is the final part of YARN. I hope you have enjoyed it.

The cost of a Paperback

The year is 2020. It costs £5 to buy a paperback novel. £3 if it is one of the few hundred titles being stocked on the shelves of your local supermarket. Most of that money is needed to cover the direct costs of producing the physical book. Ink, paper, printing and binding. Some is needed to cover transport. The shop takes a chunk to cover its overheads and to keep its shareholders happy. How much goes to the author? A few pence per copy.

Alternatively you can buy your novel as a download and read it on your shiny new book reader. How much for? There is no printing, no transport and no shelf stacking. Shall we say, fifty pence for the author and fifty pence to cover the website design and management?

What about a third possibility – read the book online courtesy of Google and see a few adverts along the way. The author gets a few fractions of a penny from the advertising revenue. You pay nothing.

What do publishers do in this crisp new digital world? They have already out-sourced the job of selecting the best novels. Literary agents do that. As for editing – literary agents increasingly take a hand in that too. Cover design is usually subcontracted. Publishers rarely spend money on advertising for authors who are not already famous. All that is left is the sales team who work so hard going bookshop to bookshop. But with digital distribution, the bookshops are not needed.
A world without publishers?

It is a world in which anyone and everyone can publish by themselves. Digital distribution – costing so little it is basically free – makes this easy. I am lucky enough to have seen many as yet unpublished but wonderful books in manuscript form. But I have seen a far larger number of badly written manuscripts. In 2020 are all of them being published?

Google Book Settlement

The Google Book Settlement debate is heating up. Hundreds of millions of dollars are on the table. It seems like a lot of money until you remember that it is the entire future of writing and publishing industry that is being shaped.

In yesterday's blog post I wrote about business models in which artists give their work away for free. But here we seem to have a business model in which an artist's work is given away by someone else.

The crux of the matter is this - Google took it upon themselves to digitize huge numbers of books in order to offer them in whole or in part through the Internet. Some of these books would be out of copyright - in America if not in the UK. In other cases the copyright holders could not be found. And where a copyright holder could be found, some money might flow back to them from Google.

Although an author opt-out has now been offered by Google as part of the legal settlement, some authors are less than happy to have had so little say in the formation of the deal. There is also disquiet among the other Internet giants, who are presumably worried about the hold Google is going to gain over the digital distribution of books - which is surely the future of publishing.

Google has been parading supporters of the deal ahead of any final legal decision. One advocate apparently said: "We see access to knowledge as a civil right. Information enables individuals to learn, to create and to pursue their dreams. Access to knowledge defines the meaning of equal opportunity in a democratic society."

Hard to argue with that. Who would vote against spreading knowledge? Until you remember that the 'knowledge' being offered includes the creative work of individuals. You and me.

Is this the future of publishing: that all creative work will be accessed for free, and interspersed with adverts, from which revenue a trickle will return to the authors? Is the concept of copyright now so unworkable that this becomes the only way for artists to make a living?

Giving it away - a business model

Making money by giving things away free seems, on the face of it, to be a contradiction. But I have recently noticed several people who have done just this - and done it with great success.

But first an example of the traditional business model. This morning I found a podcast about a subject I was interested in. Naturally, I started listening to it. I hoped to get some free advice from a person who knows what he is talking about. What I actually heard was a sales pitch for a workshop from person who apparently knows what he is talking about. He hinted at the content of his workshop without actually giving any details. The method was named but not described.

And who could blame him? If I could get the content for free, why would I sign up for the course? This is the traditional business model.

But here are three examples of people who have become successful through giving things away for free.

1) David Blaine the street magician. Think back before the endurance stunts. He made his name by approaching people on the street and giving free magic shows. And not just the casual coin disappearing stuff that your uncle does to amuse the kids. These were sophisticated illusions which must have taken much time and effort to perfect and set up.

Of course, he had someone with a camera there to film it all. And he would later sell the show to TV stations. But at the point of origin, he was apparently giving something away.

2) How about the graffiti artist Banksy? Sneaking out in the night and spray painting works of art onto people's walls. Giving it away. Take a close look at his work and it becomes clear that a huge amount of thought, preparation and skill goes into what he does. People who find a Banksy on something that belongs to them can go and sell it if they want. It could easily be worth tens of thousands of pounds.




The public interest he has generated through this is so huge that money must be pouring in. I bought a copy of his book so I could enjoy the pictures. The very wealthy might buy an original canvas.

3) And if that doesn't convince you, how about the film maker Chris Jones? His blog is like a masterclass in the film industry. There is no sense that he is holding things back so we will be more inclined to buy one of his books or go to one of his workshops. He is open and frank about the projects he is involved with.

I have no idea if this was his idea from the start, but when he needed money to make a short film, he simply asked for £50 from everyone. And such was the respect his readers and other contacts held him in that they gave freely. The money came in and the film Gone Fishing was made. (I'm sure you already know, it reached the final shortlist of 10 films for the Oscars).

The outstanding feature of each of the above examples is that the artists didn't give away their leftovers. They gave away the very best.