If Philadelphia cheese spread is so good for you, how come all the people in Philadelphia adverts are dead?
Author: John Page 42 of 121
Ah, there you are. Good to see you again.
Y’know, it occurred to me this morning that if I’ve made one discernible bit of progress recently in relation to my writing, it’s almost certainly in my increasing willingness to re-draft.
It may be because I started writing in my teens, using a manual typewriter, so much of what I submitted was – through an equal combination of teenage arrogance and an unwilliness to re-type whole pages – pretty much the first typed draft of the item in question. It seems alien now, with the facility to make changes to entire documents with a few mouse-clicks and keystrokes, but that’s how it used to be; if I decided, for example, that I wanted to rename my central character, that would have meant a whole lot of typing. And besides, with the hubris of youth, I felt my first drafts were works of genius which required no further work.
Well, after a number of years in which a number of my first-pressing masterworks were politely passed on by a number of editors and producers, I came to wonder if maybe I didn’t have a golden-goose-like ability to create perfection first time, and so I began to play at re-drafting.
Now, it might have been prompted by the realisation that acknowledged genius-types like Michelangelo did rough drafts first, or reading that A Fish Called Wanda went through 13 drafts – whatever the reason, I started to finish things, and then go over them again.
And to my surprise, I found it rather enjoyable.
Granted, there’s something immensely satisfying about getting something right first time, but frequently, I find I’m better off giving things another go – usually by printing it off, grabbing my red pen, and being callous about the bits I’m most proud of. Living each day as if it were your last sounds like a great idea, but I somehow doubt that’s the way to go about making great art (or anything on the rungs of the ladder leading up to ‘great’ – I don’t kid myself about my ability).
In its way, though, I’m increasingly finding that the act of re-drafting, and re-re-re-drafting and so on, is one I derive some intellectual satsifaction from; not because I’m pleased to have found a duff line or a scene that doesn’t really advance the story, but because spotting it means I can eliminate it from this draft before it goes out, and it reduces the chances of me making the same mistake again. And that can’t hurt.
I’m very much aware that this is probably no revelation to many of you, but for me, this more-recent-than-I-really-care-to-admit discovery has been something of an eye-opener, and rather than the re-drafting seeming like some kind of chore, I’ve actually come to enjoy it – I invariably feel that the work’s better for it, and that I’ve learned something, howsoever small, about writing.
Given that I enjoy the ideas stage, and the first draft, and the process of re-drafting, it actually means that more of the practice of writing is enjoyable. Yes, it’s going over old ground to some extent, but I’d rather do that and make the work shine, as opposed to sending it out into the world with its promise buried beneath its imperfections.
(Incidentally, I don’t want to discount the input of other folks here – Chip, Dom, and most recently Laurence have all provided me with loads of useful and friendly comments and suggestions, and I tip my hat to them all.)
And the pleasing conclusion to all this – well, pleasing for me, it may well leave you utterly cold – is that I seem to be getting a better handle on what works and what doesn’t, and that means I spend less time on the stuff which doesn’t work. As much as my past self would flinch at the idea that I could write anything other than absolute perfection, I think it’s probably healthier for me to accept that possibility and find ways to exclude the garbage.
Right, that pretty much covers what I wanted to say about redrafting, so I’ll stop here… though, as you can probably guess from the preceding, that means I’ll be running through this blog post again to try to make sure it makes some kind of sense, so I’ll just head back up to the first line of it.
If you want to meet me there, I’ll be just beneath the title.
Those free-wheelin’ road-burnin’ script-readin’ folks at the BBC Writersroom are hitting the highway again, and have announced new roadshow dates in the following locations:
– Bristol on Thursday 26 March 2009 from 5:30pm – 7:00pm
– Leicester on Thursday 7 May 2009 from 5:30pm – 7:00pm
As is usual for these things, you need to get your name on the guest list, and you can do that by e-mailing writersroom.events@bbc.co.uk with the subject line ‘[Location] Roadshow’.
It is, as ever, free to attend, and you can even save postage money by handing them your latest work of genius (as long as it’s a script, that is – they don’t assess sculptures or pieces of abstract dance, as far as I know).
Full and frankly naked details can be found here. Though I might have lied about the naked.
More roadshows to come in Birmingham, Sheffield and Liverpool, and you should watch the above, not-at-all naked link, for more details.
That is all. As you were. Or are. Or indeed will be.
… seriously, I wasn’t overkeen on providing yet more coverage of a topic which is already very much covered elsewhere, and yet another post which just makes a cheap joke about something I’ve spotted, but I felt I had to comment on the latest issue of OK! magazine.
It is, as you can see, a tribute to Jade Goody, with the dates of her life and death given on the cover. This strikes me as rather questionable for two related reasons:
1. As of this writing, Jade Goody is still alive (very ill, granted, but alive), so they could have waited.
2. If they had waited a week, it would have meant that their Jade Goody Official Tribute Issue would not have been issue number 666.
I mean, come on…
Free (well, you have to collect tokens) with the News Of The World last weekend: a pair of hair straighteners, as demonstrated by Nikki Sanderson, ex of Coronation Street, in the picture here.
Well, they’re saying that they’re hair straighteners, but on the basis of the picture, you’ll be getting something more like a stapler.
I can only hope Nikki doesn’t have to be anywhere in any kind of hurry, as with hair that long, and a pair of ‘straighteners’ that small, I think it’ll be a while yet before she’s ready to go out.
If any of you good people have sent me an e-mail in the last 24 hours or so, please be aware that my e-mail provider appears to be suffering from… well, let’s be kind and call them ‘technical difficulties’.
I’m told it should be sorted out by the end of the day, but until then, please don’t go thinking I’m ignoring you. It’s not you, it’s me. Well, my online techy buddies, and they’re normally so good I’m reluctant to start having a go at them in public.
Anyway, in the meantime, here’s some music…
(Fade Up: Wheels by The String-A-Longs)
The chap who appears to be naked on the poster for the rock film Anvil, and Barry Chuckle.
Is there a third Chuckle Brother, or should Anvil be looking for an extra guitar?
Chris ‘Not Gareth’ Hale has tagged me with a meme, the rules of which go as follows:
1) Put the link of the person who tagged you on your blog.
2) Write the rules.
3) Mention 6 things or habits of no real importance about you. Please see below.
4) Tag 6 persons adding their links directly.
5) Alert the persons that you tagged them.
Things of no real importance? Oh, I think I can do that…
a) I’ve been a vegetarian for about 20 years now, but as a teenager I worked in McDonalds (albeit for the grand total of four weekends).
b) Since about the age of 15, I’ve tended to use the word ‘they’ as a gender non-specific pronoun, even in the singular. It may be wrong in grammar terms, but I think it’s less clumsy than ‘s/he’.
c) At school, I was the only boy in the ‘top 6’ recorder players. Much of the time, I’m sorry to say, I was miming.
d) My claim in my blog profile to climb mountains is more true than it appears at first glance; I’ve trekked to the summits of Ararat and Kilimanjaro, Mount Everest Base Camp (the Nepal side)and am currently making plans to go to the top of Toubkal in Morocco. I aim to climb all Seven Summits in my lifetime.
e) Appropriately enough given the title of this post, I was a member of the Prisoner appreciation society ‘Six Of One’ before I’d even seen an episode of it. I was right about the programme, but I have to say that it’s unlikely that I’d join it again.
f) I live in East London, within sight of the winking panopticon eye of One Canada Square (also known as Canary Wharf). When I catch sight of it, I find I am unable to look away until I’ve seen the light at its peak wink, at least once.
Okay, there’s yer six. Now, I shall pick my victims…
Of course, I shall reach out and touch M’colleague. He loves to be tagged. And touched, but that’s another matter.
Also, I’d be interested to know some trivial things about Laurence, as I’ve exchanged a fair number of e-mails with him recently, and he seems a thoroughly nice chap.
Using this meme to try to provoke Lianne into responding would be fairly reprehensible, wouldn’t it? Perhaps, but that’s what I’m doing. She’s been virtually silent for an alarmingly long time.
Speaking of nudging people to provoke a response, friend and expert photographer Toby has set up a blog, but not posted on it yet. Mayhap this meme-ing could be the nudge needed to set him off a-posting? I hope so…
Penultimately, hello to Lara, who I met the other week. As they say in’t north, consider thissen memed.
And last but quite leastly, on his blog Piers claims to be ‘ludicrously lovely’. Is this true? I don’t know, but let’s see if we can gain some insight into the workings of his mind.
Right, I’m off to tell people that they’re it…
[Edited to add trivial fact (f) – clearly, I consider being able to count a trivial matter, and beneath me. I am an idiot.]
The item’s called The Who Sell Out and it’s being re-released in an expanded ‘deluxe edition’ ?
Oh, okay, there’s no irony or paradox there at all.
The absence of a question mark in this post will, hopefully, provide something of a clue to my feelings on this subject; I like Comic Relief a great deal, and I think it’s also very wise that 50% of the money raised goes to UK-based charities, and the other 50% to overseas work, because it rather defuses the whole “charity begins at home” argument which some people use instead of saying “I don’t want to give to charity”.
Granted, a lot of the comedy in the televised sections of Comic Relief doesn’t really float my boat, and I suffer a kind of emotional whiplash when they go from a Blackadder sketch to a film about children dying of some preventable illness, but that’s more my psychology than anything else, and it’s all aimed at making people’s lives better, for crying out loud. You can’t question that motivation without seeming curmudgeonly (even if it is regrettable that there’s a need for charities at all).
So, I support Comic Relief (in both the abstract and practical sense), and was suitably impressed with the group of celebrities who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Comic Relief (you can find more details here), as I did the same thing a few years ago, and it’s hard work, so I recommend you sling them a bit of money by way of a well-done.
However, as well as the red noses and novelty singles which you can buy to funnel your money to Comic Relief, something which appears to have received slightly less publicity is the fact that they’ve made various Comic Relief Specials available to buy via iTunes. There’s a Vicar of Dibley one, a Mr Bean one, and a couple of others, but to my mind, most notable is the fact that you can, for the very reasonable sum of £1.49, download a copy of Doctor Who And The Curse Of Fatal Death.
Just in case you’re not familiar with it, this 23-minute special was the first televised DW story written by Steven Moffatt, and features a number of people you might have heard of (surname hints: Atkinson, Sawalha, Pryce, Grant, Broadbent, Lumley). Is it part of the Who canon? I dunno, but it’s not been released on DVD, and so here’s your chance to have a look at it, have a laugh, and some money to go to a worthwhile cause. If I may put it so crudely, cop this button-style-link (tsk, after that lack of manners, I hope it works):
If you’ve read this far, I hope you’ll see the true meaning of the title of this post; if the Doctor, a fictional character, can support Comic Relief, those of us in this reality can probably make our own contribution, wouldn’t you say?