Category: Writing Page 19 of 24

I think I’ve mentioned before that I like the work of Neil Gaiman; I first came across his stuff in comics, but he’s written for TV and books since then, and he was also involved in the recent films ‘Stardust’ and ‘Beowulf’. So, I think it’s obvious he’s no slouch in the writing department.

And Neil’s not exactly sluggish when it comes to blogging either – his journal is updated regularly, and frequently has interesting links and answers to readers’ questions. Certainly worth a look, which is why it’s listed in the column to the right. Ah yes.

But the reason for this post is because Neil (and I call him by his first name because, well, that’s what I’d do if I was talking with him) recently asked readers of his blog to vote for one of his books to be made available online, for free.

The votes were counted, and the winner was ‘American Gods’ from a couple of years ago. I bought it when it came out in paperback, and thought it was a cracking read – and I’m clearly not alone in that, as it won the 2002 Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker awards for Best Novel.

So, if you go here in the next 28 days, you can read American Gods for free.

And, as I paid something like £6.99 for my copy of it, that’s money I’ve saved you, so how about you buy me a cup of tea and some cake next time we meet up, eh ?

The US Writers’ Strike is over.

Members of the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) voted last night in favour of ending the current strike (92% support for this), so in theory the writers are back at work as of today. I’d imagine it may take a bit longer than that in reality, but it’s good news for the writers (who can now get back to work), and also for the casts and crews of suspended shows and films. And of course for the studios, who – even under the new agreement – will still make a nice tidy profit from the work done by the people I’ve just mentioned.

The WGA members still have to vote to ratify the new agreement, but as it gives them residual rights for internet sales and broadcast (using the figure of ‘distributor’s gross’), something which the studios were initially extremely opposed to, I’m rather inclined to wonder if the WGA Negotiating Committee were the greatest and most forceful negotiators since Genghis Khan, or if the studios were rather exaggerating when they said there was no money in new media, and so they had none to offer. As is so often the case, I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Still, as one who’d like to make his living arranging words in order on pages and screens, it’s heartening to see writers get increased financial rewards for their work, and as one who grew up in the UK in the 1980s when strikes were pretty much demonised as the preserve of Socialist agitators, it’s been educational to see the way that the WGA have conducted the strike itself and also their campaign to raise awareness of it; whilst a lot of the press and TV is inevitably tied in with the studios who the WGA was disagreeing with, I think they did a terrific job of using the internet (ironically, given that new media was arguably the issue at the heart of the strike) to get the word out, and to involve not only WGA members, but also viewers of TV and film in supporting the WGA cause.

As David Bishop notes, future generations of writers will probably be grateful to the current WGA members. Though of course in the far-flung future, where you experience a film or story by drinking a neuro-narrative-peptide cocktail and sit and enjoy its plot twists whilst your hovercar auto-pilots itself to your gleaming silver spire of a home, the idea of striking may seem as antiquated as valve-based radiograms do now.

*Though I’m so impressed by their efforts, I think I may well join the WG-GB.

Well, the Writers’ Guild of America has come away from negotiations with the studios, and has come to a tentative agreement – you can read a summary of the terms here.

There’s a fair amount of speculation that WGA writers could be back to work in the next week or so, but that’s rather dependent on whether the writers vote in favour not only of the terms of the agreement, but whether they vote to stop strike action while that’s being thrashed out – I get the impression that this is one of the conditions of the proposed agreement. This initial vote is taking place, as I understand it, between now and the close of Tuesday.

I haven’t fully scrutinised all the details of the proposed agreement, but people in the know like the ever-readable John August think it could be a lot worse – and as it makes provision for payments for downloaded material, something which the studios had initially said wasn’t feasible, I’m inclined to think the WGA Negotiating Committee has done better than many might have expected them to. Especially given that the studios were initially saying a flat ‘uh-uh’ to that particular notion (but no, I’m not overlooking the ‘unpaid online airing window’ element of it, which I gather is quite a sticking point).

I’ve been asked why I give a monkey’s about any of this, given that I’m a UK-based scribbler. Fair question, but the answer’s pretty simple: I like TV and films and books and plays and all my media to be well written, and when they are well done, I like to think that the writers behind the work (and in TV and film, let’s never forget that they are the very foundation of it; no script, no need to even feed the film into the camera) are being well paid. It’s partly because I’d like to be a full-time (and for my own convenience, well-paid) writer, but it’s mainly because… well, am I going to have to quote Pastor Niemoller about this? Writers are, after all, human beings, and I’d rather they weren’t exploited, any more than, say, children in trainer factories. Apologies if that sounds a bit naïve, but there it is.

Towards the latter end of 2007, you may remember me posting that I’d entered the Red Planet competition, a screenwriting competition that was pretty alluring on account of its broad brief (10 pages of a screenplay, any theme or genre) and its appealing prize (£5000 cash, representation and a commission – basically, everything a growing screenwriter needs).

As a shameless self-publicist egomaniac, you can be sure I would have said if I’d won, and as I haven’t (said I’ve won, that is), you can cheerfully surmise that I didn’t (win, that is). But last Friday the winner was announced, so it’s a definite shout of ‘Oh, Well Done!’ and raise of the glass (or, in my case, mug of tea) to Joanna Leigh, whose screenplay about Samuel Johnson sounds pretty darned interesting. Bravo, Joanna!

Tony Jordan and his colleagues at Red Planet have promised another competition for 2008, so it might be wisest to dust off the screenwriting-thinking-cap sooner rather than later…

It’s been announced that the Writers’ Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are having informal talks on the current US writers’ strike.

This, of course, comes several weeks after the AMPTP walked out of negotiatoins, and a handful of days after the AMPTP reached an agreement with the Directors’ Guild of America which contained some provisions not unlike those sought by the WGA. Interesting…

There’s a news blackout on the progress of the informal talks, as I understand it.

Be vewy, vewy quiet… we’re hunting wesiduals…

There’s a really good ‘beginner’s guide’ to the WGA strike here – it does a terrific job of explaining the reason why residual payments are very different from the oft-cited comparison with a plumber being paid every time the toilet is flushed…

And it’s been announced that The Weinstein Company has reached a deal with the WGA, making them the third production company to do so in recent weeks. If memory serves, these are the folks behind Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s recent work (amongst others), so they’re a company with some clout.