The view from my office window this morning

Tell people you're writing 61k in a month and they freak

I'm on a break from writing computer strategy game Fate of the World until January. The start of next year looks like another busy spell, with several potential writing gigs looming including - fingers crossed - a trial script for something I've been pursing the better part of five years. Many irons, numerous fires, so little time.

But all of that looks like work for 2011. So, what am I doing to keep myself busy between now and the first week of January? Writing a 61,000 word book, of course. [I'm also teaching and will be spending a lot of time marking over the next two weeks, but that's my part-time job and an ongoing thing, so I take it as read.]

I've noticed a strange reaction whenever I mention writing a book over the next month: people freak out a bit. I suppose 61,000 words in about 30 days sounds a bit daunting, but I've done it before. Indeed, a third of the book is pre-written, although that will need significant revision. So it's not an impossible ask.

I've already done much of the research. Mostly a matter of applying bum to chair and writing. Aside from my teaching gig there aren't too many other potential diversions between now and Christmas. Apologies if I'm blogging much between now and Christmas - I'm busy writing. In the meantime, keep warm and stay happy. Onwards!

"And don't call me Shirley"

RIP Leslie Nielsen.

Using form and tone to tell a story in Doctors

My second ep of Doctors, Wasted Trip, is still available via iPlayer until tomorrow - I suggest watching it now [if you haven't already] before going any further with this post. There be spoilers ahead!

RJW asks: I really enjoyed your latest episode, but I just wanted to ask as the subject of cannabis use as pain relief and the whole ethical dilemma surrounding that has been featured on the show before, how did you set about approaching it from a different angle?

Good question. Doctors is fast approaching its 2000th episode, so has already tackled pretty much every medical condition or dilemma you can usefully tackle in 27 minutes. I can't claim to have watched every episode, so I don't know every story of the day [SOTD] ever done. I let someone else worry about that.

I can't claim the central character of a ganga-growing granny is wildly original. Indeed, the story springboard was inspired by news reports about pensioners cultivating cannabis and distributing it to fellow sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis. So, nothing very new under the sun there, if I'm honest.

For me the different angle came from thinking about tone and form. In terms of form, most episodes of Doctors are about healing. A guest character appears in the opening sequence. They have a problem and it needs to be acknowledged, confronted or resolved today. A crisis is approaching, making their story urgent.

My first ep of Doctors was about a woman suffering extreme PMS and the effect that was having on her life. The symptoms couldn't be resolved in 27 minutes, but the series regular involved [Simon] helped her come to terms with those symptoms. The SOTD took her a few, vital steps along the journey of healing.

So that's the formal constraint viewers have come to expect from a typical Doctors ep. Watch enough of them and you learn the rhythms of the show, how it tends to tell stories. As a writer for the show I have to be consciously aware of this, while viewers instinctively know the form from watching it a lot.

Wasted Trip does it best to turn form on its head while still being typical, at least on the surface. Zita first appears as a spry little old lady. The mystery is how she achieved remission from her arthritis so quickly. The answer is probably cannabis. The mystery becomes where is she getting the cannabis?

Series regular Heston discovers a cannabis factory in the adjoining property, the police are called. Zita says the drug dealers threatened her, gave the cannabis in exchange for silence. The villain is minor criminal Craig Crumey - Zita's grandson. In fact, Zita is the mastermind. She sacrifices Craig to save herself.

When the ep ends, Zita has lost her cannabis factory next door and a grandson. But it turns out she has two more sites nearly ready for harvesting. Zita's been manipulating Heston all along, using the ethical dilemma about cannabis treatment for illness as a ruse. Everything she's done has been a smokescreen.

Zita is an example of a protagonist who doesn't change. Instead, the audience's attitude to the character changes as they learn more about her. Zita is a trickster, a shapeshifter who goes from perky old lady to frightened old lady to criminal genius, constantly changing her persona to suit the circumstances.

That was a deliberate choice. Rather than tell a story about healing, I decided to play with the show's formal constraints, to see if I could keep reversing audience expectations. The simple facts of the story are nothing wildly original, it's what you do with them that creates a different angle of narrative attack.

Tone was the other tool I used. The ep opens with Zita's mobile playing the famous theme tune to The Archers. This jolly, jaunty music has an association with all things bright and beautiful, a cosy rural idyll captured in 20 seconds of music. That music immediately makes Zita seem safe, kindly, unthreatening.

That set the tone for audience attitudes towards the character. Her first lines of dialogue have her talking about bake sales [actually a coded phrase referring to the harvesting of cannabis from one of her factories]. She calls everyone 'dear', just like a lovely little old lady would. It all sets the tone.

The rest of the ep gradually peels away the layers, revealing a very different character. By Zita's final scene, she is revealed as a ruthless manipulator willing to sacrifice her own grandson to survive. When her mobile rings again, the theme tune to The Archers has taken on a far more sinister connotation.

Viewers realise Zita is neither safe, nor kindly, and certainly not unthreatening. She may not be physically imposing, but she's wrapped everyone around her little finger all day long. [All praise to actress Deirdre Doone and director Sarah Punshon for bringing this out, and so much more besides - wonderfully done!]

The comedy japes with Cherry getting stoned at the Mill in the middle of the ep were a way to shift the tone. As events in the Jack steroid abuse serial strand built towards their climax, the SOTD's tone became more dramatic. By Zita's last scene the comedy has been replaced by something darker, to match Jack's trajectory.

Hopefully, all of that wasn't wildly apparent when you first watched the ep. If I did my job as writer well enough, the use of form and tone should be subliminal for the watching audience - implicit rather than explicit. Whether or not I pulled it off is for others to judge. Hope I did. Onwards!

Who's having meat for dinner tonight?

The story of writing my second episode for Doctors

Warning: this contains spoilers for Wasted Trip, episode 137 of Doctors Series XII. If you haven’t already seen the story, it’s still available for UK viewers to watch via the BBC iPlayer here. I recommend watching it before reading any further in this blog posting. Right, on with the tale of Wasted Trip’s journey to broadcast.

In the summer of 2008 I was fortunate enough to be one of eight writers invited on the Doctors mini-academy, a five day shadow scheme designed to help new and emerging scribes for the BBC continuing drama series.

In September 2008 I pitched five short ideas to my script editor, including the story that would become my first Doctors commission, A Pill For Every Ill. One of the other ideas was Green, Green Grass of Home, the tale of 60-something Tom Jones enthusiast Gwen who’s smoking marijuana to relieve the symptoms of a chronic condition.

Nurse Archie Hallam faces an ethical dilemma – should be report Gwen’s drug use, even though it seems to be helping her? The short pitch had a second plot thread involving an illegal immigrant and a cannabis factory. The immigrant collapses, forcing Gwen to ask for Archie’s help, and everything comes spilling out.

My script editor felt there was a good story in the pitch, but it was lurching all over the place at a tonal level. On one hand Gwen’s drug use had the potential to be quite a light-hearted tale, but the illegal immigrant and implied threat from human trafficking drug dealers was far darker and more sinister.

Doctors isn’t afraid to contrast the grim with the comedic, but pulling that off in the same story can be challenging. So a big re-think was needed for Green, Green Grass of Home. Plus the actor playing nurse Archie Hallam was leaving the show, so that was another factor to bear in mind when it came to revisions.

Fast forward to February 2010. My first episode had just been transmitted, I decided to pitch some new ideas and see if I couldn’t fix one or two old favourites. I gave Green, Green Grass a thorough rewrite, cutting out the illegal immigrant subplot and replacing the now long-gone Archie with Dr Heston Carter.

Heston’s a fun character to write for, thanks to his florid language and occasional lapses into pomposity. Gwen was replaced by Zita Morton, a 75-year-old patient with chronic rheumatoid arthritis. She manipulates Heston and engineers events to force out the truth about a cannabis factory being run from the adjoining home.

This version replaced the illegal immigrant strand with a hopefully comedic subplot about receptionist Karen getting stoned on cannabis-laced chocolate brownies. Jimmi and Cherry would have to deal with her while Heston confronted Zita about the illegal drugs. A burly Non Speaking Extra was written in to represent the drug dealers.

Discussions with my script editor saw the idea evolve still further. The burly NSE became Zita’s partner in crime, Craig Crumey, while the wily pensioner became even more of a trickster character, pulling everyone’s strings. Also in the mix – Karen’s husband Rob Hollins, a policeman who gets dragged into events.

A revised version of my two-page pitch renamed Wasted Trip was formally submitted for consideration at the start of March 2010. To my surprise, it was banked in less than three weeks, meaning Wasted Trip was now approved for use as a Story of the Day. [Sheer weight of numbers mean pitches can wait months for a yes or no.

It was only another six or seven weeks before I got the call from my script editor – was I available and willing to work on my second episode? Yes! I did have to point out I would be on holiday for one week at the start of June, in the midst of the script process, but otherwise I was ready, willing and able. Bring it on.

[Spring 2010 was a rather frenzied few months. I was writing a radio play for BBC7, an audio adventure game to accompany the radio play, teaching 2.5 days a week and taking part in a CBeebies Lab for writers interested in creating material for pre-school audiences. More on that later…]

First step on any new Doctors ep is to read the serial material that needs to be blended with your Story of the Day [SOTD hereafter] to create the script. Normally the SOTD takes up about 15 minutes of screen time, leaving about 12 minutes for the serial strands. Usually there are two serial strands, sometimes just one.

For Wasted Trip I was given a single serial strand about teenager Jack Hollins getting increasingly out of control due to steroid abuse. This would culminate in him lashing out at sister Immie – described in the serial document as a hard slap across the face. A big, serious story about drug abuse to contrast with my cannabis comedy.

This presented a major, tonal challenge – how to balance my cookie-based japes with a strong story about an unravelling youth hitting his sister. Get it right and the contrast would be great, potentially very powerful. Get it wrong and it could be a terrible mess that made serious drug abuse seem like fodder for fluffy comedy.

The serial also threw a couple of curve balls at my SOTD. Sergeant Rob Hollins was going to be away the week my episode was scheduled for, making him unavailable as the policeman who intervenes with Zita. The Jack serial strand also meant Karen couldn’t be the Mill staffer who gets stoned, that wouldn’t be appropriate.

Step forward Nurse Cherry Malone, girlfriend of police surgeon Dr Jimmi Clay. The actress who plays Cherry, Sophie Abelson, has an incredibly infectious giggle, making her the perfect candidate for a blissed-out, cannabis-brownie addled appearance.

The next step was creating a scene-by-scene that blended my SOTD with the supplied serial material, bearing in mind the actors available and other pre-requisites of the show. I got some very useful notes back that gave the s-x-s a tighter focus. For example, Zita’s partner-in-crime Craig became her grandson.

This helped explain how a granny with a spotless record could get involved with cannabis cultivation. It also added an extra dimension to the betrayal when Zita shifted the blame on to her grandson. From being an apparently sweet old lady at the start of the episode, by the end she would be an utterly ruthless criminal mastermind.

The s-x-s wasn’t perfect [these things rarely are], but proved strong enough to secure my formal commission. Up until this point a writer isn’t guaranteed anything. Once the s-x-s is approved, you get a contract and some money in your future. I had secured my second TV drama commission as a screenwriter.

My next job was to write a first draft. Unfortunately, this was moment when I went on holiday to Madrid for a week. Not that there’s anything wrong with having a holiday or Madrid [it was lovely, in fact] but I was in danger of falling behind the other writers on this particular block of episodes.

I was also writing the pilot script for a show I’d devised on the CBeebies Lab. Throw in the possibility of volcanic ash clouds shutting down Europe’s airports again, and I had no choice – my laptop was coming with me. I wrote the CBeebies script on holiday, and agreed to deliver my first draft for Doctors a week later.

Seven days should be ample time to write a first draft. Unfortunately, this seven days was a bit crowded. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I was teaching. That means leaving the house at 8am and not getting home before 7pm. Wednesday night I had a meeting for the Biggar Theatre Workshop. Thursday night I had the BTW AGM.

So I got up early those three days and wrote for 90 minutes before heading into Edinburgh to teach. The good news - I didn’t have a meeting Friday night. The bad news – I was flying to London for a friend’s birthday party. Saturday night I was going out in London, so Saturday was a writing day, come hell or high water.

I was staying in a hotel, so spent Saturday locked in my room, writing as fast as I could. Sunday? Flying back home, then out in the evening to meet a woman from the University of New Orleans about a potential joint project. So Sunday was a wash-out for writing. That left Monday and Tuesday to finish the first draft of my script.

Thanks to a solid s-x-s, I managed to deliver on time. I was still running a week behind all the other writers, but I’d hit my deadline. There were lots of notes on the first draft, as there always are, but nothing apocalyptic. For the largest part I’d pretty much hit the nail on the head. Plenty of finessing but no radical surgery required.

One big question was how far to go with Jack hitting his sister. The supplied serial suggested a hard slap, I wanted him to go for it. My first draft had Jack backhand Immie across the face, sending her sprawling across the kitchen floor. That caused some debate with my script editor, but we kept it in.

I felt Jack’s descent into steroid rage would be better illustrated by a big backhander than anything softer or less violent. Much of the next episode was devoted to the fallout from Jack’s drug use, so having him really hurt his sister felt necessary to me to properly tell the story, to set up what was to come in the following day’s Doctors.

There were four more drafts after the first one, but this was about polishing and tweaking than significant alterations. By the third draft I’d caught up with the other writers in my block. The script was locked at the start of July, with the Jack attack on Immie upgraded from a backhander to a punch in the face.

The episode was shot as part of Series XII Block 50 at the end of July and beginning of August, with Sarah Punshon as director. I was lucky to travel down to Birmingham to see one day of filming at the Mill Health Centre, mostly the stoned Cherry sequences. It’s amazing how hard and fast the cast and crew work, quite amazing.

I got an advance copy of the episode to watch about a week before Wasted Trip was broadcast. It’s always fascinating to see how much of the episode makes it onscreen. A handful of scenes went for timing reasons on my first Doctors, but I think only one ended up on the cutting room floor for this ep.

As always, the cast and crew did me proud. Deirdre Doone gave a stunning performance as the duplicitous Zita, adding extra layers to a constantly shifting trickster character. Jack punching his sister was even more shocking than I’d expected and the whole thing felt like it had a lot more than 27 minutes of drama packed in.

The biggest challenge for me was balancing the comedic tone of my SOTD with the much darker serial strand, which goes from dramatic towards tragic. I front-loaded the comedy scenes so they fell in the first 20 minutes, while the darker sequences involving Jack and Immie were held back to much later in the episode.

All in all, I think Wasted Trip works pretty well. Feedback has been positive and it’s an episode I’ve been proud to suggest people watch as evidence of what I can do. Obviously, I’m still learning as a writer [you never truly stop], but this was a good result out of what seemed a very time pressured spring and summer for me.

So, what’s next? Filming is all but complete on my third ep, scheduled for transmission in March next year. I don’t have any more SOTD pitches banked, but there are four on the pile waiting for a yes or no answer and others in development. I’m loving writing for Doctors, the fresh challenges each new episode offers.

One more ep and the BBC contracts department will consider me an experienced writer. That seems a bit of a nonsense when I’m just scratching the surface, but I won’t reject the 25% raise in my standard rate it’ll bring. All I really care about is the work, the chance to learn, to share my stories with millions of viewers. Onwards!

My second DOCTORS ep on BBC1 at 1.45pm today

UK residents can see my second episode of DOCTORS at 1.45pm today on BBC1 [or at 4pm on BBC HD]. After that it'll be available for a week on the wondrous BBC iPlayer. Here's the official plot precis for Wasted Trip, followed by credits from the official BBC site:

Heston faces an ethical dilemma when an arthritis-ridden patient challenges his attitude to her pain relief. Jack and Immie's sibling argument spirals out of control with shocking consequences.

Dr Heston Carter - Owen Brenman
Dr Jimmi Clay - Adrian Lewis Morgan
Dr Elaine Cassidy - Janet Dibley
Cheryl Malone - Sophie Abelson
Julia Parsons - Diane Keen
Karen Hollins - Jan Pearson
Jack Hollins - Nicolas Woodman
Imogen Hollins - Charlie Clemmow
Tony Howard - Ben Peel
PC Brian Miles - David Hounslow
Zita Morton - Deirdre Doone
Craig Crumey - Dominic Gately
Series Producer - Mike Hobson
Series Producer - Peter Eryl Lloyd
Producer - Carol Harding
Writer - David Bishop

BBC One, Thu 18 Nov 2010 - 13:45
BBC HD, Thu 18 Nov 2010 - 16:00

My third episode of DOCTORS is already in production, with much of it shot this week in Birmingham. One more after that and the BBC rights department will deem me an experienced TV drama writer - if only that were true. Still so much to learn. I'll offer my thoughts about Wasted Trip next week. Onwards!

At the end of the day you're another older...

Sorry, what was that name again?

Sunrise as seen from my office window this morning

I interviewed Lucy Lawless in 1989 - on a garden swing

Strange but true fact: I once interviewed Xena, Warrior Princess on a swing after she'd won the title of Mrs New Zealand. This was back in February 1989 when I was a [very!] young reporter for the New Zealand Herald in Auckland. Lucy Lawless was a 21-year-old from Mt Eden long before she was Xena, Warrior Princess.

Lawless had beaten 14 other contenders for the title Mrs New Zealand, earning her a trip to Las Vegas for the Mrs World 1989 contest. Among the judging criteria were personality and attractiveness. But Lawless was faced with selling the family car so her husband Garth and seven-month-old daughter Caitlin could accompany her.

She expressed surprise at winning despite some part-time modelling experience, when she wasn't busy being a wife and mother. [Lawless actually said this, I'm not making it up - check the New Zealand Herald archives for February 13, 1989 if you like.] "I'm hopeful this will be a first step towards a career in TV journalism," she said.

The article notes that Lawless was fluent in four languages. Somewhat bizarrely, it also makes much of the fact her dad wasn't around for the victory. Lawless's father Frank Ryan was far more famous than her at the time - he'd been mayor of Mt Albert in Auckland for 20 years.

Mayor Ryan was too busy playing law bowls to witness his daughter's success at the Akarana Royal Yacht Club, but Garth and Caitlin were there. Husband Garth Lawless was happy to express his support: "If Lucy wants to do this, I'm happy to help her."

[If you're wondering about the photo, it's a terrible reproduction of a great picture taken by NZ Herald snapper Geoff Dale - sorry about the quality, Geoff, my fault, not yours! You can see far better examples of Geoff's stunning work at his website. He even does some acting, you know. I remember his Maggi ad well...]

Genius but very, very NSFW: "You look like ****"

"If you go - we all go." Friendship means never letting go

Sniff. [Via Scott Myers' Go Into The Story]

Write about mental health support, you could win £250

See Me is a Scottish charity, focused on mental health support and ending the stigma around mental illness. It's running a writing competition for residents of Scotland, with three £250 Amazon vouchers on offer. Winners and runners-up in each category will have their entry published on the See Me site. Here's the blurb:

We all give and receive support throughout our daily lives. Whether you’ve helped your family, friends or neighbours or got assistance from teachers and colleagues. We want you to draw from personal experiences or use your imagination in our ‘see me’ Creative Writing Competition 2010.

This year’s theme is ‘support’. Tell us what it means to you. Each winning entry from the three categories will get £250 of Amazon Vouchers to spend. Winners and runners up will be published on our website. An anthology of the best work will be released next year. Enter in one of our three categories.

• Short stories - you’ve got 1,500 words or less to tell our theme in a novel way.
• Poem (max 500 words) - with a maximum of 42 lines to express ‘support’.
• Tweet - communicate ‘support’ in 140 characters or less, including #seemescot.

Closing date for entries is 5pm on December 10, 2010. More details plus full rules and regulations can be found here.

"Agents look for great judgement about what to write"

The Scottish branch of the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain held a Meet the Agents events for members on Monday night at the Scottish Book Trust in Edinburgh. Here are a few notes from guest speaker Julian Friedmann of Blake Friedmann Literary Agency [JF].

JF: We need to educate writers in the more arcane aspects of the film and TV business so producers can’t screw them over. The current PACT agreement dates back to the early 90s, we need a more up to date agreement.

Far too many writers think if only they had an agent the contracts would flow; it isn’t so. If you can’t get the work yourself, you mightn’t be of interest to an agent – unless you write like an angel.

Most script submissions easy to reject. Agents want clients for a long-term relationship, but two many writers think it’s a one-off deal. Most agent lists are fairly full, so you need to displace someone with a track record to get represented.

If you have no track record and no deal on the table, an agent is far less likely to take a risk on you. Clients fire their agents or leave, it happens. Writers have to put their career first. Agents sometimes make bad deals, it’s not all rosy. Agents vary as much as writers.

A successful agent/writer relationship depends on both elements. You have to find an agent who understands what you are writing. But friendship and agenting is a difficult line to tread. We all go through difficult times.

It’s very tough out there at the moment, especially for TV writers. We estimate 600 episodes of TV drama has gone in the last four or five years.

Writers need to prepare themselves for endless rejections, often by people less talented than them. It’s painful being rejected in those circumstances, by people who can’t write as well as you – by people who can’t read a script properly.

With or without an agent, you need to have a submission strategy. You shouldn’t concentrate on just the writing. You need to have a hunger for knowledge about the business. You must be hugely optimistic but also be realistic.

You need to know what you want to write. [JF urged everyone to read Orwell’s Why I Write.] Agents look for great writing, but also great judgement about what to write, and for real ambition in a writer. You must have something to say about the human condition.

Most agents work far longer hours than most writers. They also earn less than the writers at the top end of the scale. Agenting is a buzz, it’s a risk. The quest for a great read is always there. We want to be surprised, to be moved.

Don Draper rejects Conan O'Brien

Not being self-centred, but it's all about me, me, me

Synopsis for my 2nd Doctors episode appears online

The Radio Times website has the first official synopsis for my second ep of Doctors, due for broadcast by BBC1 at 1.45pm on Thursday Nov. 18th. Of course, it doesn't mention the name of the writer [me] or the director [Sarah Punshon]. Hey ho. Anyway, here it is:

Doctors
Thursday 18 November
1:45pm - 2:15pm
BBC1

Wasted Trip (137/230, series 12)
Heston faces an ethical dilemma when a patient with arthritis challenges his attitude toward her pain relief. Meanwhile, Jack and Immie's sibling rivalry has shocking consequences when it spirals out of control.

Dr Heston Carter - Owen Brenman
Dr Jimmi Clay - Adrian Lewis Morgan
Dr Elaine Cassidy - Janet Dibley
Cherry Malone - Sophie Abelson
Julia Parsons - Diane Keen
Karen Hollins - Jan Pearson
Jack Hollins - Nicholas Woodman
Imogen Hollins - Charlie Clemmow
Tony Howard - Ben Peel
PC Brian Miles - David Hounslow
Zita Morton - Deirdre Doone
Craig Crumley - Dominic Gately

Genius: "I've never seen a pie like it. Simply stunning."

Some scamp has made an edited version of the 2010 Mastefchef Professionals Final that throws new light on the food. Enjoy!

What actual people would do if they could do Inception

Via Scott Myers' blog.

Rewrite notes #2: working with producers

In October I went to Rewrite, a day-long seminar in Edinburgh for screenwriters about working with script editors and producers. Here's my second set of notes. Kieran Parker [KP] is a producer with Black Camel, makers of hit Nazi zombie film Outpost. Turan Ali [TA] runs his own production company, Bona Broadcasting. [See my first notes here.]

KP: You don’t qualify as a producer – you just do it, just go out and produce. [Outpost director] Steve Barker and I met at art school, did film stuff together and I became a producer.

TA: Producing is not just about the money. You’re involved in casting, sometimes directing, often in the edit – it’s all part of the whole creatively. My only interest is what’s the writer’s vision? In film and TV that – the writer’s vision – can easily become muddled. Getting the thing to happen is the biggest part of the producer’s job.

Funding the project is the best part; the most frustrating thing is you can’t get that project made. Someone at the BBC told me recently any queer content adds two years to getting your project on screen.

Most projects we develop ourselves at Bona, then bring a writer in. We get a lot of ideas every week. Most are vague, unspecific. You have to know your medium, your craft – which network, which slot. If you don’t have any credits, you need someone to give you credibility – that’s where a producer can make all the difference.

What’s at the centre of all this is persuasion. A good story persuades. Emotional persuasion – people have to feel they can take a punt on you. Intellectual persuasion – what’s the logic in taking a punt on a new writer? The answer is originality.

KP: It’s about passion, if you can communicate that. You have to persuade people to join you. You have to get across your passion for the story, communicate that. Do you research on what companies want, don’t waste people’s time. Understand the companies you are targeting. It’s about relationships, building connections.

TA: The heart of a good writer is subtext. For me, if there’s no subtext there’s nothing for the director to do. Good writers give the actors and directors something to work with.

At the moment of climax in your story, is there a universal truth being communicated? How can you write a story unless you know what it’s about? Original universal truths mark out good writers.

Writers should hold back from dialogue until the last possible stage. Writers get over-attached to scenes because they have gone to dialogue too soon.

KP: Black Camel is starting to work more with new writers. You have to court a bit, it’s a two-way seduction. It’s a long road, there are ups and downs along the way. Money for film is so scarce. That means people do it for passion first, and hoping to get paid later.

Writers should stick to their guns with an idea. The producer has to buy into it, otherwise why bother? They must be able to defend every aspect of your script. You and the producer are a team. Don’t say no too quickly.

TA: Every moment in a script has to earn its place. When there is conflict, I try to identify what’s the source. You are never arguing about what you are arguing about – that’s a good universal note. It’s surprising how often writers don’t know they characters.

Jon Stewart gets autotuned into a singer

I'm writing a Page 3 computer game

Opened my newspaper this morning to find page three devoted to the game I'm writing. If I read the Sun, that would involve topless women. But I'm a Guardian reader and the game is Fate of the World, which challenges you to save the planet [or destroy it]. Here's an extract:

They've previously tackled alien invasions, gang violence in New York and how to raise a happy family, but this week computer games wrestle with an even more pressing issue: climate change.

Arriving on PCs on Tuesday and Macs shortly after, the British-made Fate of the World puts players at the helm of a future World Trade Organisation-style environmental body with a task of saving the world by cutting carbon emissions or damning it by letting soaring temperatures wreak havoc through floods, droughts and fires.

The strategy game is already being hailed by gaming experts as a potential breakthrough for such social change titles, and welcomed by climate campaigners as a way of reaching new audiences.

While traditional mainstream games have focused on action, sports and increasingly casual genres, Fate of the World features data from real-world climate models, anecdotes from the polar explorer Pen Hadow and input from a team of scientists and economists in the US and UK.

It has been developed by Oxford-based games designers Red Redemption, whose previous browser-based climate game for the BBC has been played more than a million times since it was launched in 2006.

You can read the rest of the article here.