On Writing
Product Details from Amazon.co.uk:
For this new edition of The Writer’s Tale, Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook expand their in-depth discussion of the creative life of Doctor Who to cover Russell’s final year as Head Writer and Executive Producer of the show, as well as his work behind the increasingly successful Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures spin-offs. Candid and witty insights abound throughout two years’ worth of correspondence, covering David Tennant’s last episodes as the Doctor and the legacy that Russell and David leave behind as a new era of Doctor Who begins.
STOP – this isn’t just another book about ‘Doctor Who.’ Bear with me, please.
This book shuld be mandatory reading for any aspiring writers out there, science fiction and otherwise.
It contains more information about the writing process than any other book I’ve read (including those written specifically for that purpose).
Essentially, this is a collection of emails between RTD and journalist Benjamin Cook (with some lovely photos and sketches to brighten things up), through discussion about the development, impact and sheer joy of writing something that has become internationally successful. But it’s so much more than that.
Yes, there’s lots of joking around. Think of the emails you write (never intended for publication) – flippant comments, discussion of new TV shows, chaps you fancy, drunken whingeing. That’s there too. And it simply makes us aware over and over again that these are Real People. Not ‘Celebrities’ – just two men talking. You will laugh out loud, more than once.
RTD is clearly a writer through to his bones. He’d be writing even if he wasn’t successful – despite the inevitable neuroses gained by tapping away into a laptop in the small hours of the morning, he’s compelled to simply tell stories. And his sense of fun, wonder and slight shock that people like his work is clearly displayed.
It’s in his attempts to put into words an extremely personal, visceral and amorphous process – writing itself – that makes this book into a true gem. Those nights spent procrastinating before a deadline. Times when the ideas just don’t come. Huge flurries of work as the muse strikes, only to have key ideas rejected. Having an entire universe (and more) in your head, of which only a fraction finally appears in public.
The Timelord that he writes about here may have an entirely other life outside of RTD’s (unconfinable by any single individual, in fact), but in terms of this book, his tale is simply a frame by which we learn about story, character and the human feeling that goes into their creation.
If you want to write fiction, read this.
