screenwipe - writers

I watched screenwipe last night - I think it was actually on on Tuesday, but it's on pretty late so I normally record it.

I mention it hear because it was actually a special where he interviewed a bunch of writers. They were all writers for telly rather than novels, obviously, but there's not that much that distinguishes such things nowadays. They also covered a variety of genres - soaps, drama, comedy, etc.

Anyway, it as really interesting and I'd highly recommend you pop over to the BBC's iPlayer (which is an awesome thing in and of itself, which you should check out anyway) and check it out.

One of the most interesting aspects was the commonality - they were all interviewed separately and basically said similar things, one of my favourites being the whole procrastination thing. It varied - the types of procrastination were different and had different solutions (i.e.e when they actually got down to writing) but the basic theme was that generally they all avoid doing the actual writing until the last moment.

Because writing isn't much fun. Having written is great - when you can dot that last i and cross that last t, but the actual act of sitting there and producing words on the page is not hugely fun. Why seemed to vary a bit, but there was an interesting thing Russell T Davies of Dr Who said in that he sort of enjoys the misery of it.

He gave an example of a script that was due in as he was giving the interview but that he hadn't done yet. And he knew he wouldn't do until he absolutely had to. He also knew if he just went and did it right after the interview he would be happier, that his Christmas woudl be easier and simpler, but he wouldn't do that. Instead he would put it off and then be miserable as he got to a stage of being forced to do it.

As I say, you should go check it out - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/.