Saturday, June 24, 2006

Weekend Woes

Saturday, 24th. June 2006


Problem with being a hired writer is that weekends tend to be much like the rest of the week – time and authors needing help wait for no man.

So here I am, with the sun shining and the birds tweeting their hearts out, stuck at my desk finishing off an editing project promised for Monday.

The carefree existence of a dilletante writer (or a successful one) is not on the menu for ghost writers and we tend to have an almost 9-5 existence. In between the commercial chores, inevitably your own work gets left behind. For two years now I have been trying finish my history of the invasions of Britain, “Assaulting Britannia,” and very nearly made it last week. It was all packed up and ready to go. Then I re-read it, realised all that was wrong with it and here we are in the middle of a complete re-write!

Am working on a thriller for a client which needs some work on the characterisation and background details. So many MS I see lack these vital bits. The characters seem like cardboard cut-outs against a flat monochrome background and a lot of my work involves filling in these very important details to build up a picture in the mind’s eye of time, place and persona.

Leo (my agent) just called to ask about the Britannia book – told him to call back in 2007.

Got a request for a film script last week. Fortunately I have had some experience of these for they tend to be tricky. Firstly, the formatting required is totally different from a normal MS – and, if you don’t get it right, no-one will read it. Fortunately, there is some software out there which makes life a little easier but it’s expensive. Which is, I suppose, why most writer’s call for help on this. Just hope the MS is good and detailed when it shows up and has plenty of dialogue.

Back to work – more next week.

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