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With Russell T Davies coming back as the new (returning) Dr Who writer snd showrunner, replacing Chris Chibnall, I thought it might be time to take a look at the book, presented in a series of emails between Davies and Cook, about the writing of Dr Who, with a side order of Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures. The Great Correspondence begins in February 2007 and continues for close to two and a half years, covering (mostly) Dr Who's fourth season, and the specials, leading up to David Tennan's handover to Matt Smith, and Russell Davies's handover to Steven Moffatt. It also covers Torchwood's Children of Earth season, and looks back at the first three seasins of New Who. The Final Chapter is an addition to the original 'The Writer's Tale' but both books are included in the Kindle edition.It's not a how-to book, but there's much to learn here about storycraft, and about reworking something until it's as close to right as it can be.
I found it fascinating, seeing the writing process, the blind alleys and the last minute panics. It's a candid exchange of emails between journalist, Cook, and writer/showrunner Davies. It feels very personal and raw, exposing a few nerves as Russell is torn between production concerns while writing the next episode, and the next. And eventually having to write David Tennant's regeneration. The pressure to get that one right was immense, and you can follow the process from the very first idea, to the finished version. The book is worth it for that alone.
If you're a writer you'll recognise the panic as deadlines approach, and if you're a Whovian this will deliver a lot of insight into the making of this best-beloved TV phenomenon. Highly recommended.
3rd January
It's that time of year again. November is NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. It's really aimed at those who have trouble finishing a novel because the target is to write 50,000 words in a month from 1st to 30th November. You're supposed to start from scratch (maybe having made a plan beforehand, or maybe not) and then just keep ploughing onwards. If you can manage 1,667 words per day, you can reach that target.
Winterwood
I decided to pace myself alongside NaNoWriMo to get a whole heap of extra wordage on the work in progress. I'm currently working on the frst draf of Silverwolf, which is the sequel to Winterwood, my magic pirate book, which comes out in February. (And for which I've just had the cover.) My deadline for delivery of Silverwolf is February, but I want to get the first draft done by Christmas if I can, so that I have time to let it settle, let a few beta-readers have their wicked way with it, and then do any redrafting necessary to lick it into shape. There will, of course, be editorial comments from Sheila at DAW, and a further edit (at least one) beyond that. Publication date hasn't been confirmed yet, but depending on my delivery of the first draft it will either be late 2016 or early 2017.
I've had my head down working my way through five hundred and thirty six pages of page proofs for the upcoming novel, Crossways. My good friend and cinebuddy, H, is also reading the page proofs because she's brilliant at finding typos. This afternoon she sent me the corrections for the first 300 pages. I expected we'd have some overlap, but there are hardly any typos that we both spotted, yet we each found a few. (Maybe only five or six per chapter - sometimes fewer.) I'm combining them into one list now.
How (Not) To Write A Steampunk Novel
About Gaie Sebold
I’ve been nominated to take part in this ongoing initiative by 
