Slow Burn Or Quick Fix?

News broke overnight (UK) that Fox have cancelled fledgling series Alcatraz after one season. The JJ Abrams written show, about the titular island prison and inmates who vanished in the 1960s suddenly re-appearing in the present, had fan backing but didn’t generate the numbers – or excitement – the execs wanted.

This isn’t the first show to be cancelled before it had a chance to get going, and it won’t be the last, but the event did get me thinking about what it now takes to get a series made and keep it on air.

JJ Abrams got a lot of flak for his last big TV series LOST, fans and commentators said the central mysteries went on too long unanswered and when they finally were, the answer wasn’t quite as earth-shattering as it was led to be believed. There are shows out there that seem to have the staying power, Smallville managed ten years before fans got the final – if fleeting – payoff of the iconic shirt-ripping-big S- on-the-chest reveal. Supernatural has just been renewed for its 8th season, Dexter is in its 6th year, Fringe its 4th (although it is already known the 5th season will be the last). So why is it some shows seem to last and others don’t?

I think a lot of it is down the society we now live in. People today are used to instant access, instant results, instant answers. We live our lives in social media where questions and conversations exist within 140 characters. When presented with shows where we are expected to wait years before we get the answer to the big mystery baulks us and we tend to give it a miss. The long running shows I mention above have managed, in varying degrees, to side-step this problem by keeping the series spanning story arc going, but having mini-stories interspersed throughout. They’ve not expected the viewer to give up years of their lives to find out why this happened or why “X” said that.

I like shows that follow a plan, have a story to tell. I suppose I can happily sit and watch a show for 10 years, because I’m from the generation when social media and instant payoffs didn’t exist. For shows to survive beyond their first season – and some sadly barely even managed that – I feel they need to embrace the culture that dominates the world we live in. They need to be a little more forthcoming, give out a little more than they are, trust the viewer to stick around even if we do know some of the answers.

 

Unlike Cylon’s I Don’t Have A Plan

I follow a lot of writers – on Twitter and via various blogs/websites – and most of the articles/posts/tweets are about how their various works are progressing. One main thing mentioned is how well the writing is following the pre-determined plan they created prior to writing the first word. As a writer having a game-plan before I start is something I’ve never managed to achieve.

My writing is haphazard, it flows and changes direction as every conversation, scene, major event occurs. I find planning all that out beforehand hard to envisage. I do have an idea where my story is going, I have the start and the end. What happens in the bits in between is in the laps of the gods.  I primarily write short stories, perhaps that is why I work this way? With a shorter narrative to produce there is little need to plan ahead. If this is true then that is perhaps why I have struggled so much on the two occasions I’ve pushed the limit beyond the standard 8,000 words.

I’ve one completed novel under my belt, it was written for the first Pratchett Prize 18 months or so ago. I topped out at a little over 81,000 words, it never made the cut and I’ve not revisited it since I got the rejection. Just after Christmas I decided to have a look at it and see if anything needed doing, boy, did something need doing. It was all going OK up until about chapter 5 – just over 8,000 words in ironically – when things started going a bit Pete Tong.

Somehow I managed to include a character I’d killed off in chapter two, I also revisited a location that was destroyed – killing said character – without any mention of it being re-built (or allowing for the time it would take to re-build it). As I progressed the story meandered around the central characters in such a way that my the middle I’d given up all hope of understanding what was happening – and I’d wrote the bloody thing.

I’m working at the moment on another novel, so far I’m about six chapters in and over 15,000 words. I’ve spent a lot of time re-reading and re-editing as I go. This has made the first section more fluid and makes it follow the story. But it is time consuming and means I’m writing with a stutter and not getting a good head of steam up.

I suppose what I’m saying is am I doing it wrong by forging ahead without a map? Should I try to get into the plan ahead mindset?

Interestingly there was an article on Joe Abercrombie’s site in May last year along similar lines – you can read it here  http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2011/05/04/gardening-and-architecture/ - where he places authors into two categories, architects and gardeners. The architects plan and stick to the plan, and the gardeners go with the flow (or as he says write more organically). So I guess I’m not alone in working this way, just sometimes feels like it, which makes me feel somewhat better. But knowing others work the same doesn’t help get that novel written.

Somebodies following me…

Whilst tinkering around I notice I’ve picked up 177 Twitter followers to my blog. Wow! 177!

I’d just like to take this opportunity to say Hi to you 177 and hope you’ve liked what you’ve seen so far.

 

 

Twit Twoo

I decided to join the twitterverse the other day. I duly signed up and did some surfing and found some interesting, witty and insightful people to follow. And now two days later I’m following over 50 people and 10 have found me so interesting they’ve decided to follow me.

If you are so inclined, and feel maybe I have something interesting to say that might greatly influence your life – or people I know have better things to say and I re-tweet them (getting the hang of this terminology already) then you can find me at http://twitter.com/#!/pnorris14

 

 

 

I suppose someone should say something…

I suppose the idea of having a website/blog is to actually have something on it for people to read and/or comment on. Looking around the internet I see a lot of website/blogs filled with people talking about pretty much anything. Life, death, war, politics, sex. I started this blog initially as a place to showcase and talk about my writing, I suppose as there are going to be long periods of time where not very much happens I should finid something else to fill in the gaps.

No one likes and embarrassing silence.

So do I fill it with my life – I’m 47, married three times and have a daughter… hmmm that didn’t take long. No one close to me has died so that’s out. War, well I like to read about it, I like to watch films about out, I’d never want to be in one though. Politics, best not go there I could get into trouble. That only leaves sex and as much as I like it it’s none of your frakking business.

So I’ve covered all the major bases what does that leave me. Books, TV and movies I suppose. I can’t afford to go to the cinema as much as I used to, the last film I saw was the woefully over-rated Ironman #2. I have a substantial collection of DVDs though and love nothing more than sitting down with the wife and stuffing my face with popcorn. TV is pretty much the same, I rely heavily on DVDs, boxsets mostly. From Supernatural to Prison Break via The L-Word (oh back to sex again).

I suppose that brings us to books, I fell in love with reading long before I did TV. I started with WWII and the tales of Sven Hassell and Leo Kessler. Yes I know their both total liars and in several instances their characters were in two places at the same time, but hey it was escapism. then my dad gave me Lord Of The Rings, I was 13 and was captivated. The Hobbit followed and then the worlds of Shannara. Along the way I discovered a certain glowering 6′ tall Cimmerian and decided I preferred my fantasy a little more bloody.

Over the years I’ve ranged from fantasy to SF, I’ve delved into the world of Arthur and Saxons thanks to Sharpe creator Bernard Cornwell. I’ve visited alien worlds and kicked serious arss with Takishi Kovacs. But no matter how far I’d roam I’d always come back to swords and some sandals.

So if someone should speak up I suppose it should be me… Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilisation is nothing but a veneer, barbarism will ultimately triumph.