Category: About Writing

  • Terry Pratchett Talks About His Genesis
    Terry Pratchett Talks About His Genesis

    Two quick clips from Mark Lawson Talks To: Terry Pratchett.

  • How To Write Comedy With Your Friend
    How To Write Comedy With Your Friend

    Some of the best (and some of the hardest) times that I’ve had writing comedy have been spent doing so with different friends. There are so many different ways to work in a partnership of course, but here are three examples that ring true to my own different experiences. The most fun is when you…

  • They Came While We Were Sleeping
    They Came While We Were Sleeping

    Sometimes, when developing an idea, I like to improvise into a microphone. Doing so often shakes loose some thoughts, and can even bring up new ideas that would never have occurred to me. I just turn on the recorder and start speaking. http://traffic.libsyn.com/sundayssupplement/aliensmixed.mp3 (Download) That’s what I did yesterday. Give it a go, it’s a…

  • How To Write A Brilliant Scene
    How To Write A Brilliant Scene

    Have a look at this sketch from The Micallef P(r)ogram(me). Sometimes it’s useful to see what bad writing would look like, and take it to the extreme just to highlight everything that’s wrong with it. If you haven’t learnt something from what you just watched, then it was a waste of your time watching it,…

  • Ian Malcolm’s Leather Jacket
    Ian Malcolm’s Leather Jacket

    There was a moment when I was watching the video posted at the end of this post, when I realised something about Jurassic Park that I sort of comprehended before, but not really. Take a look at this frame from the movie. There’s something about it that tells you everything you need to know about…

Buy My Books
  • Proctology: A Bottom Examination
    Proctology: A Bottom Examination

    For a long time now I’ve been wanting to write an old-fashioned programme guide. One you can hold in your hand and thumb through, make notes on, spill coffee on. So I did. Proctology: A Bottom Examination is my deep dive into Bottom, the hit BBC Two sitcom starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. That’s…

Follow
Most Read
  • Re-Casting Keanu
    Re-Casting Keanu

    Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him eight years older than Clive Dunn was when he was first cast in Dad’s Army. But don’t panic, Clive Dunn was always playing much older characters than his own age. Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him seven years older than Stephanie Cole was when she was first…

Sign up for my FREE newsletter