Mark Chadbourn's Blog: Jack of Ravens, page 18

Alan Moore And The Art Of Magic…And Writing

Image courtesy of Joe Brown

A few wise words…many wise words…from Alan Moore on imagination, creativity, writing, and magic. He’s long been an inspiration, and I’m very much looking forward to his novel Jerusalem.

“As previously stated, it is my position that art, language, consciousness and magic are all aspects of the same phenomenon. With art and magic seen as almost wholly interchangeable, the realm of the imagination becomes crucial to both practices.”

And this:

“The Bardic tradition of magic, when satires were justifiably more feared than curses and when the creator was respected as a powerful magician rather than as someone getting by out on the fringes of the entertainment industry, is one that today’s artists, occultists and writers would do well to reacquaint themselves with. You can kill or cure with a word. Get off of your knees.”

Everything is here.

 

Umberto Eco – The Roadmap To The 21st Century

Been a hectic start to 2016. New TV pitch optioned, new TV script started, new novel pitch underway, and I’m well into the next novel from my pseudonym, James Wilde.  This book should be out in January 2017, six months earlier than the usual cycle, so the clock is ticking. But it will be of particular interest to Age of Misrule readers.

But I wanted to say a few brief words about Umberto Eco, who died yesterday.  His novel, Foucault’s Pendulum, is one of my favourites, dovetailing as it does with my particular interests of conspiracy theories, the nature of truth, reality and imagination, and, above all else, the power of myth, both ancient and modern.

Eco casts a shadow over the 21st century.  Before the turn of the millennium, he was already dealing with ways of writing and thinking that are becoming prominent in this century.  And he should hold a special place in the heart of readers who love imaginative fictions and great writing.

There are still 20th century people abroad who belabour the world with that century’s binary thinking – literary or genre, say, the kind of people who believe there are still boundaries around what we do.  Eco loved his cultural tropes, his comics – he wrote a great piece about Charles Schultz’s brilliant Peanuts comic strip which you can probably find online somewhere – his detective fiction, his fantasy (or magical realism for those who find that word sticks in their craw).  The Name of the Rose managed to be both massively literate, an intellectual dissection of religious thinking and repression, a historical tract, and a gripping murder mystery.

Foucault’s Pendulum takes your hand and leads you slowly away from the real world into a labyrinth of paranoia where anything might be true, or nothing.  Eco claims he invented Dan Brown in this novel, and the author then took on a life of his own and wrote The Da Vinci Code.

Eco showed us how we can think about stories once we throw off the shackles of the last century.  He will be missed for his work, but remembered for his road map.

Winter Stories

Winter is a time for imagination.  For reflection.  For stories.  We bolt the door and huddle around the fire, listening to the voices whispering in the chimney.  Ghosts, of the past year, of the family members we’ve lost, of ancient ancestors.  Ghosts as metaphor, ghosts as memory, ghosts as the very essence of all we fear, and sometimes all we desire.

Tuesday December 22 is the Winter Solstice, when the sunlight hours are barely there and the night reaches on and on.  It’s a time I value.  The traditions.  Crouching next to the warmth and mulling on things gone, and things yet to come.

Today the last deep coal mine in Britain closed.  Soon there will be ghosts of entire industries.  King Coal used to rule round these parts.  I remember my grandfather telling me of the ghosts of dead miners that haunted the long, lonely tunnels.  When they were working alone, sometimes the men would hear these spirits knocking, or calling out, urging the living to join them in the dark.  The tales weren’t peculiar to this area.  As far as I can tell, they existed all over the country, and in tin mines as well as coal mines.  Nobody will hear the dead miners any more.  But they will echo on in the stories, as they do in this one I tell you, which will live on in your head, and, perhaps, be passed on by your tongue.  The stories never die.

We’ve been thinking about this for a long time.  The primary axis of Stonehenge is aligned to the winter solstice sunrise, as is the entrance tunnel to the neolithic monument at Newgrange in County Meath, Ireland.  This moment has always been important to us.

Here in the old Kingdom of Mercia, ghosts flicker in the forest that presses tight around my house.  Along the old Roman road that curves around my boundary hedge.  I listen to what they say, and I learn.

Writing By Example: The Silence Of The Lambs

If you want to be a writer, take a look at Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs.  Read it.  Read it another ten times, tear it apart, analyse it, and then read it again.  The book remains a masterpiece of genre writing, and it’s one I return to time and again.

If you’d rather focus your study, zoom in on just two chapters: the first two encounters between Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter.  These capture everything that Harris is doing with this book, the deep themes, the sub-text.  The writing is sparse.  Descriptions are kept to a minimum, and when they do come, they seem lush by comparison.  Three lines tell you all you ever need to know about Lecter. Most of the writing here is dialogue, and dialogue without tags. But in that speech, you not only hear the distinctive voices of the two characters, you also understand their psychology, their motivations, their lives. From these two chapters, you could write your own story of Starling and Lecter because you understand them fully.

The Silence of the Lambs is Harris’ best book by far.  (I have a slowly-forming theory about The Power of the Third Book – see also, Gillian Flynn and Gone Girl. The first is the adrenaline rush. The second is refinement. The third is where everything learned is put into effect. Writers hate to repeat themselves so they change it all up for the fourth and get it all wrong again.)

The true power of this novel comes when you understand that a vast amount of the story exists away from the page, between the lines, in the motivations of the characters. The reader deciphers it unconsciously, and consciously with a little effort. That shows a writer who is the master of his work.

The campaign between FBI boss Jack Crawford and Lecter, personal, multi-layered, cruelly manipulative, is all implicit. The novel is deeply about psychology and psychoanalysis – that is clear on any surface reading. But that is also stitched into the hidden story. What is Lecter *really* doing with Starling?

Most importantly, Harris illustrates a powerful rule for writing: complex, not complicated. (Complicated is one line that ties itself in knots to seem interesting. Complex is layers set upon each other, every one influencing the rest.) The plot is simple, but the effect is powerful and haunting, even on multiple readings.

The End Of 2015

is all about:

Virginia Applejack, The Leftovers, Gordita Beach, Magnets, walking five thousand year old paths, Libby Day, the footsteps of John Dryden, Saga Noren, mountain biking by a haunted lake, Riyad Mahrez, and, most likely, Bedford Falls.

London Calling

In 2016, I’ll be opening a branch in the capital (there is only one, of course).

I lived in London when I was young, drunk and stupid.  In the first instance, above a kebab shop in the Queenstown Road in Battersea.  My office was the Beaufoy Arms around the corner (known affectionately as the Beefy Arms), run by a Jamaican couple who served me jerk pork and Red Stripe while I attempted to make a living scribbling words for the big newspapers.  I was surrounded by – possibly clinically insane – people, some of whom have remained friends to this day.  Some of whom hold positions of power and would prefer me to keep my mouth shut.

After that, I lived in Clapham, a stone’s throw from the common.  Frankly, it’s a bit of a blur, but life was lived to the full.

I’ll be honest.  The universe has been kind to me in recent times.  I work hard, in lots of different areas, and I really can’t complain.  I’ve never been someone who’s been interested in money – if I was I would have stayed as a national newspaper journalist or become a banker, instead of crafting myself as an itinerant ne’er-do-well.  But I’ve always enjoyed experience.

And if you’re tired of London, you’re tired of life, right?

I spend so much time in the city these days, pitching work to TV companies, and film producers, and publishers, it seemed only right to get back there.  I’ll still be spending time in my beloved Kingdom of Mercia, but for the most, I’ll be doing the Lambeth Walk and taking the piss out of Cockneys.

I’m still two of the three.

Last Chance For The Eternal Ebook Offer

Today is the last day to pick up The Eternal ebook at the absolute knock-down, super-sale, better-then-black-friday release offer.

Go here if you’re in the UK.

Go here if you’re in the US (and other parts of the world)

Go here if you’re in Australia.

Here’s the blurb:

Annie Bolton’s future was bright – until she met the Eternal, an immortal cursed to wander the Earth bringing death and destruction. Only Annie and a mysterious drifter – a human who has pursued the Eternal across continents – hold the key to stopping the triumph of evil. A shocking supernatural thriller from British Fantasy Award-winning author Mark Chadbourn.

The Eternal – Out Today

The Eternal ebook is out today, published by Emerald Eye.  If you’re really quick, you  can still get it at the launch special offer.

Here’s the blurb:

Annie Bolton’s future was bright – until she met the Eternal, an immortal cursed to wander the Earth bringing death and destruction. Only Annie and a mysterious drifter – a human who has pursued the Eternal across continents – hold the key to stopping the triumph of evil. A shocking supernatural thriller from British Fantasy Award-winning author Mark Chadbourn.

You can get it here, if you’re in the UK, or here, if you’re in the US, and here in Australia, or pick it up from your local Amazon store.

 

Tree-climbing Carnivore Rabbits And Other Monsters

We tell ourselves stories all the time. Some are real and some are not, but they all help us make sense of the world.  I’ve always been particularly interested in the stories of folklore, really, since I was a child leafing through my parents books.  They’re very peculiar, folkloric tales, existing in some misty area between fact and fiction – because there was always someone, at some point, who swore they were true.

And folklore is a living storytelling experience.  Some of those tales go back hundreds, even thousands, of years.  But others are being invented all the time.

I live in an area that was once, in part, a blasted industrial landscape.  In some villages, waves of coal dust swept halfway up houses, spread by lorries trundling from the pits.  Many of the coal mines and their tunnels are so old, they’re unmapped.  Some date back to Roman times.  But now the area has returned to the greenwood.  That photo above shows the trees encroaching on the path of a former industrial train line.

The pits were capped, evidence of the mines washed away.  But they’re not forgotten.  Recently, stories have emerged of carnivore rabbits which climb trees to attack squirrels.  There have been several sightings, apparently.  These are, allegedly, the offspring of rabbits which originally found their way to the underground tunnels and were forced to adopt new behaviours to survive.  One of these included learning to love the flesh of rats to prevent themselves starving.  Now they’ve found their way back to the surface.

We also have a ‘black panther’, one of the Alien Big Cats (ABCs) which are regularly reported in different parts of the UK.  Private zoo escapees, natural species that have never been tamed – there are plenty of attempts at explanations.  The Beast of Bodmin is probably the most famous.  Our local cat has been seen several times, travelling along the old, abandoned train lines, like the one above.  In this way it can cover a wide area while keeping a wide berth of people.

There’s probably an entire thesis or two to be written about what these tales tell us about ourselves.  But I’ll just settle for the intrusion of the magical and otherworldly into the mundane.

And just as a reminder, The Eternal ebook will be going on-sale next week, but you can pre-order it at a ridiculously knockdown price.  Here’s the UK link.  Here’s the US and world link.

Your Four-Step Guide To Getting Your TV Series Made #screenwriting

So, this is BTS #2. Whenever I’m out doing talks, or at conventions, I’m usually collared by someone asking for tips on how to get a TV idea made (and, really, if it was that easy do you think I’d be showing the secret handshake to everyone?)  The conversation usually starts with, they’ve got an absolutely amazing idea that would make a brilliant TV series and everyone will jump the moment they hear it etc etc

Most TV writers I know are a hard-bitten, cynical bunch and for good reason. But there is some advice worth dishing out for those people who really want to be screenwriters (at this point I’m excluding the woman at the last talk who said she had a great idea but didn’t have time to write it so could she just tell someone…)

So here you go, a measly four steps to getting your own TV series made.  Four simple steps to earning hundreds of thousands of pound (UK)/millions of dollars (US).  Easy, right?

1. Get Trusted 

What, not come up with a great idea?  No.  Let’s talk a little about basic human psychology.  Whenever someone in TV hires you (and in books, comics, music, and everywhere really), they’re putting their job on the line.  The job that keeps their partner with a roof over their head or feeds and clothes their undoubtedly beautiful children.  In TV, that usually means giving you anything from a few thousand pounds to earmarking millions if a TV series gets made.  If you screw up, if you miss your deadlines, if your scripts suddenly become ordure, if the series flops so badly TV critics are pointing and mocking, that person who commissioned you will be asked some tough questions by the powers above them.  They might even lose their jobs.  So, as anyone would, they mitigate against this.  They say, “But the writer was an Oscar/BAFTA winning screenwriter.  Anyone would have hired them!”

Which is one reason why you tend to see familiar names at the top of your favourite shows.  If you want to cut the risk factor, hire a seasoned professional, someone who has proven they can take the pressure and do the job.  Not just the job, but an amazing job.  A safe pair of hands.

How do you get trusted?  That’s a topic for a whole ‘nother post.  But briefly, get lots and lots of credits.  In the UK, write for a soap, get taken on as a writer on another series, write a movie, in the US, get hired for the writers’ room on a show.  Build your brand.  Publish novels, comics (these actually mean a lot less than you might think – different skill-sets, but they show you at least understand Story).  Basically, find some cover for the people who might hire you so they can keep their jobs.

2. Write A Jaw-Dropping Spec Script

What, still no amazing idea?  Your spec script is your calling card.  You’ve read this on every screenwriting advice site.  You know this.  It has to be a script that is so good, some producer could imagine going straight to screen with it.  It has to be the equal of the work done by those seasoned, highly-feted writers you know and love.  If it’s not, the producer will simply revert to those other writers.  The people in charge of the money need to know you can do the job.  And, as is the theme of the 21st century, good is not good enough.  It has to be the best.  One tip: aim to write four spec scripts a year.  Keep them flowing out there, circulating, so someone, somewhere is always reading your material.  There’s a tsunami of writers waiting to break in.  Attention spans last days.  Even writers with lots of credits can get forgotten.  You have to keep stepping up and throwing a punch to show you can do it.

3. Have An Amazing Idea

Finally!  But it has to be a particular kind of idea.  Too far ahead of the curve and people will be afraid to touch it.  (See #1, about people trying to keep their jobs.)  But it needs to be fresh.  A novel take in an area people understand, so you don’t have to do lots of explaining before you get to the core of your genius idea.  In a nutshell: new, but not too new.  The TV industry is not burdened with gamblers.  (There are numerous exceptions to this, of course.  The ground-breakers are the ones everyone remembers, and producers will always say they want ground-breakers until someone, somewhere says they don’t.  Break a bit of ground, until you’re in a position to dig up a whole field.)

4. Build Your Family

The TV industry, like publishing, like music, is all about relationships.  This, too, ties in to #1.  Human nature – people like to work with people they like, and people they trust.  Nobody likes to work with a dick, or an incompetent.  Take meetings, get on with people, chat, go for drinks.  I’d say ‘network’ but that’s too cynical.  Just be a nice guy and get on with people and you’ll find a lot of barriers melt away.  Neil Gaiman once said, “Be good, be fast, be likeable. Any two out of three will do.  Any less, won’t.”  That’s decent advice.  So, make as many contacts as you can.  It’s the easiest way to get your work read.  If you’re one of those writers who likes to sit in their room and send their scripts out by raven, trembling at the thought of human interaction, sorry, you’re doomed.

See how easy it is?  This has been a longer bit of bloggage than intended.  I’ll get into detail on some of these points at a later date.  If you want me to pick up on anything specific in the future, leave it in the comments.

In the meantime, I just want to remind you that I have a knockdown special offer running on my ebook of my supernatural thriller The Eternal, for the next seven days.  Buy it now before the inevitable movie adaptation:

Here’s the UK link

Here’s the US and world link