New Year, New Writing
A very happy New Year to all readers of 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?' I hope you've had an enjoyable and refreshing break over the festive season. I've done plenty of writing, and in due course I look forward to talking in more detail about what I've been up to. But I've also had plenty of time off!
Among other things, I followed a very good recommendation from Bethan, my lovely editor at Head of Zeus/Aries and indulged in a couple of games of Cryptic Killers. I'll probably write more about this another day, but basically it's an update of the old Wheatley/Links crime dossiers, and it's very well done.
I've also watched a variety of good things, including Red Joan, starring Judi Dench. A Ghost Story for Christmas is a long-time favourite of mine and I enjoyed catching up with one I'd missed, A View from a Hill, which dates from 2005 and was based on a story by M.R. James. This year's story (see the above photo of the actors) was an adaptation by Mark Gatiss of Arthur Conan Doyle's Lot No. 249 and it was very entertaining. A striking new element was introduced into the storyline which may be controversial to some, but I felt it was appealing and well done.
There was also what promised to be an interesting new element in the latest version of Murder is Easy. It's in the nature of adaptations that changes have to be made to the source material. Furthermore, there's not much point, in my opinion, in doing the same-old, same-old thing with the work of famous writers who have already been extensively adapted. This Christmas, I've reacquainted myself with the films of Evil under the Sun and Death on the Nile, both starring Peter Ustinov as an unlikely Poirot, and the original The 39 Steps starring Robert Donat. All of them hold up pretty well. The key to the success of an adaptation is that the script is capably written - for instance, the Ustinov films were written the gifted Anthony Shaffer. Unfortunately the reviews of Murder is Easy that I've read have been scathing.
'Doing it well' is a reason why I think it's important for writers not to prioritise quantity over quality. I've been working very busily on my writing in recent times and that's set to continue for a while to come. But I'm very keen to have breaks every now and then, so as to keep my writing fresh, and I've more or less managed to stick to my principles on this. I'm looking forward to what 2024 holds in store, and I do hope to meet some of you, the readers of this blog, during the course of the next twelve months. And please keep your comments and emails coming!
