If I remember rightly
in school, we used to play the game of consequences, although I can’t quite
remember the order of the game, but it was who, what and where and final
outcome as far as I can make out which after reading the book is pretty much
how this story is put together. But for
five writers, together in a room, or called upon to write for the book, how did
it all come together, who decided who would write which part of the story, what
was the process?
James: We were all invited
to take part, but had a pretty free reign to tell any story we wanted - but we
had to make sure that each one could follow on from the previous one in some
way, like the old game. This meant we all had to do brief outlines for the
stories first, and share them with each other, so we could make them fit. For
example, I was going to start mine with a mission going wrong and destroying a
shopping centre - but the editor Steve suggested putting that in the previous
story, which would fit into how it was going to end anyway. That was, the
revenge plot in mine comes straight from the end of the previous one. Joe had
more of a brief, as he had to tie up the Nina Rogers story - Steve had been
getting other TW authors her into various books, just in the background, as a
fun serial arc Easter Egg, with the intention of doing a story featuring her at
some point. So I had to briefly mention her as well, and then Joe wrapped it
all up beautifully. We thought the fans would pick up on Nina before the big
reveal, but I don't think anybody did. It was only a few months after I'd
written my final draft of Children of Earth episode 3, in October 2008, and the
other episodes were all done, so we had to make sure it didn't contradict anything
that would be in the show. None of the writers were in a room together for this
book, unlike CoE! So there were lots of emails flying around.
Every part of the book,
every story was brilliant, but what I loved mostly about your story was
Ianto. Although there’s never really
been much of a story for Ianto in any book I’ve read before, (in my opinion) I
found his role in Virus entertaining and it was good to see him take the lead
(not that he really had much choice, but..).
Up until that point I hadn’t been a fan of Ianto’s, I admire the actor
who plays him but I was meaning more to do with the role Ianto played, yes he
covered his role like Albert in Batman who made sure everything was running
smoothly upstairs and down, and Ianto always seemed to be the smart dressed
butler. This story brought him into the
fore and I thank you for that. I have a
deeper respect for Ianto now. Was this your
decision in giving a broader role for Ianto?
James: As I'd just finished
writing for Children of Earth, I knew that I wouldn't get a chance to do a
standalone episode for series 3 (which was originally going to be a standard
series with stories of the week and an arc) - and I'd been really hoping to do
a Ianto or a Toshiko story. I really wanted to do both, to focus on them by
themselves, and explore their characters. But I didn't get the chance. And as I
knew that Ianto wouldn't be making it out of CoE alive, this book might be my
last chance to really let him out to play. So I went with him. I was really sad
that I couldn't do a Toshiko story, but then two years later in 2010 I got to
write a Toshiko story for Torchwood Magazine. And it was the final ever issue,
too, so I was just in time...
In the first story
written by David Llewellyn entitled The Baby Farmers it started the story back
in the 1800’s and to the person experimenting on the alien babies, might I be
right in assuming that the alien who darted Jack and Gwen was the direct
descendant of the aliens in the children’s home on board the HMS Hades? I know Charles Gaskell blew up the home
destroying the babies but as we know only too well it’s unlikely they all died,
or perhaps some had escaped the ship!!!
James: It wasn't meant to
be, but I don't know, maybe Steve and David wanted to make it link up after I'd
already written mine. I reckon that's up to the reader!
Writing stories in this
kind of format, that builds on a theme already planned, did this prepare you
for the episodes of Children of Earth that you were involved with?
James: See the first two answers
- it was actually written just after CoE, so I was already used to this sort of
thing. It's always fun to have set conditions and parameters, it's like trying
to solve a puzzle as well as tell a story.
I was trying to think
when I was reading Virus that a lot of what you write has this kind of horror
feel about it, then I casually wandered onto your website, as you do, ‘The Pen is Mightier than the Spork’ and down
the list of credits – you do indeed love your horror.
You’ve been involved
with Torchwood quite a few times in its history, with ‘Sleeper’ which was an
interesting story, a horror again in a way that Beth had no idea of her true
identity but towards the end discovered how to control it and help Torchwood
save the day. What is it that gets you
to the point of writing something like Virus or Sleeper, how long does it take
for an idea to percolate?
James: I tend to go for the
most extreme ideas possible, they're the ones that get me excited to write and
afraid for the characters. It all starts with an idea, wouldn't it be
cool/terrible if XYZ happened, what if a particular character had to do this
terrible thing, etc. I then brainstorm it for a few days, and sometimes leave
it for longer to percolate in the back of my mind. I think of all the possible
things that might happen, based on that idea, even if they don't fit together,
just random things, and then start sticking bits of them together.
Does music help when
you’re writing, and if so, what do you tend to listen to and does it alter for
different parts of the story? I seem to
alternate between Muse, Deacon Blue and random soundtracks at the moment
(Gladiator, POTC, Lord of the Rings) depending if I’m writing chase, fighting
or lighter scenes.
James: I need music when
writing, most of the time. I make custom playlists for each new project, stuff
that would be on the soundtrack, in the correct order. It could be a mix of
soundtrack scores, thrash metal, bubble gum pop, classical, 60s, anything that
fits and gets me in the right mood for that particular story. And if I'm
writing a chase or fast scene, I'll temporarily switch over to really fast
music.
Because you’re normally
writing scripts for episodes, is it much harder writing prose?
James: So much harder. For
me, anyway. I started out writing short stories, and assumed it'd be easy to go
back and do more, but I'm used to the script format now, and find it very
difficult. Nobody sees your writing in a movie, because they're just seeing and
hearing what happens, but in prose, it's all on display. It's no longer just
about the story, but also how you tell it. It has to be perfect, and get the
story across clearly without being dull.
How is Tower Block
being received in America?
James: It's not out there
yet! It'll be released in the US later this year, as well as Cockneys Vs
Zombies. There will be a small cinema release, and then
DVD/VOD/brain-hypercube-implant.
Wandering off track a
little from Torchwood, when you write something such as Tower Block, and it’s
your own story, are you ever at that stage where you know who you want to play
the various characters, do you write with that actor in mind, or do you write
it and hope the casting director will know exactly who you need for the
parts?
James: I usually pick actors
just so I can hear different voices, that helps me when writing - but they're
usually not even the right actors for the roles, it's just a vocal thing. I've
only ever written specifically for an actor, Alan Ford in CvsZ, and we were
determined to get him, so luckily he was available and liked the script.
Usually the casting people will find the perfect people that you never even
thought of, which is why they have that job! I've been very lucky so far, to
have got such fantastic actors.
Are you involved in any
other projects at the moment that you can tell us about? (First Issue is
planned around 1 June but then I announced that if we had 100 followers and
LIKES on Twitter and Facebook that I would launch it in May. We have nearly
reached that target. Going to be writing
like a demon now!) Anything that you can
link the fans to, honestly any plugs you wish to do, we can announce it on the bottom
of this interview.
James: Still editing my
short film, Crazy For You, which should be ready by the time this comes out,
and will be touring film festivals. I'm also working on several more film and
TV projects, still early days, but fingers crossed.
An
ongoing thing is my anthology comic, which I do with Mike Garley, and lots of
really cool comic creators. It's 4 stories a month for £2, no region lock, and
you can buy it direct from us. I've got a vampire story in it, they're proper,
nasty vampires that kill people and do evil, terrible things. It's pretty much
a long, tense game of cat and mouse, with lots of blood. The comic has also got
superheroes, robots, and a drunken alien fish thing. You can catch up with all
the previous issues, the first one is a bumper issue so give it a try and see
if you like it. I'm really proud of what we're doing, we own it, we're in
charge, and it's creator owned, which means the people who make each story get
the profits, and keep all the rights. The first link is our site where you can
buy the comic, we're also on Twitter, Blogger, Facebook and Google+:
We
can only survive if people spread the word, so if you like the comic, please
let your friends know!
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