The random witterings of Jonathan Morris, writer.

Saturday 28 March 2009

It's Not Easy Being Green

Part two of my Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith Doctor Who adventure Hothouse will be made available on the Big Finish website today. I look forward to reading what the response is; indeed, if there even is a response. Because, although I work on the principle that reviews aren’t important, I shouldn’t let them affect my personal happiness, I can’t help reading them. Although it’s too late to change anything, it’s still useful to know what went down well and what didn’t. To identify where your weaknesses may lie.

But, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the blog, I won’t enter into discussions because I’ll look like a berk. I’m not saying that other authors who enter into discussions about their work look like berks, it’s just that if I did, I would.

That said, a Doctor Who website, Dr Who Online, has set up a ‘q & a’ section with me in their forum. My mugshot is now above Joe Lidster’s, which I feel must be significant. I’ve resisted doing these sort of things in the past but if it helps promote Big Finish and my work, I’m happy to oblige.

My reluctance stems partly from fear of coming across like a berk and partly from not being comfortable with the idea of ‘superfans’; of there being an ‘us’ and there being a ‘them’. I’d much rather be treated as an equal.

Anyway, Hothouse. To qualify a statement I gave in an interview somewhere, when I said I wanted it to feel like Spooks. I meant in terms of pace. Because radio is inherently a slow medium, and with Hothouse I was trying to avoid the syndrome of fade-out, music, fade-in, which means each scene change takes five seconds. I was trying to make it feel fast. That’s all.