Bad Books Great TV

Thank the Lord for Series 4 of Game of Thrones. It has come just in time to remind me that no matter how bad a fantasy book is it might still make great TV.

I gave up trying to read Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season. Seriously, gave up. I just couldn't read it, it was so turgid and flat. And this is the latest sensation? But then I had the same experience with Game of Thrones. I tried Book 1, I seriously did, and I got nowhere with it. I read a few pages, put it down, read a few more, leafed backwards and forwards through the huge list of names and places that I was supposed to learn, read a few more pages, got depressed, and just eventually gave up. And yet - fabulous television. On tv I don't have to remember someone's name, I can see who they are; I don't have to recall what happened 100 pages ago, someone refers to it, or we get a flashback, or it doesn't matter anyway. The turgid descriptive passages (George Martin - great story teller, rotten writer) are stripped out and instead we get fights and sex, and character development. What more could you wish for? I read a review of GoT which posed the idea that it really works because of its two-handers, scenes in which two characters feed off or interact with one another - girl and sell-sword, dwarf and brother, dwarf and sister, prisoner and master, runaway crow and wildlander (notice no names, can't remember most of them). And it's true.

So what are the lessons here?   Firstly, that character makes fantasy. Makes all writing really. It's the key to any genre writing, but especially important in fantasy where writers tend to rely too much on flash effects and wierd names. Take David Gemmell's books. He has written dozens of fantasy novels, in endless mini-series. I don't think he has written a bad one. Just when you think this book is a piece of paint-by-numbers genre writing, he pulls a character out of the hat who surprises you, who does something out of the genre-predictable mould, or who is simply genuinely interesting to read about. It's a simple lesson but one worth learning for all writers.

Then I think that there's a second reason that even bad fantasy writing can make good tv. And that's because you can, in making tv or films, strip out the guff and the verbiage, emphasise the plot development, the action components and the spectacular elements and, finally, hide some of the thinness of setting by the magic of media. So, The Bone Season might work on film or TV because its world wouldn't look so thin and cardboard, its characters would have more to interest the reader and its plot elements would come to the fore. Nice idea, but I do doubt it.

Incidentally - the corollary of this is that good writing is hardest to make into good film or TV. Witness the woeful attempt to film His Dark Materials in The Golden Compass. Pulman is a fantastic writer, but not of film-scripts.

Publish and Be Damned!

Publication Day is here!  I know, I know, it's April Fool's Day, the weather outside is horrible, the economy is still weak, Spurs lost at the weekend, England are out of the 20-20 Cup, and the price of coffee is scandalous. But hey, look on the bright side. There are millions of people in the world who haven't read my book yet and who are just dying to do so. And now I've given them the chance. My book is now officially available to buy on Amazon.

I'll probably get the Noble Prize, for bringing the greatest good to the greatest number of people. Well, readers to be, here's your chance.

And on a personal note - I am excited, happy, over the moon and not yet sick as a parrot.