Superhumanity - By Me! - Out Now

So. It's been precisely three forevers since I posted anything on here, but I feel now is the time to show there's life in the old blog yet! I've been calling this the Writer's Blog since it started, but now this exists:

Superhumanity by Andrew Gladman, available now on Kindle Store.

This is a book. An ebook, to  be precise. And I'm the one responsible for it. After writing about superheroes since... well, since I was about six years old, if you count the comics I used to draw as a child, I have now published the real deal. A collection of seven tales that journey through the heart of a world populated by superheroes.

I started working on Superhumanity before I even knew I was writing it. The first story of the collection I wrote was How to Save the Day and Screw up Everything Else, which became the second story in the book. It was written for a Creative Writing workshop and assignment in my second year of university. The story came about purely because I was running out of time to submit a piece for the workshop and the one idea that had been knocking about in my head was a stream of consciousness from a superhero in the heat of battle. So that was what I wrote. A teenage superhero with her mind wandering as she fights off a gang of armed thugs, inspired partly by the work of Brian Michael Bendis on Ultimate Spider-Man. It went down well in the workshop and I quite enjoyed taking a brief glimpse through prose into the mind of a superhero. That was the spark for doing more.

So, now resolved to put together a small anthology of superhero tales, stories that would look into the humanity of the superhuman, I started on six more. The Light in the Shadows, the second story I wrote (and the last one to receive a title) came from wanting to tailor a superhero story to prose. One piece of feedback I had received from my Creative Writing tutor on How to Save the Day was to make the prose work in a way that comics and movies could not. If you're going to tell a story in prose, particularly the sort of story that would usually be more at home in another medium, there must be a reason for telling it this way. So, when it came to The Light in the Shadows, I wrote a story about a superhero who could vanish into the shadows. It's been an image in superhero mythology since Batman began, but I wanted a superhero who, rather than relying on ninja-like skills and theatricality, possessed the power to literally become part of the shadows. As he steps, or leaps, or falls out of the light and into the dark, he would leave our dimension and enter another, more abstract, shadow dimension, where our laws of reality do not apply. I removed the element of the visual that is crucial to comics and cinema. The shadow dimension exists in the story as a reality in which there is no physicality, only consciousness. There is motion without movement, everything and nothing. It is a world constructed through oppositions that is more concept than reality and as a result can (hopefully) only be done true justice in prose, while the most a visual medium could do would be to provide voices over a pitch black image.

As I went on, I continued trying to take superheroes out of their comfort zone and in new directions, into the abstract and internal world of prose. I was able to get into the mind of the superhero and explain their very human experience as they face their fiercest battles, or battle with the idea of a world that doesn't want them, or learn exactly what their place is in the world. What I hope I have done is to get to the heart of the superhero experience and make the reader consider what keeps a superhuman human and what makes a human superhuman.

At the very least, what I can say I definitely have done is to become an actually published author by making up stories about superheroes. And that alone is enough to make me happy!

'SUPERHUMANITY: SUPERHERO SHORT STORIES' IS AVAILABLE NOW ON THE AMAZON KINDLE STORE. CLICK HERE TO GO TO BOOK PAGE.

The University Chronicles - Chapter Two: Getting Back To Work

Busy. Busy is good. I like busy. When I'm busy, it means my mind's focussed on something happening right here and now, ergo I'm not thinking about how much I miss home/sixth form/the awesome summer holiday that has now well and truly finished. Being busy means that now, when I'm walking back from a seminar or a lecture, I'm thinking about that thing I have to read, or that essay I have to write, or the things I'm writing for fun, or that agonising pain in my leg that WILL NOT STOP from Quidditch (oh yeah, I play Quidditch now... Quidditch is cool). And I like thinking about those things (well, maybe not the Quidditch pain so much) because before I had all this stuff to keep my mind busy, those walks back to the flat were the worst part of any day. Why? Because I was alone and with nothing pressing on my mind, so my mind naturally wandered back to "I miss home" and "Okay, this has been sort of fun, now when does everything go back to how it was this time last year?"

I mean, I am enjoying uni. Like I said, playing Quidditch is brilliant, and I do get on with the people here, the course is great and I'm actually quite enjoying the whole independence thing. But it's so easy to feel cut off from everything. I can't just pop downstairs and speak to my family, or go out on my bike to some familiar place, or meet up with my friends at the weekend. And don't start with all this 'making new friends' nonsense - I have people I get on with here, but my real friends, the ones I will remain friends with for the rest of my life, are the ones I already had from my school days. It's weird - yes, these uni people are friends of a sort, but I still feel like I have to put on the 'sociable Andy' persona for them. With my friends from back home, I'm just myself. Though I can't stand this book, the best way I can think of putting this is to take (roughly) the words of Wuthering Heights - whatever our souls are made of, theirs and mine are the same (and these uni people's are as different as a moonbeam from lightning, if you want me to continue paraphrasing that soppy eighteenth century soap opera). The point is, in that big old group of friends, we're practically a hive mind! Everyone has their different 'areas of expertise' and such, sure, but generally you would have a very difficult time finding the differences between our mindsets. Whereas with this uni lot, I can talk to them and have a laugh, but there is no deep telepathic connection held together by years' worth of in-jokes and mad adventures!

But enough of that. I'm not focussing on that. I'm being busy. I have finally, somehow, found the energy to start writing again! And I'm doing something different this time. I'm trying an experimental new writing style, which is proving both fun and a little bit daunting. And once I'm done with this thing I'm writing now, I have many, many other things to be getting on with. As far as I'm concerned, now is 'go time'! I'm a writer and it's time I got writing and started doing something with said writing. Someone asked me yesterday what I wanted to do if I couldn't become a writer. To which I fumbled my way through some boring answer about getting a proper job, as if that's something I have any intention of doing. Of course, what I should have said was "Well, I AM a writer. It's not just a career choice, it's my entire being. It shapes the very way in which I see the world, in which I understand everything; my whole mind exists on the foundation of writing and fiction and the greater truths that can only be conveyed through the art of imagining stories that transcend the boundaries of reality." But he was Russian and didn't know English that well, so I didn't. Though this is another example of just how close I am with my friends and how much I need them for inspiration/motivation in my writing. This guy from my flat falls into the very large and misguided group of people who will ask me "What if you can't get a job as a writer?". My friends, on the other hand, fall into the smaller but clearly much more well-informed group of people who would say things like "When you're a famous writer working with the BBC, you will need to contact us so that we can work together on a comedy series!". And it doesn't bother me in the slightest that the group of people who don't say "If it doesn't work out..." is a much smaller group - I read a brilliant tweet about such things the other day, which said "Hitler had millions of followers, Jesus had twelve". Not that I'm comparing myself to Jesus, but I am godlike and I did get some very weird/useless gifts when I was born... Just saying! (Myrrh? What were they thinking?)

So, that's that. Writing. Writing is a thing that I am doing once more! And I intend to do as much as possible today and tomorrow, before giving myself a break from all this uni madness when I head home this weekend and get to actually spend time with my family, in my home, with my room and my bed! And in a town that doesn't view the wheel as a recent technological breakthrough...

The University Chronicles Begin!

It was going to take something pretty big to get me blogging again. Leaving home for the first time and moving into uni? Yeah, that should do. I know the point of this blog was once to blog about writing, but from now on I need somewhere I can write about university and how mad this all is, so that's what's happening here from now on! Besides, I'm here to study English Literature with Creative Writing, so the writing stuff will still be here! And I'm still working on a million writing projects, so maybe I will get back to writing about writing as well.
Anyway. It's now Day Two. I was going to write this post yesterday, but everything so far has been pretty hectic and yesterday was filled with setting up everything in my room and meeting new people. There were a few very strange moments, where this all suddenly became very real. The first one I remember was actually back home in Milton Keynes, when we were on the road and we finally left the smaller roads behind for the big main roads. (Not quite motorways, but you know the ones I mean - the roads you're only going to end up on if you're going out of town. You can tell I don't drive.) There was a moment where I realised we were leaving behind the narrower and cosier roads, surrounded by familiar buildings, and heading out into the world. And I wouldn't be coming back that night. To make the moment even more poignant, as soon as we did get onto the open road, 'The Final Countdown' started to play on my MP3 player (yeah, not iPod - suck it, Apple!). You  couldn't plan this stuff better!
I suppose then, the other moment I realised "Oh my gosh, this is actually really happening to me" was when my family left. That was peculiar. I stood outside my new accommodation block and watched them drive away, quite literally, into the sunset. It was strange. It was so strange to see them leaving and not be going with them. To know I was now in this strange new land and I was on my own. Emotionally, that was my lowest point. I went back to my room, tried to pull myself together, went on Facebook and did what I always do when I need strength - I spoke to my friends. And that helped. That genuinely, properly helped, because my friends are the most amazing friends anyone could ever wish for. So I'm missing them a hell of a lot, but I am keeping in contact and I am grateful to have them nearby - even if that's only nearby in internet form!
After talking with them, the time finally came to bite the bullet - I had to meet new people. That was daunting. As I had said to some of my friends before coming to university, I didn't remember how to make friends anymore! I had been in the same amazing friendship group for so long, I only ever met new people through them. I hadn't had to introduce myself to total strangers since before I can remember. So, I took the necessary action in times of crisis - I went to make a cup of tea. And my cunning plan worked - other people were sat around in the kitchen, so I started talking to them. Then more people joined us and soon we were all planning to go down to the icebreaker freshers' event that was on that night. A ridiculously long time later, after we had wasted enough time waiting for other people, we got there and found tickets had sold out. Ah. So we headed to bar, where we had a few (very strong) drinks and played some table football. It was a good night and, as I kept saying, I was just so glad to have actually met people I could get on with. I do miss my friends. In fact, throughout the night, there were moments when I thought "This is going to be what everyday life is like for me now - how am I meant to keep doing this without any of my friends here?". But I managed to stop myself dwelling on that and, as I said, had a genuinely good time.
This morning, then, was a strange one. Waking up in a place that's not my home. In fact, going to sleep in that bed last night felt strange enough! This morning I have been trying to come to terms with the fact I am still here, I am staying here, and this is going to be the norm from now on. Oh, and trying to drag myself out of bed before nine o'clock without throwing up was fun too! Though I'm a bit annoyed the cleaners didn't actually come at nine, as I was told they would. I could have had a lie-in!
Well, once more unto the breach, I suppose. I'd better have something to eat, maybe drink some tea, and then I have to head off to registration.
Goodbye for now, all! Speak soon.

Harry Potter and the Studio Tour

Thursday 28th June 2012. Two days after my 17th birthday (as I'm sure you all knew!) and I'm off on a school trip for Media students such as myself. Where is this trip to? None other than the Warner Bros. Harry Potter studio tour. Only one word was in my head for the whole day: Squee! Yes, as an amateur film-maker it is fascinating to see these magnificent sets, with the incredible attention to detail, and imagine cameras and film crews and actors and directors producing eight amazing films in the very space you are standing in. But also, overwhelmingly, it is just an amazing experience as a geeky Harry Potter fan to see the sets, objects and costumes from a world I have completely fallen in love with (not to mention tasting a drink from that world - if you ever have the chance to try butterbeer, then do! It's delicious!). It's that same obsessive Harry Potter fan part of me that I am having to physically stop screaming out in delight when we're told that, as a school trip, we will receive a lesson/talk on costume design and characterisation where we would get to see costumes that weren't on the tour! Costumes the general public didn't get to see! I saw Harry's costume from the very first film (not his robes, which were on display in the Great Hall - the shirt, t-shirt and trousers he wore on the train), Cedric Diggory's robes (which, for some reason, the girls were very eager to touch... and wear...) and Voldemort's robes! All of this, along with the rest of the frankly stunning tour, had the Harry Potter fan side of me bursting with joy! Which leads me on nicely to the other part of me that was left completely in awe - the writer. Yes, the film-maker in me was amazed and transfixed by the breathtaking work that had gone into making the Harry Potter films, and the Potterhead in me was just overjoyed to be walking through the world of one of my favourite works of fiction, but both of those things fed into the sense of wonder and hope that I felt as a writer. When I say hope, I should point out, I don't mean some ridiculous hope of anything I write being quite as big or wide-reaching as the Harry Potter series - success stories like that are... well, on that scale, probably completely unique! But the fact that one story, told in seven books (and, yes, eight films, as I feel I should point out after going on a tour of the film studios), could be so powerful, be transformed so incredibly into a big-screen masterpiece that did so well, could touch and dominate all forms of media and reach such a vast fanbase (there were visitors to the studio from California on the day I went!) is enough to fill anyone who loves writing with hope for fiction and story-telling. The fact that one simple yet genius idea, from the mind of the truly inspirational and amazing JK Rowling, could inspire and enchant so many and truly change lives is fantastic. The fact that so many people can fall so utterly in love with a world of magic and wonder is a true testament to the power of the pen (or, indeed, of the quill). Harry Potter stands on high as a monument, proudly proclaiming to the world the power of fiction - the power of a story made up by one person. For me, at least, it does so better than any other work of fiction. With no other story am I quite as entranced by the world an author has created. With no other story do I feel quite as invited or welcomed into the magical realm of the writer's imagination. The beautiful blend of innocence and darkness, magic and realism, evil and love has enthralled so many so strongly. And it is for that reason that, as I walked around the studios, I saw so many people of all ages smiling and cheerful and seeming so utterly, wonderfully child-like. Children, after all, are the ones with the right idea - big imaginations and living life for fun. Grown-ups are the boring ones, who seem to have forgotten those essential values somewhere along the way. The Harry Potter series is one of those things that restores that brilliant child-like mindset within us, which has the ability to improve people and make all parts of the world a better place. Fiction is that powerful and that important. It's not just a case of making up stories to provide a bit of fun or a form of escapism - it has an impact on us. Fiction can shape us, help us, change our perspectives and improve our lives. Stories aren't just stories - they're realities of their own, shaping ours and presiding over it. In fact, the power stories can have makes these realities of fiction far greater than our own reality and in many ways far more important. I feel that the greatest purpose of our reality is to inspire fiction. It is this incredible power and status that fiction possesses that makes those of us who still love and value the realms of imagination want to use the Cruciatus curse on any muggle who ever dares to utter those dreaded four words: "It's only a story." Only a story? Blasphemy! And with this, I shall return to one last tale of my visit to the world of Harry Potter. It was just after the first half of the tour, where I had been taking as many pictures as possible of the many sets, props and other bits on display (something I ALWAYS do on this sort of day out). We had just been to the outside area of the studios, where I had the pleasure of trying butterbeer and where Privet Drive and the Knight Bus could be found, amongst many other items. All of these I also got a fair few snaps of. Then came the second half of the tour and within a few minutes... the beep of death. The moment we all fear. The camera died. The battery had decided that was quite enough working for the day and went kaput on me. Diagon Alley - a few pictures on my phone, but nothing else. The wonderful pieces of concept art and paper models of Hogwarts - no pics! I had stopped being bothered by this rather quickly and just enjoyed being submerged in a world of magic. I was, after all, walking down Diagon Alley, looking into Ollivander's and Weasley's Wizard Wizard Wheezes! It was after looking at the small paper models of various building and the Durmstrang ship that one of my Media teachers emerged from around a corner up ahead, grinning broadly. "If you think that's a model," he said, "wait until you see this!" I was intrigued to say the least. I walked slowly, a little anxiously, around the corner and was confronted by an enormous, beautifully detailed, unbelievably intricate model of Hogwarts. It was breathtaking - the "miniature" (in inverted commas because there was really nothing miniature about it!) used for exterior shots of Hogwarts in the films. I had honestly never been so much in awe in my life, which may sound odd to you if you're thinking "It's just a model castle...", but I can tell you - not knowing it was going to be there, and then taking in the sheer size and detail and beauty of it... Wow! And my camera was dead. And when my camera dies, it dies. I took it out of pocket in some pointless hope, hating myself for not bringing the spare battery, flipped open the shutter and... two bars. Staring right back at me were two glorious bars of battery power! I managed to take a good few pictures of this incredible model of the greatest school I've both never attended and yet been going to since I was a very young child. And I don't care what anyone says about the camera battery being able to recharge itself slightly, or any sort of scientific or logical explanation - as far as I'm concerned, that camera was revived in a moment of magic. And that is the only explanation I'll ever want or need. Until the day I die, I shall allow myself to believe that as I stood, facing the most magical place on Earth, a place that has inspired me so much and in so many ways, I experienced one small work of magic.

Comedies and Tragedies

Hello, I'm funny! Ha ha ha! Well, okay, to just assume I'm funny like that is probably very arrogant. But then I know a lot of people might say I'm an arrogant person - I know in some corners of the internet, I've gained something of a reputation for hating all signs modesty. But, when talking to people, I do take the anti-modesty view to extremes that I don't really believe in. I use the whole super-arrogant thing as a way of making jokes of many things and life in general! So I'm being arrogant to be funny, which makes me arrogant. Okay, got it. Sort of.

So, how is acting like a big-headed buffoon funny? Well, strictly speaking, it's not. But it makes it easier to have a laugh. I mean, you'll find you enjoy yourself more if you take up an "I am so awesome" attitude rather than sitting around, being depressed and moody. Everyone can get depressed or doubtful about things, especially us teenagers. Especially us slightly mad, pretty intelligent, super imaginative teenagers. Especially especially us slightly mad, pretty intelligent, super imaginative, single teenagers.

But, going back to wherever it was this mad rambling rant started, by taking a generally joking/funny viewpoint on these things, it makes it all a lot easier. That's why the 'Forever Alone' meme was created on the internet (I imagine). It will keep you in much higher spirits to make jokes like that about being single rather than getting depressed, worried or stressed about it - and let's be honest, we've all done that at some point. Or some points.

Yes, there is the worry that you can joke too much about these things and may just end up with the reputation as the comedy guy. Which isn't that bad, really, honestly, I would be perfectly happy to have people think I was funny - but you don't want people just to see you as the joker who never really takes anything seriously. And this is where I shall cleverly link this whole rambling post back to the subject this blog is supposed to be about!

So! Writing! Remember that? The thing I seem to spend most of my life doing? If you read this blog often (then thank you, so much!) you will probably be wondering what everything I have been saying has to do with writing. And if you're not, I certainly am, so that's what I'm going to talk about!

It struck me the other day that I've never really written anything particularly funny, other than the odd joke thrown into a more serious piece of writing. I've never touched upon the comedy genre that much, save for one short script I wrote for a BBC competition (didn't win, oh well, always next time). I've thought about it before. I've talked with my friends about doing sketch shows after our Doctor Who fan series and the million other things we were meant to be doing. And like those million other things, the sketch shows sort of got forgotten. But when it comes to planning filming projects, I always think of them in terms of the finished film, I never really view them as writing projects, even though script-writing is one of my favourite parts of the process. So, I have never really considered doing any comical writing. And even then, when this thought struck me, the idea of writing something funny seemed all right, but still didn't make me think "Yes! I must do that!"

I thought about this for a little bit. I usually seize any opportunity to have a laugh or make a joke, even if it's a really pathetic one. Especially if it's a really pathetic one! But the idea of writing something funny just didn't appeal as much as I thought it would. And then, I realised why. Writing, for me, is a very emotionally-inspired process. Hang on... did I just say 'process'? That sounds horribly technical and like something out of the real, grown-up world - let's call it an emotionally-inspired art form. Arty-farty as that may sound, that is honestly how I see writing.

Like I said before, I make jokes about a lot of things because it's easier and nicer to have a laugh rather than get depressed and upset. I'm not saying every time I make a pathetic attempt to be funny or tell a joke, I'm suppressing some dark, depressing secret - if so that would make me a very dark, depressing, secretive person (the sort that would appear in my writing)! But, if we let our real feelings get the better of us all the time - especially us slightly mad, pretty intelligent, super imaginative, single teenagers - it would turn us into wrecks. Writing is the one time I allow myself to do that. I give in to all the depressing things that go on in my head, but also the bright, amazing joyful things that go on in my head. Not to mention the exciting, the scary, the insane and the impossible things. Writing is how I use all those big emotions that go on inside every one of us.

I'm not saying we should keep those emotions secret, just to save them for writing (or whatever your 'emotionally-inspired art form' of choice may be). Sure, we should talk to friends or family about them at times. But there's far too much stuff going on in my head for me to ever really talk about it all with friends, and I would imagine the scenario is the same for anyone who qualifies as a human being! Besides, I struggle to make sense of a lot of it myself, so I don't know what chance anyone else would have!

Writing helps me get these feelings out, helps me understand them, helps me make use of them, rather than bottling them up and letting them drive me insane. I can save the joking around for when I'm with friends or family. And any times when I am honest with them about how I really feel, they can simply consider as teasers for my writing. If they really want to know the truth, they'll have to read the stuff I make up.

Life, the Universe and Writing...

Hello once again, dear readers and internet-dwellers! Long time no posts, sorry about that. I've been really rather distracted of late.

So, where do I begin? GCSEs done and dusted, still awaiting results. Work Experience starts tomorrow at some arty-centre place and I have been reading and writing like mad! Four scripts are now nice and neatly written up for Doctor Who, the fourth of which is the first part of a two part episode. Still being very ambitious with the plans for this series, with lots of plans to film in city centres and up in the woods and lots of other all-over-the-place places too! Hmm, what's that? The stories? Oh, don't you worry... the stories are brilliant! I think. I hope...

Anyway, moving on from the frankly rather exhausting world of script writing, there is the novel, "Changing", which I keep banging on about on here. All goes well(ish) on that front too! Up to the fourth chapter of the book (four chapters of the book, four episodes of Doctor Who - coincidence? I think... yes). Of course I could go into more detail and stupidly give away the plot so far, but I don't want to spoil it for whenever I manage to get this thing finished and published!

Now then, in other news, I recently turned sixteen! Aaagh, scary, I know! The "under-age" excuse is no longer available, you can get a lottery ticket, you can leave home, but you can't drink. Yes, we live in a nation where you can *ahem* with someone, but not have alcohol. Wrong way round? Possibly. Anyway, sixteenth birthday, amongst many other amazing items and a nice wad of cash, I got a creative writing study kit. Which, as you readers will know, is the sort of thing that's quite handy for me. Once I've told myself to listen to its advice and not ignore it going "No! Ridiculous! Wrong!" as though I know best! And I have to say, it has come in very helpful with my writing!

And then there's the reading I've been getting done. I believe I am currently reading three or four books at the same time! See, with my lovely birthday money, I chose to ignore the fact I was already reading The Hunger Games (very good book so far, being turned into a film) and Apollo 23 (a Doctor Who novel I got for my birthday), and went out and bought four lovely new books! One of which is a Sherlock Holmes book. I did limit myself, I said only one Sherlock Holmes book... that one just happened to be every Sherlock Holmes story ever written! So I've got about sixty of those to get through. Then there is Neil Gaiman's (who is amazing) Fragile Things - a collection of poems and short stories written by the great man; Hunger, the sequel to Gone, one of my all-time favourite books; and The End Of Eternity by Isaac Asimov, a sci-fi timey wimey novel, which I am yet to start reading.

So! Yes! Been busy reading and writing my life away. No real reason behind this post, other than the recurring thought "I should update the blog". So here it is, updated. Admire its updatedness... if you like. You can tell I'm tired... see you all soon, when I actually have something to blog about!

I'm still here!

Yes, hello! I've not written anything up here in a while, so I thought I should just confirm I do still exist. Or at least I did the last time I checked.

So, the big wide world of writing! It's all still there, buzzing away in my head and in a million different Word documents! And now, a bit of it's on paper for once. I did something horribly frightening that I would never normally do, the other day - I wrote a plan for my novel! A plan? Someone as spontaneous and mad as me, PLANNING something? Has the world gone mad? Well, yes, but that happened a while ago and is completely unrelated to me writing a plan.

The reason I decided to grab a pen and notebook and do some old fashioned note-making, was because I was slowly starting to realise that the story I was writing may not be a story at all. I had certain scenes and elements all forming themselves and ready in my head, but I didn't know how I was going to get from one scene to another and I didn't know where this whole story was going. And so, lo and behold, three and a half pages of bullet points, to guide me through my writing! I'll admit, writing out a massive list of bullet points and then realising you're only on the second one is a tad daunting, but at least I know where I'm going with this story now. I have a rough beginning, middle and end, I have big dramatic scenes in the right places, and hopefully it will all work out wonderfully!

So, with my trusty plan and my story now into its second chapter, I think I can give you all a good plot summary! This is the sort of thing I would write in a blurb for the book (and will probably have to write when I come to doing a blurb) and should hopefully give you all a better understanding into the twisted ways of my mind...

On the night that Drake Strider wakes up, screaming, from a nightmare, he doesn't know that across town all of his friends have experienced the exact same dream. Nor does he know that his life is about to change forever.

Drake and his friends quickly start to discover that they are developing supernatural abilities. Powers to move, control and destroy objects within the world around them. Powers that prove to be a danger both to themselves and to others. Powers that have attracted the interest of a sinister organisation.

Soon, Drake and the others find themselves victims, on the run from people who would happily see them all dead if it meant they could harness the abilities the teenagers have gained. In a desperate struggle for survival, the teens must face both the threat from their pursuers and their ever-changing, conflicting feelings for each other. Life isn't easy when everything's changing.

RIP Elisabeth Sladen

I'm sure that just about all of you out there will have heard the sad news of the death of Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who. After the story I wrote as a tribute to Nicholas Courtney and the Brigadier, it seemed only right and fitting that I do the same for Sarah Jane. But, I could not bring myself to write "Sarah Jane's Funeral". Sorry, it just wasn't going to happen. So, here instead, is a short story about the amazing Sarah Jane Smith, who will never truly die.

--

In Memory of Sarah Jane

Sarah Jane Smith was sat in her attic, kindly regarding a gift she had recently been left by a visiting Star Poet. The small, beautifully carved metallic item whispered out poetry in a sweet, sing-song voice. The poem depended on the mood of whoever was holding it, and so far it had only spoken words of joy.

Sarah Jane looked down at her watch – it was almost midnight. She should be off to bed, really. Luke was visiting and she had already forced him to get to sleep in his old room, leaving K9 to rest overnight in the living room. As the Star Poet’s gift finished another verse, Sarah Jane placed it gently back on top of her cluttered desk and got to her feet, stretching out her arms in a long yawn. She froze. Arms still outstretched, mouth still half open, she had heard something. From outside. At first it had sounded like nothing more than a gust of wind, but after all these years she couldn’t mistake it. She rushed to the window, throwing it open and looking down on the darkened garden. Sat there, visible by the light from its roof and windows, sat that ancient blue police box. The TARDIS.

Having slipped her boots on and run down her house’s many stairs, Sarah Jane burst through the back door into the garden. As soon as she had crossed the threshold, her pace slowed and she stood, staring in wonder at the time machine she had known for so long, unable to describe the warmth the sight of it brought to her.

With a rickety wooden sound, one of the doors swung open and the Doctor appeared in the doorway – he looked exactly the same as when Sarah had last seen him. She gave a silent sigh of relief at the fact he hadn’t had to suffer another death. She barely knew this Doctor yet.

“Doctor!” she beamed.

“Sarah! Hello! Fancy seeing you here!” he was grinning broadly as he stepped into the garden, closing the TARDIS door behind him.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, running over to the Time Lord.

“Well, you know, just came to check up on you… in the middle of the night… Actually, if I’m honest, bit of a mistake. You know what the TARDIS is like. But, still, a sort of good mistake! I’ve ended up in much worse places!”

A happy laugh escaped Sarah’s mouth, as he listened to her old friend.

“Yes, you have!” she said with a smile. “Like Metebilis Three…”

“And Skaro…” he recalled quietly, his tone drifting somewhat as he reminisced of days long since gone.

“And Aberdeen.” Sarah Jane stated firmly, at which the Doctor looked around the garden, a little sheepishly.

“Ah, yes… erm, sorry, about that. Again.”

But Sarah was laughing, happy to see the Doctor again and to remember her past with him. And the Doctor was laughing happily with her, regarding his former companion with his kind emerald eyes.

“Master!” came the cry of a small, robotic voice. Sarah Jane looked back at the doorway, the Doctor’s gaze following hers and they both laid eyes on K9, trundling out of the house.

“K9! Hello!” the Doctor called out, his face fixed in a broad, beaming grin. He dashed over to the metal dog, laying his hand on the back of its box-like head, while looking over his shoulder at Sarah. “What’s he doing here? Is Luke visiting?”

“Yes, but he’s asleep at the minute. Maybe if you came back in the morning…”

“Nah, it’s alright. I’m sure I’ll bump into him at some other point. So, what have you been up to, protecting the world from your attic in Ealing?”

Letting out a long, happy sigh, Sarah took a seat on the bench, the Doctor slumping into the seat beside her.

“Same old busy life! Saw off a lone Slitheen last week, then helped a lost star fleet find its way home, had a visit from a Star Poet…”

“Ah! Star Poets! Lovely bunch. Visited their home world a few times – you would love it! They have towers carved from mountains of shining crystals and the queen’s palace is one of the greatest sights in the universe! I met four of their queens – and I may have accidentally married one.”

Sarah’s eyes drifted up towards the sky as the Doctor spoke, and she sat, gazing out into the vast ocean of glimmering stars. K9 slowly moved over to the bench where the two time travellers were sat, raising his head at the Doctor, who looked back down at his old dog.

“So, K9, how’s Luke been doing at uni? Working hard?”

“Master Luke’s work at university has been produced at his maximum capacity.”

Both the Doctor and Sarah Jane laughed at that. K9 had never quite grasped normal human speech, but that metal dog was a friend that had served them both well in the past. Looking back from his former pet to his former companion, the Doctor noticed Sarah’s gaze was still resting on the stars that shone down on them from the swirling darkness of the night sky.

“You’ve seen your fair share of them up close, I’d say.” the Doctor whispered, his attention now slowly being absorbed by the view of space.

“Yeah… funny, though, how rarely we just stop and admire the beauty of it. All of it. Space. The universe. Time.”

“Mmm.” The Doctor nodded his agreement. “It is beautiful. All of time and space – it’s just… incredible. But, sometimes, not as incredible as the wonders I find here on Earth. All those times, places… people. Like you, Sarah.”

Sarah Jane just smiled and whispered a quiet “Thank you.”

The Doctor tore his gaze away from the sky above, looking instead at his dear friend.

“I mean it, Sarah. All that time we spent travelling, and now this, all these years on, you’re still protecting the Earth, saving the human race, finding the best in people – very few people have quite the claim to greatness that you do. My Sarah Jane Smith, shining brighter than any star!”

A small smile remained on Sarah’s lips as she looked back into the Doctor’s eyes. She paused, speechless for a moment, before speaking again, slowly asking her friend a question she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to.

“All these years, doing what I do, doing what we did... sometimes, Doctor, sometimes I wonder – how many years do I have left? How much longer can I carry on?”

The Doctor smiled reassuringly, his green eyes twinkling like the stars as he spoke.

“Sarah. There are some things that can never end. No matter what the universe throws at you, no matter what happens, you will go on forever. In hundreds of thousands of years to come, people will still remember you. They’ll sing songs and tell stories of the noble and valiant Sarah Jane Smith, and how she was the perfect example of the best that humanity could ever be. Your work, your memory, your legacy will live on forever, Sarah, never ever forgotten. Life can come and go so quickly, but real life – that lasts forever. And, in centuries and millennia to come, people will be looking up to the stars and seeing a universe that is so much better than it once was, thanks to you, Sarah Jane.”

Sarah was sat with the echoes of tears shining in her eyes, a smile brushing over her lips. The Doctor returned her gaze in that funny way he had of being both sad and incredibly happy.

After taking one final look up at the stars, the Doctor got to his feet and walked back over to the TARDIS, opening the doors with a click of his fingers, and stepping inside.

Stopping on the threshold before he made another trip through time, he looked back into the garden, proudly regarding his friend.

“Goodbye, Sarah Jane.”

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Okay, sorry, couldn't resist that title! As you may know, if you are one of the very few people that pays attention to my ramblings over here, I've recently started working on a novel entitled "Changing". Yes, I have stuck with that title - it fits rather nicely, in more ways than one! And, as you won't know even if you have been mad enough to pay attention to the blog, I recently completely restarted it! Shock! Horror! Well, not really shock and horror, considering I was still in the early stages of writing it. But now, on draft 2, I've got a version I'm much happier with and is going, I feel, really rather well!

So what inspired my radical, insane moment of changing Changing (see what I did there)? Well, to be honest, it was another book. Wait! Don't sharpen your pitchforks just yet! I'm not copying or stealing ideas - I've just been given a bit of a wake-up slap! The book responsible is "Gone" by Michael Grant. The book begins with a teacher disappearing in the second sentence. It starts right at the moment everything goes wibbly! And so, I decided, I needed to do the same, because the book I was writing was just too boring before. It started with the main character having just cut his hand open, which is a little out of the ordinary, yes, but then it just felt too slow, too childish. It needed to start at the very point where normality says "Well, this is my stop!". So that's what I've done!

Before I delve any further into my writing, now that I've mentioned Michael Grant's Gone I'll have to talk about it briefly. It's about what happens when everyone in a Californian town over the age of 14 disappears. The town is cut off from the outside world by a barrier and some of the kids left behind start to develop strange, mutant powers. It is brilliantly, beautifully, perfectly written - there is some horrifically dark stuff in there and you can really empathise with the characters. But I'm not saying any more - go out, buy it, read it! It's an excellent book; especially if you're a teenager!

Now then, back to my stuff. I've been saying for a while now that I would post a preview of it, and to delay any longer might make me feel slightly a little bit bad. So, here is the opening to Changing, Chapter One:

An anguished yell burst from Drake Strider’s mouth as he woke, sitting bolt upright. Cold beads of sweat were trickling across his forehead and down his back. His breath had broken into heavy, trembling gasps and his heartbeat was fiercely evident against his ribs. Staring around the darkened room, he tried to find his clock, though his vision was blurred and desperately struggling to adjust to the darkness.

Pushing the tangled mess of bed sheets aside, Drake got to his feet, a little unsteadily. He brushed over his bleary eyes with the tips of his fingers and stumbled slightly, as he stepped towards the squat cupboard that sat in his room. An old analogue clock was stood on top of it and the teenager picked it up, squinting to make out the time. Three in the morning. With a slight groan, he placed the clock back where it had been standing and went to the window, pulling the curtain aside and peering out.

The sky was a vast, rolling ocean of darkness, a few stars just visible through the thick tides of clouds. A drizzle of rain obscured the street below, so that all that could be seen was the gentle glow of streetlamps. Drake stood still, watching, his thoughts starting to wonder in all sorts of directions as his gaze passed over the abandoned street. At least, he had thought it was abandoned.

Suddenly, something caught his eye. It was a figure, stood on the pavement below – a man, by the looks of it, and he was powerfully built. Drake stood, staring. The figure was remaining perfectly still, perched on the street corner, facing Drake’s house. A thought suddenly crossed the teenager’s mind. Is he looking at me?

Picking, choosing and losing

So! Last time I posted here (before the Nicholas Courtney tribute) I was going mad with ideas for writing projects! Now I've managed to boil them down to a few good ones. I've got a new novel project (I know I should focus on the old one, but I'm 'feeling' this one more!) called "Changing" - it's partly based on real life stuff and partly supernatural. I could never ever write anything based solely on reality! The second I'm still not sure on - I know I want to do something sort of Sherlock Holmes meets Inidiana Jones, but I've not gotten much further than that! I've had ideas for a race between detectives and ideas of incorporating the Illuminati, just because they're cool to play around with - especially when you're given the freedom to imagine they really are a significant organisation. Speaking or Mr. Holmes, I'm back on the scripts for "Consulting Detective". Adam has conceded defeat at the hand of his first script and I've taken over - for now, anyway! So I'm busy pottering away on episode one, explaining Sherlock's impossible deductions. It's actually incredibly fun when you know how he did it! So, I've picked and chosen the best bits from my ideas to form my two new novel ideas (I've already started writing Changing - will post an extract soon!) and that brings me to the other part of this post title - losing. Nothing too major, but my lovely PC has decided to die. This means I'm confined to using my dad's laptop, whenever I can and is generally restricting on the amount of time I can spend writing. Oh well, hopefully all will be sorted soon and I'll be word-weaving away again! I'll post again as soon as possible, with an extract from my latest work - and the few of you who read this blog will be lucky enough to see it!

Ideas, ideas everywhere...

I've gone into over-creative mode and I haven't got a clue why! Maybe it's my leg injury - physical weakness must make me stronger mentally! Like Davros, or Stephen Hawking (who I secretly suspect are the same person...). Alternatively it could be some complex psychological doo-hickey, due to being at my grandparents house, where I used to spend ages drawing, listening to stories, reading books and playing games when I was young, so some element of that has reawakened, or... I need Derren Brown to explain this properly. (In case you're wondering, the Doctor Who villain I suspect him of secretly being is the Master. Aimon Holmes is a Slitheen, Rick Astley is a Time Lord and wheelie bins are Daleks)!
So, creativity - good! Well, mostly good. When I have too many ideas on the go at once, it becomes hard to keep track and deal with them all! In this rush of new thoughts, I haven't given any thought to the book I'm writing (superhero novel, "Legion X") - in fact I seem to have thought about everything I'm writing and more, except the book! Unfortunately, this also includes new book ideas, which I'm going to want to work on. I know that I should focus on one thing at a time, if I want to get anything published, but now I'm having wonderful ideas of sci-fi and fantasy and writing like the amazing H.G. Wells! Like I said, I have no idea why! Although, for a while now I've been wanting to get hold of Wells' "The Time Machine". There's a whole beautiful atmosphere to older works of science fiction that isn't there with newer stuff. I mean, I love Doctor Who to no end, but there's a whole different style in the original "War of the Worlds". Science Fiction has changed into an almost completely different genre.
Also, I feel like writing something in an older era - maybe a more Dickensian setting, the sort of era "A Christmas Carol" was set in. Or just before WWI. There's certainly a nicer, sometimes much more exciting, atmosphere to these time eras in comparison with modern day. A more stylized feel, rather than cold electronics. For once, I do know where this feeling has come from! It's not so much one source of inspiration, but lots of little things. My recent obsession with Sherlock Holmes, the H.G. Wells books I've been wanting to read, period dramas being fired at us from left, right and centre, the old-fashioned 'steam-punk' style of Doctor Who's last Christmas special and the general brilliance of classical works of literature.
So! After all this, you're either bored out of your mind, wondering why you bothered to read this, or wanting to know what these amazing ideas of mine are! I'm going to imagine you've chosen the latter. In fact, could you please at leasr try to choose the latter?
Now, obviously I hate giving a lot away, because it ruins the surprise (shall I end the post there?), but I shall attempt to say something. This is where I test how formed my ideas really are - I find you never really know how strong an idea is until you write it out. I've been trying to pull together all of these elements I've been talking about into one - something new, creative, science fiction and set in an olden era. I'm particularly drawn to the pre-WWI era, because of a recently-made dramatization I saw a while ago of the book "The Thirty Nine Steps". If you've not seen it, I would thoroughly recommend it - it's action-packed, really exciting stuff! I've never read the book, but now it's another one on my wish list... Anyway, yes, the drama of that is one of my inspirations. "Where does the science fiction come into this diabolical scheme of story-writing which you have concocted?" I hear you ask! Well, I've had the idea of a conspiracy cover-up, probably from listening to my Dad too much (don't worry Dad, I'm sure that indisputable evidence for Global Warming isn't important at all...) and government cover-ups lend themselves beautifully to sci-fi. For example, there are real theories that the Queen is an alien space lizard. No, really...
So, the government are covering up something to do with our little green friends from other worlds. Not so creative and new yet is it? Been done before, you say? Don't worry, I'm working on it! This isn't going to be the same old "UFO Crashes, government stops people from knowing" type storyline. Like all good ideas, this one is taking its time to grow and develop in my head, but I've had a few good thoughts on it. Like I said, I don't want to give too much away, but once some of it is written, or I've got a whole storyline, I may post an extract or a blurb right here on this very blog!
As I said, I am in a very creative mindset and, as if to prove it to you, I have had many other little ideas floating around in the warped labyrinth of my mind. I still love the idea of a Dickensian setting and I'm feeling particularly attracted to a fantasy storyline. Vampires, perhaps? A chance to do Vampires properly, after the saga of "names based on periods of time involving certain stages of the sun and the moon" embarassment. And then there are various ideas of Romance and Insanity on my mind, which will hopefully all be woven into my writing at some point. Also, what do you people of the internet think of the name "Supervillain" for a drama series. It's one of my early ideas for the BBC! My incredible plan is to start writing a script for them now, spend a couple of years getting it perfect and then send it in to the beeb, via their Writersroom website!
Anyway, now I'll have to wrap up this post as it's humungous, I need to knock all these ideas into some sort of tangible shape and order and my brother has just handed me a fez, which I will need to try on. Fezzes are cool!

"You have a careers appointment booked"...

Why is it, most of the time, whenever people ask me what I want to do as a career, I say I don't know? I know perfectly well what I want to do as a career, and that is to write scripts and novels. But, nevertheless, I probably have many distant relatives, whom I have met at obscure family dos, that think I am clueless about the future!
So, the title of this post - I suppose I should explain it. Earlier this week I had a "careers appointment" at school. What's that? It's a large building where people under sixteen go to learn and earn qualifications, but that's not important right now.
Oh, what's a careers appointment? Basically, anyone in year ten/eleven in my school can have them (or it might just be year elevens) and you go to this meeting with the school's careers teacher/advisor (I'd better not use names, just in case!) and discuss career options. At some point in our school lives, students in my year had to fill out a form giving four career options we would consider, so that was used as a starting point in the meeting. Of course, on mine were author and script writer.
And so, I finally had a serious conversation with someone I don't know particularly well about what I want to do as a career. And yes, we looked at the negatives. The fact that screenwriting is very competitive and many writers only do it as a part time job, but we did look at how it would suit me and what it was like, covering positives and negatives. And, strangely, despite all the negatives, I feel far more confident about going into screenwriting than I did before. Maybe it's because for one of the first times, I've actually looked at it as a serious career, rather than just something I want to do. The negatives almost make it seem more possible!
So I think the meeting went well. I got some good script-related websites out of it as well, which I'm in the process of looking through. Found out that the standard script format is called "mastershot" format, which won't realy help, as I already knew what the format was, but at least I know another name for it now (I'd previously heard it referred to as just "the standard script format"). And, out of all this, as you can probably guess, I'm now in a writing mood!
I know I should work on my book more, because that is something I can publish and earn money from. And I can do that regardless of age. But all I can think about are the fan film scripts for me and my friends' Doctor Who series! Which is annoying, because I want to start episode 3, because I know how it's going to start, but I don't know what happens after the first scene! I'll have to think on it...
Also, in Who news, I've got the script for episode 2 down to 35 pages, which is a massive decrease! How did I do it? I... brought the font size down... no great editing feat there then!
Keep watching the blog for updates! If I ever get round to working on my novel again, then I will hopefully explain more about it on here.
Take care people!

And another thing...

No, not the latest Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy book, it's just the name of the post.

The mentality of having to want to write something does make English "Creative Writing" coursework annoying! I always go into coursework like that thinking "I'm going to be the best in the class at this! This is what I'm best at, I have to be the best!" But I never feel I've produced particularly great pieces of writing at the end. Yes, my grades are good, but that's because I'm one of the nerdy bunch and just include what I need to in order to get better marks, such as writing in a professional manner. But with schoolwork, I have to write something I don't really want to when I don't really want to.

Why don't I want to do it? It is writing fiction, shouldn't that be great? The problem is that because I have to do it I need an idea. Usually I need one within the ten minutes we're given to come up with one in classtime. I never want to write if I don't like the idea behind the piece of writing. And I never like the idea if I was forced to come up with it in ten minutes. The best ideas are ones that just come to me naturally. When I'm not trying to think of ideas. Of course, these are usually inspired by something. It is very rare (but not unheard of) that an idea just pops into my head. This can be incredibly annoying when I want to write something new! That's odd too: usually the idea comes first, followed by the need to write, but sometimes there's a need to write and later you'll have an idea that you can fit to it.

Of course, there are exceptions to everything I say. Sometimes I'll have a stimulus to stick to for a piece of writing and think "I can't wait to write this one!". Sometimes, usually when doing scripts, I'll try to think up an idea for a story and come up with something, because I have to, and find it is a rather good premise for a story. Another key thing about writing: despite what your English teacher says, there are NO set rules!