This is the review of 'Girl In The Window' I wrote for May's 'Venturer' Magazine :-

Perhaps it's the anticipation of such a pivotal storyline, the desire to see the departures of Sarah Miatt's Lizzie and Ryan Brady's Stephen Brown given due deference, but my expectations were set rather high. After watching the story via the wonders of You Tube I must ask myself they were unrealistically so.

Chris Wilkes' storyline follows on from the previously developed arcs in the 'specials' series of 2011. The severely injured Stephen Brown instructs sister Lizzie to take him back to Rubart, with the clone Melastone 'liberated' from the laboratory of Donatien (Monster of Lacoste). Unfortunately for Lizzie and Stephen, President Vo has well and truly taken a walk on the dark side, deciding that the rise of his new dictatorship must be built on the destruction of Stephen's reputation (and hopeful death).

Threat, danger, political intrigue, sacrifice, betrayal, an old friend turned enemy, an old enemy returned... all the ingredients you'd need to deliver a fantastic season finale and swansong for both Miatt and Brady.

A once again delayed upload gave chance for any issues discovered in the premier to be tweaked, and polished. It's one level of embarrassment to show off half finished work to the hard working members of the Beacon fraternity, all together another to then share it with the rest of the world. Though why you would want to do either, beats me.

So, with such an important story (like others in the series' history), there's a real chance to showcase just exactly what Beacon is capable of. And demonstrate it certainly does.

Normally I work through my notes in a chronological format, and write my review logically working through the episodes as they appear online. This time, I thought I would try something different and focus on the separate elements of the show.

The writing, Chris has written more scripts for Stephen Brown than the Salvation Army dishes out hot dinners. Despite the (I think intended) groan-worthy nature of some of the jokes, and using the first lines spoken by Colin Baker as The Doctor after regenerating from Peter Davison, (twice as it happens) I have to take my hat off to him. There's lots going on, but not confusingly so from a scripting perspective. I'll also forgive the clunky use of the word 'PDA', which was just as clunky a word in 1990 when they were all the rage amongst the uber organised super geeks as the devices themselves.

He again 'borrows' from that famous time-travelling scifi show with a scene where Vo taps rhythmically on a desk and then gasses his cabinet. The script is so important in this scene, Ian's highlighted copy is actually centre of the shot at one point.

The sound in this story has a very annoying habit of changing levels and quality when flicking back and forth between President Vo (Ian Hamer) and Number One (Kathryn Cairns). When Vo tries to bully Death, he stands up and promptly loses synchronisation between image and sound. That isn't the soundman's fault though, that one lays squarely in the hands of the editor.

It is also the editor that is to blame for the downright disruptive an at times, inappropriate background music.

The fist thing you notice when watching this episode is that the image isn't formatted properly into the frame on the website. This leaves us with a solid black border all the way around the screen. The picture, when it's live action is normally treated to an artsy shaky feel. This can be very effective, and give an 'on the fly' edge to the action. It works well when done consistently and when not overused. Sadly we're left with a fair bit of footage that appears was shot by Michael J Fox. It's an effect not always applied either, so confuses the eye as to what the significance is of its use. It may have been nothing more than a conversation of... 'oh, they do this in Battlestar Galactica, and it looks really cool.. I think we should do that...and while we're at it, let's have their music too...'

The initial shots onboard the Venturer appear to have been put through the instagram app on an iphone. It's quiet a nice rosy-glow effect, I just cannot see what it adds or why it is used.

The computer graphics in this story leap from utterly fantastic to, the other end of the spectrum. The establishing shot of the Presidential Offices is overused, and in exactly the same way too. It's a very nice image, we just see it too much. The green-screen shots are very effective and well used, but are let down when the background image is not that inspiring. The Venturer external shots give the ship a plasticky shine, when it comes into land it actually looks a little like it was a toy.

The postproduction visual effects suffer from the same inconsistency, fantastic holographic control screen images, that are well designed and well laid out, that are not in every shot of the same scene. Missing forcefields and control panels spoil Stephen's rescue of Lizzie as there's nothing preventing her from just walking out anyway. When Vo is trapped behind another invisible forcefield and firing his gun at Lizze, there is no effect of the shots and the footage does not tell the story of how or why Lizzie is left in an area of the ship where she is exposed to space when the escape pod departs with the bemused Stephen Brown in the clone body (Stewart James). The image of receding escape pod appears cartoon-like. I would invite you to take a look at some of the 'cutting edge' special effects used in Blakes 7 in 1979 and compare.

The numerous sets and locations are both good and not so good. The cabinet meeting for example makes no attempt to dress the set at all. It does have to be said that the setting fire of the Venturer set was especially effective.

The effect of these failings is to seriously detract from Lizzie's death scene. A series of shots that fail to tell the story is nothing new, and is either down to a gap in planning by the director or some sort of checking and review of work by the editor.

If the delayed uploaded version has resolved previous premier night issues, I cannot imagine what that must have looked like. After my really high expectations I am left feeling very bad for the underplayed passing of Sarah and Ryan's roles after so many fantastic performances, not as much for the actors themselves, but also from the disappointment of the rather missed opportunity to take a brilliant story idea and 'knock it out of the park'. You don't get a second chance to make a last impression after all.

Here's one I made earlier...

Last week, I wrote a review for Venturer Magazine (the in club magazine for Beacon). Although I mentioned it on a previous blog entry, now that the magazine has been published, I have pasted the content in its entirety :-

**********

Having enjoyed reviewing the pilot episode of The Ninth Man this month brings the 2nd offering to my attention. Like so many pilots when they get commissioned there's a change at the top. Instead of Joshua Ive continuing his role as Robert Jameson, his shoes are ably filled by James Farmer. 

James has the benefit of looking a bit more 'weathered' than Joshua, and although he plays the role slightly differently, it is a really good fit. Not exactly an easy thing to carry off. At a moment of potential disaster for the fledgling series Jordan doesn't just settle for the next person available, he recasts with absolutely the right man.

Despite the change in lead, the production values and extensive use of location, continue unabated. As does the cornerstone performance of Alec Harkness in his role as Kenny Cooper. This particular story is also penned by Alec, a script with twists, turns and as many new questions as it provides answers.

Chris Wilkes' narration as Jameson's parole officer brings us up to speed with what's happing. We are very quickly into the action, with not so much as a second to pause for breath. There's no waste in this story, although some lines are more golden than others. Emma Giles' line of 'Bouncing around from arsehole to arsehole ?' did give me a chuckle.

Sarah Miatt does very well as the broody, pissed off and altogether angry Michelle Harris.

As the intrigue and tension cranks up, Jordon himself makes an appearance as 'Henchman' with an economical, but effective use of a certain garage we all know and love.

There were only a few times I picked up on anything technical, with the guest appearance from Mr B OOM in The Fight Club, (a location only marred by the determination to remain fully clothed of all the muscly fighting types), and the sunlight causing some lens flare as well as catching on the actors are but minor irritations.

A kidnapping that doesn't leave you expecting a 'mmmmwwwhahahah' must have been one of those moments Steve's now ex neighbours are going to miss.

With such a good ending to episode one, I do think we missed out not having a closeup of the ransom note. Farmer's lines are lost against Sarah's building rage, and Initially I had reservations about a cheese knife being used well as an instrument to instil fear. Sarah, however takes a situation that could otherwise have descended into farce and delivers menace, such is the quality of the acting.

One of the locations we are treated to in this story is a lovely Vegan cafe (they do a yummy vegan stew), where we meet Reet (played by my good self), and Chris Lovin (Ben Johnson). I have to say that this is one of the few occasions where I am not cringing as I watch my own performance, and although I do come dangerously close to looking right at the camera I swear all those times I look down whilst talking to Kenny are not to look at my script.

All in all, this second helping of a bit of Ninth Man pie goes down rather nicely. There's menace where there should be menace, humour where it's wanted, and with nothing to spoil it in the way of set, technical failings or performances from the actors this rather ambitious storyline is unravelling before our eyes. It doesn't drag at all, there aren't any bits that wouldn't have been missed had they been cut. It moves along at a decent pace, and is more than just easy to watch. It's enjoyable. I'm eager to catch the next instalment.

Apart from wanting more, the only other thing I feel deprived of is the cake Bek (Sam Sayner) was touting, where's mine ?

Here's something I wrote earlier...

As I've mentioned before, I write reviews to be included into the in-club publication 'Venturer Magazine' for the good people at Beacon. This month I'd written a review, and that being the first one that I'd managed to do for quite some time, I thought I would include a copy here.... (excuse the formatting differences, and the fact that I've not been able to port over the document as published exactly)..

“SIMON

SAYS...”

REVIEWER Simon Sansbury

THE ADVENTURES OF STEPHEN BROWN

KAOS EFFECT

WRITTEN BY

Chris Wilkes & Neil Miller

DIRECTED BY

Matthew Hampton

It's been sometime since I've been able to pen a review, last year in fact. So long I'd actually forgotten which episode it was that I had reviewed last. After the chaos of moving home to my lovely shiny new flat, and all the other things that kept me from you, it is to another kind of chaos that I draw my attention. That being Kaos Absolute, story three in the 2009 series of The Adventures of Stephen Brown. The winding up of the story lines that involve The Death, Kaos and the Augury, not to mention young Sally Crawford's revenge against Stephen Brown for murdering her father. Much tying of lose ends to be done then. There's not a moment to lose.

The opening CGI shots of the Venturer were really nice in setting the scene, maybe a 'previously on The Adventures Of Stephen Brown' might have reminded anyone (like me) who'd forgotten how it was we got to this particular peril in the first place might have helped. Being really limited within the confines of the Venturer set does limit cameramen and directors alike. As the thing gets blown up every couple of years it does give us a chance to do something a bit different. Some learning of lines, and some different camera shots might have made things move along a bit better.

When we transport down to the planet, we are treated to the first half of a swear word left onto the audio when Blocklon (Matthew Hampton) walks into Stephen Brown (Ryan Brady), this along with hearing the director saying 'action' on an earlier bit of footage is a shame. Things start to look sparkly again when our intrepid heroes are walking towards Augury's cave. Some nice, but not too clever computer work there has created a cave entrance where there wasn't one, and later on we have the effect of Kaos' life force approaching it. It is again the challenges of fitting so many people into so little space that contributes to making the performances in the Augury's cave looks as realistic as the greenery that's draped all over the set. The Augury (Sassi Page) is meant to look really ill, but doesn't. The lighting here just doesn't do the set, or the actors any favours, and is perhaps too clean and too bright for my liking. I like things a bit dirtier and darker. But the least said about that the better.

Chris Wilkes' rendition of Kaos inhabiting Stephen Brown's old body isn't all that threatening or menacing, but he pulls some interesting faces as he fights Stephen Brown. There's some nice touches here in the lightening flashes etc of the phantasmagorical nature of the bitch fight between them, but the fight itself isn't always as tense, fast or threatening looking as it is at other times - but that's not helped by the return of those awful punch sound effects. There must be better ways to get realistic punch sound effects. (without resorting to actually punching people.. hang on.. that might work....).

The lack of effect to the already clinical lighting when Kaos' life force enters Chris (ahem) coupled with three people trying to roll around on the floor in such a small space really does harm the suspension of disbelief here. Which is a shame, as this scene, and its elements, is a staple of science fiction stories since, well since before November 23rd 1963. The storytelling could have been helped with some flashbacks to go with the dialogue while Ryan explains to Sassi how they got to that point.

Episode 2 starts off with a good recap of all that's gone before. Watching The Death (Robert Hampton) threaten Sally Crawford (Hazel Whiteland) by squeezing her cheeks was just as convincing as her reaction to it, and the threat afterwards. This story has some really brilliant elements to it that really mean a lot in the canon of the show. The script by Messrs Wilkes & Miller could have been shown off much more effectively, there's a couple of points when perhaps a line might have been0changed to better effect, but most of the time it really zings along, and attempts to deliver a real sense of pace and drama. Something the actors seem to have missed entirely.

Ryan, Matthew and Katie 'rush' to escape the cave, helping along the wounded/ill Augury only to be confronted again by Kaos, still in the form of Chris Wilkes. There's some fancy light show battle on the shingle there that is done rather well, and the dispatching of The Augury is a rather good shot. The conviction, urgency and fear is completely absent on all of the actors' performances however. After she's dead, The Augury has a telepathic conversation with Ryan's Stephen Brown. This scene, although spoiled by a very cheesy ending that looked like a toothpaste commercial, was very well lit and executed by both Sassi and Ryan.

Some more clumsiness from the crew means we have such a good shot of the boom at the bottom of a shot while Ryan, Katie and Matthew stand and discuss the danger they are facing that I thought perhaps we could have dressed it up as some sort of furry alien. As Ryan explains that Kaos' life force is still around us (although without the sound or lighting effects that hinted at it before) there is again this very static delivery of what should be tension building lines. There's a 'walk, stop, say line, stand talking, talk about danger, walk off at a normal place' formula to the acting. The CGI here of the planet cracking up comes without explanation or reason, and doesn't at all match up with what's happening in the live action shots. There's absolutely no evidence of the planet destroying itself on location. Obviously 'blessed' with a brilliantly sunny day didn't help.

Episode 3 reminds us that for a planet under destruction it still looks remarkably like a rather nice Sunday walk in the country. Could we have done something to darken this down or muddy up the image a bit in post production ? I don't know, but it's something we have done before. The exploding planet illusion isn't helped by the inconsistently applied synchronised stumbling of the cast to the camera shakes. The camera effect works rather well (although not applied in later shots - perhaps there was someone else on camera, perhaps they just got bored of it), but the cast manage to make it look like they are trying to find their way home after drinking too much on a night out in town.

Ryan has some lines in another moment of 'we're running away, but we'll stop long enough to deliver our lines, pause for a bit and then not hurry off again', where the sound is rather poor. We also get to see how close the sound man is to the action, because his leads are dangling into the edge of the shot.

The shots from the point of view of Kaos' life force look rather like someone threw some compost on the camera lens before shooting it. It doesn't match up however with the shots from episode one, and doesn't quite convey the atmosphere of the moment. Some lines delivered by Ryan about how Kaos is sapping his life force makes him sound like a whining teenager (ala Kev & Perry style) than our hero struggling to keep it together.

Death, despite saying he wasn't going to be a hero and die fighting Kaos, does just that. A really vital moment in the history of the show, and we have no shot of our star's reaction to the death of his brother. The moment is further spoiled in the next episode by the smiling and laughing as Blocklan lifts up the now deceased Death to carry him back to the Venturer. Really pivotal moment in the story line and it's completely ruined. The episode ends with the now correct and faithful restoration of Kaos to his former self, aka the intergalactic hoodie in the form of Neil Miller. It has to be said that Neil works the menacing look very well and delivers the only believable performance of the story. He really does look cross enough to bite your ear off. Chris now gets his telepathic Skype call from the Augury. Again really well done with the mood and atmosphere. Although this does come across as a self referential last outing (until the next time) for Wilkes' Stephen Brown it's so expected that we get away with it.

Miller's appearance on the shingle to fight Ryan's Stephen Brown is a great show of lights, only spoiled by the fact that it isn't lip synced right. The unconvincingly delivered fighting talk from Ryan, coupled with the leaping together into combat makes it look like they need to get a room more than a referee. The magically convenient (for the writers) ability to transport himself allows Ryan to take Chris with him back to the cave where another 'fight' in the form of a hug off ensues. Wilkes' hands look like he's about to start massaging Miller rather than strangle him, but at least he still manages, mid fight to put his hat back on before hugging Miller once again. This story has in it all the key ingredients of a fantastic forty minutes of entertainment, I hope the audience could see past the flaws in the acting, directing and production quality to that cracking story underneath. Just imagine how epic it would have been if they didn't have to do that.

One of the things that I do for Beacon, is write reviews of their stories for their in house magazine (Venturer Magazine). If you want a copy, you'll have to join first ! Anyhoo.. I've decided to post on here my reviews in future. So without further ado... This month's review is the second story in the 2010 season, The Doomed.

The story crafts a well executed connection between the Wilkes' era story 'Lazarus' and the back story of the Crawford children, Max and Sally.




We are treated to very pacey and well put together teaser section, the CGI ship may look a bit on the clean side for my liking, but the interior is very successfully created in the Beacon studio, displaying rather well the maxim that less is more when it comes to set construction. You can feel the annoyance of a group of people that can't stand each other, having being kept in close confinement for far too long. In those few moments the scene is set, intrigue is born and the audience begin to guess what is going to happen next.

What happens next, is the awakening from the dead, as it were, the Churchett and Doidge obsession with zombies. As much as its predecessor, The Doomed is a feast for the eyes, in addition the old time travelling paradox of creating the very thing you are trying to stop, merely by some unintended consequence of your actions is explored. It's a staple of science fiction as old as space rockets and laser beams.

When the 'recovery team' are dropped off, there's a particularly well chosen set of effects as the ship leaves them stranded, doomed you might say. I have to say I found the wobbly shots, round the leaves much to my liking.

It is here, that we get pun no. 1 out the way with the line :- 'I need that signal find the beacon...' Jordan barks at James (Farmer), so then off he trots with his scanner, that somehow has stolen the tri-corder sound effect last used by Lt Sa'avik in Star Trek III. Ah the memories....

Matt McKechnie really does look the part. I think there's something in every man, even me, where they enjoy pissing about in forests dressed in army gear pretending to go round and shoot things. As they get older this evolves into the love of paintball, that's as serious - if that's the word - it gets. Matt was so at home in his fatigues and 'webbing' - I never did figure out what that is - that his disdain for Will Gammon's character makes you think that he really will actually hurt him in a minute.

Will Gammon is the first casualty in the hunt for the theoretical drive. As he's set upon by a small gang of zombies, led by Joshua Ive... they wrestle him to the floor and start eating him. Great sequences, I was disappointed at the lack of a really good scream though.

After James turns on Matt and shoots him, - they were hardly on a corporate team building day now were they ? - he is quickly dispatched by our zombie gang. I am at treated to the scream I'm looking for. If you're going to be thrown on the floor and bitten by four men, someone should at least scream at some point, even if it's from relief.

As Jordan and that odd looking guy with the khaki cap make their way toward the half buried Venturer they even up the score with the Zombies some. At least I'm not trying some half witted accent this time, but the idea of me trying to look all butch and manly with a big gun.. well, I'm even impressed myself.

So.. we get onto the Venturer flight deck.. those cobwebs, aren't they exactly the same ones I nearly set fire to the other weekend ? This is a really important part of the story.. and there's lots of things that Jordan has to tell us. Lots of things indeed.

The editing here could have been a bit tidier.. the shot lingers far too long on my ugly mug, and the shock reveal of the zombified Stephen Brown isn't really much of a reveal, it's not that much of a shock either. We've seen what Ryan looks like some Sunday mornings... and I had a mouthful of the foulest tasting gunge in that scene..so that I could supossedly spit out a mouthful of blood.. did that make it into the shot. No. You mean I did it all for nothing ? Pah !

I suppose I best get moving onto episode 2.... or I'm going to have to do the review in two parts...

After such a brilliant start in episode 1, its successor starts with some awkward and wooden acting, the trees being felled on this occassion by Matt Hampton and Katie Whiteland. In fact, their sequences are upstaged by the ones between Ryan and Robo. There's some real gleam in the script here, and for once it's given the chance to shine with some great acting, camera work and editing.

The editting is not as good when it comes to the overlaid audio of an argument between Glenda and Mr Launay. It's just not been treated in any decipherable way, so appears to just have been recorded, and the sound track grabbed and added to the footage for the episode. Churchett's pointless walk out to his car, round it and then back inside is forgiven by his performance later on. He does particularly convincingly at being hypnotised. Maybe a close up shot of the house
number would help us realise how important that is to the story.

We cut back to the last surviving member of mercenaries. Jordan hides something in the foliage, but again, perhaps a closer shot here would help us understand what it is, and know it's relevance to the plot. The zombie hand that creepily crawls after him lets on that it's still firmly attached to an arm....

Back with Ryan, Katie and Churchett the sparkling dialogue comes to the fore again...Churchett bemoans that he's being bossed about by 'one of the pet shop boys' and asks himself, 'what have I done to deserve this ?'. Ahem. Oh dear.

Emma Giles makes an appearance as PA to Launay's distant, evil and manipulative shaddowing figure.... with Emma's accent that reminds me in an unsettling way of Miss Hoolie - from Balamory... Launay's menacing and evil boss act we're distracted upon by some strange idea about shooting people through a fan. Tried for arty farty, and just ended up with farty ? I have to say I'm not a fan ; of the split screen for telephone conversation either, thinking it cuts in too quickly, a bit like the music does at the end.

Episode 3 carries on from where the episode formally known as two, left off. With a nice security cam effect we get to see the interview of John Hampton as Zempho. We could have done with some close ups of Giles and Hampton's faces, missing as we did the punch of some more sizzling lines. Brilliant.

What isn't so fan-tastic is that blasted fan again. Grrrrr. What really is fantastic though is the first appearance of the armless zombie hand. Armless it may be, harmless it certainly isn't.

Some more comedy moments from the cheeky idiot that is Matt Hampton's
Blocklan, even with the boom putting in a minor appearance it's still all flowing very well. Jordan is now holding a rather relaxed Ryan & co hostage until Churchett reveals that he isn't Crawford. Oh dear. Nicely framed shot at the end
of the episode, if only Jordan wasn't hiding behind Churchett's arm.

And then we're on the final furlong that is episode 4.

I'm not sure if it's intended or not, that there's a girl laughing over the footage of Matt playing the the theorelative drive in order to squeeze in a sneaky pint. what's katie laughing for on the sound while Blocklan tries to find the time device thing. It's a conundrum. But not for long.

Realisation starts to dawn the those held at the end of Jordan's gun that somewhere they've made an awful mistake.... I do like the cutting back and forth between them as the dialogue fires along. The shots are well framed, the actors perform well, the lines are well delivered.

As Blocklan's flirtation with space time dynamics begins to come apart around his ears, Matt being chased by zombie.. looking zanny and holding the camera as he runs down the road looking like a deranged idiot is another really good use of camera.

With all this going on, it's nice to see that Ryan has time to get all deep and serious and deliver all his lines to the daisy he's playing with, instead of the person he's talking to. I'm also not quite sure how we get from rushing out to look for the nanites to laying down on the grass like the end of the world isn't a real possibility. Maybe it's a date. It's so distracting the person holding the boom forgets to hold it out of shot here. You can't really blame them, but it's a mere scratch compared to the awkward moment where Ryan hugs Katie after she saves him from being bitten by the very zombie that had been chasing the hapless
idiot.

It's also a little amazing that Stephen Brown has nothing to say about that. We do seem to jump then straight into the resolution of the story, which I'm not entirely convinced doesn't work.

As stories go, I do rather like this one. The weaker episode of the set is the fourth, but even though it is outshone by the others, it's still a rather good piece of work. Episode one is most definitely the best. I don't know if there's any conclusion to draw from the fact that the best bits are the ones without our lead character. Really. I don't.

On the whole this story has a cracking script, it's well executed all round, great to watch. The acting's on the mark, with some shining performances from Matt McKechnie, Steve Churchett, Matt Hampton, Will Gammon.. oh and those zombies.. all those zombies. NEXT !

...........Just in case the video above doesn't work, you can view the episodes by clicking here.

who reviews the reviewers ?

As you may or may not know or be interested, one of the creative groups I am involved with is based in Southampton. Beacon. They produce, amongst three series, (currently) all of which I have written for. It's a completely voluntary group. Amateur Video production (which somehow sounds sordid whenever you tell anyone).

The group survives, in the same way that many others like it do. On the blood sweat and tears of a few very good people. Beacon is fortunate enough to have my good friend, Stephen Launay as it's head. His number two, Chris Wilkes is equally as much a 'must have' component as a video camera.

Anyhoo.  Tonight, I submitted my second review for the in-group magazine 'Venturer Magazine'. Now, I'm only just getting started on this reviewing lark. Barely warmed up. With a deadline looming - and me deciding to be uncharacteristically three days early, a thought occurs to me. It occurred to me AFTER I had hit the 'send' button on Evolution Email.

Who reviews the reviewers ?

Okay, that's not as dumb a question as it sounds. I know, of course that perhaps the most obvious answer is the readers, as if they don't like what the reviewer writes, they won't read their column in future. In the case of paid for press (don't get started on that subject, we'll have someone from SkyNews crying about how they can't make money from print media any more), they may not even buy the publication any more. With web media (blogs and the such like), an offended or disgruntled reader will avoid said blog or website, probably for quite some time, possibly indefinitely.

Sure there's an editor in something that other people produce, like the magazine. The writers as much as the readers rely on them to ensure that the world doesn't go to hell in a hand basket when the next issue hits the news stands.

Written words is just like spoken ones, except they're written down. Dummy.

Well, except no. They are not.

When I speak to someone in the street, the don't generally tell me that they don't like what I said, or how I phrased it, which words I used etc etc. They may well think it, but they wouldn't say it. People would consider that rude, and invasive to be that specific about how or what someone says. Speech writers know different. Speech writers, well the clue is in the name, they write speeches. Before the speech, comes the write. Before the page, comes the writer.

Editing, or feedback, or whatever you want to call it, is something that most people are more than a little weird about. As a manager in a call centre I spend much of my time letting people know about how x, y, or z went, and if it could have been done better. But, you know what. No one is perfect. To try, is great, as an ideal, but really, there is not any expectation that perfection should ever actually be reached. Is there ?

If there is, then maybe that's why I don't get bonuses or promoted.

I digress.

Writers chose, sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously to have their output, edited, reviewed. Whatever. I guess part of being a successful writer, is knowing which advice, edits or feedback to accept, and which to dismiss. If I figure out what's what, if I make a success as a writer, I'll let you know. I'll let you know by selling you a book to tell you how.

<slap> Dammit. Digression.

No one in their right mind (or even their write mind) would have someone sat on their shoulder, constantly telling them how speak differently, what to say, when, to whom, and how to say it. What pitch, what cadence. What voice.

When does feedback mean it's no longer YOUR voice.

This blog doesn't have an editor - hell most of the time, it doesn't have a blogger. You may wish that it did (have an editor). As a person, I work best when I am struggling to find the balance between two equal and opposing natures/qualities. There's a part of me that might sit there thinking 'I DON'T WANT to change what I've written. I liked it. Stuff them.' There's also the part that says, 'IDIOT. If you ever want people to like what you write, you have to learn how to do it better, and better is a journey. It's not a destination. You never get there.'

Better is to writing, what tomorrow is to schedules. Something you can think, plan and organise, but will never actually arrive at.

If they said at the airport :- 'Ladies and gentlemen, the plane now at gate 53, will leave, but it will never arrive at your destination.' No one would get on that plane.

No one would take that journey.