Actor/Professional Writer "collaborations..." really?
- Thread starter CaptainHawk1
- Start date
Him and his loyal troop of monkeys.
You mean squirrels.
Do they use typewriters and enjoy Picard and his love of Shakespeare?
Actually when it comes to the actors, they actually probably have to the second greatest understanding of the characters ) and the universe, behind the writers. When you are an actor one of the things that is most important to you is being able to really get into the character's head so that you can understand why they do what they do, because that is really the only way to be able to give a believable performance. In fact, alot of actors, myself included, will actually come up write their own backstory for the characters sot that they are really able to do this. So I really don't see where it's that hard to believe that they would take that knowledge and use it to write a story. So as you can tell there is actually a lot more to being an actor that simply reading the words off a page, it actually can be a very hard, and intense career.
Disclaimer:I'm not actually an actor, but I wanted to be onef or most of my life, I took drama classes both in and out of school for most of time I was in high school, and I was in two school plays.
Disclaimer:I'm not actually an actor, but I wanted to be onef or most of my life, I took drama classes both in and out of school for most of time I was in high school, and I was in two school plays.
Oh, that's what that meant. I thought it was just a little joke to fill space, like a planet featured in the novel being added to the list of cities on the bottom of the title page.
Shatner has often described in interviews how he wrote the nine "TekWar" novels (with Ron Goulart) and the ten ST novels with the Reeves-Stevens. It's no big secret. Shatner does the initial plotting, and after everyone's happy he describes action sequences and all of Cardigan/Kirk's dialogue into a dictaphone. He then employs a secretary to create transcripts, shapes the words a bit, and sends the pages to the co-authors. They round out that work as a novel, then it goes back and forth a few times, then off to the editor. That sounds like an equatable collaboration to me.
"Writing" a novel doesn't necessarily mean doing all the typing, or always being the expert on style, grammar and trivia.
Actually, that's exactly what it means.
Over the years I've read countless of Trek novels written collaboratively by Trek actors and regular repected authors of Trek. Whether it's the Shatnerverse by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens's or a Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson (and whomever he wrote his novel with) or the novel I read yesterday, The 34th Rule by Armin Shimmerman and David George, there is one thing I've always been suspicious of: how much writing do these actors actually do? I've always found it doubtful that actors, who by the nature merely perform someone else's fiction and have no experience in creating fiction, are suddenly writing complex novels. The Shatnerverse was the first series of novels I became suspicious due to the incredible amount of detail and the fact they are all written in the exact same style, coincidentally, as Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
So what's the deal? How much involvement do these actors actually have in penning these novels?
-Shawn
The Shat has proven he can write. He's written Trek books solo, not to mention his "Tek" series.
Over the years I've read countless of Trek novels written collaboratively by Trek actors and regular repected authors of Trek. Whether it's the Shatnerverse by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens's or a Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson (and whomever he wrote his novel with) or the novel I read yesterday, The 34th Rule by Armin Shimmerman and David George, there is one thing I've always been suspicious of: how much writing do these actors actually do? I've always found it doubtful that actors, who by the nature merely perform someone else's fiction and have no experience in creating fiction, are suddenly writing complex novels. The Shatnerverse was the first series of novels I became suspicious due to the incredible amount of detail and the fact they are all written in the exact same style, coincidentally, as Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
So what's the deal? How much involvement do these actors actually have in penning these novels?
-Shawn
The Shat has proven he can write. He's written Trek books solo, not to mention his "Tek" series.
Well, the Tek books were actually ghost-written by Ron Goulart, with input from Shatner, but never mind . . . .
Over the years I've read countless of Trek novels written collaboratively by Trek actors and regular repected authors of Trek. Whether it's the Shatnerverse by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens's or a Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson (and whomever he wrote his novel with) or the novel I read yesterday, The 34th Rule by Armin Shimmerman and David George, there is one thing I've always been suspicious of: how much writing do these actors actually do? I've always found it doubtful that actors, who by the nature merely perform someone else's fiction and have no experience in creating fiction, are suddenly writing complex novels. The Shatnerverse was the first series of novels I became suspicious due to the incredible amount of detail and the fact they are all written in the exact same style, coincidentally, as Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
So what's the deal? How much involvement do these actors actually have in penning these novels?
-Shawn
The Shat has proven he can write. He's written Trek books solo, not to mention his "Tek" series.
Well, the Tek books were actually ghost-written by Ron Goulart, with input from Shatner, but never mind . . . .
You, sir, have just shattered my whole world.
That sucks.
I vaguely remember one of the acknowledgments where he was treating giving out thanks various people and giving out positions on a football team and Goulart was something like "quarterback and captain" and gave other praises. He wasn't hiding the the fact that Goulart was doing a big chunk of the writing. And Goulart seemed to be happy with the arrangement since they did 9 of them.
I'm guessing this comment in wikipedia is just wrong.
Wikipedia said:
I'm guessing this comment in wikipedia is just wrong.
Wikipedia said:
I'm reading William Shatner's new autobiography, "Up Till Now" (also co-written, this time by David Fisher) and there is a section (pp 245-247) where he discusses how Ron Goulart worked with him on the nine "TekWar" novels - and the comics. But it's no secret; he's mentioned it in "Starlog" before and I think so has Goulart. Admittedly, in the novels themselves, the dedications are cagey, saying that Shatner couldn't have written the book without Ron.
And when voice-activated software is perfected...? How will you tell when someone is physically "writing"?
I know, I was being funny. Hence the winky-smiley.
You got it. I used to feel reluctant to talk about the nuts and (self-sealing stem) bolts of my collaboration with Armin, but I've heard him tell it often enough now that I'm no longer uncomfortable discussing it.Screw the OP, David. I'd like to hear/read your answer...
Please...?
After approaching an editor at Pocket Books about the possibility of Armin and I penning a Deep Space Nine novel, we were told that the publisher would indeed be interested, but that we would still have to go through the same process as everybody else. At the time, that meant crafting a narrative outline for the novel, and if that passed muster, then we would have to turn in three sample chapters. Then, at that point, the editor would greenlight the book or pass on it.
So Armin and I met over the course of a couple of weeks and greatly expanded a tale that we had, with a third writer, pitched as an episode to the producers of DSN (the third writer had no interest in writing a novel). Armin and I worked together on this, in the same room, jotting down notes and beating out the plot points and character arcs. Ultimately, I wrote a draft of a narrative outline, Armin went over it, and then we submitted it to the editor at Pocket.
Fifteen minutes later, I received a telephone call saying that Pocket would indeed buy the novel, which at the time Armin and I called War Is Good for Business (a working title I knew we would change). I asked about the three chapters we were supposed to produce, but I was told that based on the writing in the outline, we had already proven our abilities. Armin and I signed on with a literary agent at his theatrical agency, a deal was done, and we then set out to write the book.
Now, understand that Armin had already co-authored a novel, The Merhcant Prince, a delightful science fiction work that mixed in Armin's love of Shakespeare and history. Our plan for our book was that, working from the outline, I would write the first draft of a chapter, then hand it over to Armin so that he could edit, rewrite, and add to it. We would go through however many iterations we needed to get a chapter right, then move on.
A fine, seemingly workable plan. Except that after I handed Armin a hardcopy of the first draft of the first chapter, something else happened. Armin loved what I had written so much that he wanted to leave it virtually unchanged. The same thing occurred with the second chapter, and it soon became readily apparent to the two of us that I would essentially write the novel by myself. As it turned out, that worked out well for both of us. Armin really liked my writing, and I learned that I worked best as a solo artist.
So in the case of The 34th Rule, I ended up writing the actual novel, though Armin and I cracked the original story together. Being the good, honest man that he is, Armin never hesitates to tell readers this. At first, I suggested to him that perhaps he shouldn't do that, but that never stopped him. A class act, that man, and I am very fortunate to be able to call him a friend. (My friendship with Armin and his wonderful wife Kitty was a great benefit of working on The 34th Rule.)
So there you have it.
