The Writer's Tale by Russell T. Davies & Benjamin Cook

I am currently reading The Writer's Tale by Russell T. Davies & Benjamin Cook.  I just received it yesterday in the mail and, after struggling through an eight-hour shift at my part-time job, I was able to dive in last night.  It was much larger than I expected and the format was not accurately described in the Amazon description.  I assumed it was going to be a memoir about the last full season and subsequent TV specials; written in prose and telling a story from start to finish.  It's actually an epistolary novel that covers the entire final season.  I'm already about sixty pages into the book and loving it.  Have you ever wished you could read the e-mails exchanges of this writer or that artist?  Somehow get inside their head and understand the genius that lives there?

Started with the intent of writing an article about the writing process that takes place for a hit television show, I can understand how it quickly became the textbook size tome that it is.  It appears to be an unedited dialogue between Head Writer for Doctor Who, Russel T. Davies, and Benjamin Cook.  Written through e-mails Davies is explaining his writing process as he is crafting Series 4, David Tennant's last full season, of Doctor Who for the BBC.  Davies is also constructing series 2 of Torchwood and The Adventures of Sarah-Jane (Both Spin-offs of Doctor Who) at the same time, so there is a bit of a bleed-through on his thoughts and ideas.

What has struck me the most, at the very beginning of this book, is the honesty with which Davies writes.  His e-mails to Benjamin Cook are full of a self-doubt one would not expect from a successful television show writer.  (Davies has created several shows in addition to resurrecting Doctor Who.)  He talks about his procrastination problems and looming deadlines for the shows.  Mistakes he's made in his life have served as inspiration for his art.  And we even see him repeating story formulas from the previous seasons as a means to get over writer's block.  Knowing how the fourth season turned out, I am anxious to see how he came to those decisions from his original ideas. (For those Doctor Who Fans out there:  apparently Donna's character was not intended to return for an entire season, merely a one off story or role in the finale.)  I'll keep you posted on the developments or interesting quotes I may come across.