10 Questions with Novelist & Screenwriter Andrew John Rainnie (@andrewrainnie)
This Author Spotlight
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Andrew John Rainnie
Novelist, Screenwriter, and Author of
My Right Leg Is Tastier
Than My Left
He has an MA in English Literature and Film & TV Studies, and a Postgraduate degree in Screenwriting.
He currently lives in Glasgow, working as a freelance script developer and copywriter, and has recently started his own film and multimedia production company, Rain Fire Films.
When not indulging his addiction for video games, he can be found taking photos for his website Discover Glasgow, a guide to Scotland's biggest city for locals and tourists alike.
Thanks, Andrew. Great interview. I greatly enjoyed As She Crawled Across the Table. Highly recommended.
Be sure to check out Andrew's Rain Fire Films, follow him on Twitter, and grab a copy of his book!
“My Right Leg Is Tastier Than My Left” is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, Sony eBookstore and Smashwords.
1.How did you get
into writing and why do you write?
I’ve been writing since I was old enough to hold a pencil.
It wasn’t so much the writing as the storytelling that appealed to me. I’ve
always been heavily influenced by films and television, but I found that the
best way I can craft a story is through my writing, which is why I studied
screenwriting.
However, there is an appeal to writing a book in that it is
your voice, whole and complete, whereas films and television shows are a large
collaborative effort, despite what auteur theory says.
2.What do you like
best (or least) about writing?
Finding the time. I’ve been an insomniac since I was a
teenager, and my mind is always active in the twilight hours, which is when I
usually sit and just hammer away at the keyboard or scribble words down on
paper. But I have an imagination that refuses to turn off, so I’ll constantly
be thinking of the story during the day, the cogs working in the background,
finding stronger bonds between characters or better scenarios to fit the theme
of the story I wish to tell. But time always seems to escape me. Although I
read a quote recently that made me laugh. “Time is an illusion. Only clocks are
real.”
3.What is your
writing process? IE do you outline? Do you stick to a daily word or page count,
write 7 days a week, etc?
It largely depends what format I am writing, or even by
project. For filmmaking I write a two-page synopsis, and then expand it to
10-12 pages before writing the first draft. But then halfway through writing an
idea may crop up that throws a spanner into the works, but I think it is best
to grasp those creative sparks and run with them rather than stick with the
rigid structure. Trying to do both is the key. Likewise for books, I started a
fantasy trilogy, “The Spirits of Vengeance,” and realized I would have to plot
the three parts. As I was writing the first book, the structure of the next two
books was constantly being revised as the series evolved.
For “My Right Leg Is Tastier Than My Left” there was no
structure, it was a blog I kept while travelling around the world. When I came
to collect it in one volume, I did try and put a bit of structure to it. In
fact I found that on some subconscious level I already had, many of the people
I met and themes I explored ran like a thread through the book. I think it was
the scriptwriter in me ingrained in my thoughts.
4.Who are some other
writers you read and admire, regardless of whether they are commercially “successful?”
Terry Pratchett is one of my main inspirations for writing.
He seems to manage his wry sense of humour effortlessly. I really enjoyed
Marcus Zusak’s novels, and I’m looking forward to seeing “The Book Thief”
adapted into a film. Jonathan Lethem is one of my favourite modern writers. A
friend of mine got me hooked by giving me “As She Climbed Across The Table,” as
a gift. I remember naively trying to get a job adapting the script for
DreamWorks. I ended up adapting a short story by Lethem, “The Collector,” and
directing the short film.
I also admire Joss Whedon as a screenwriter who often
manages to elicit the humour in even the most serious situations, but brings a
sense of poignancy to his pieces. I think it’s a great thing that he now gets
recognized as a great director too, but I think that is an extension of his
writing, and his overall voice. The same is true with Quentin Tarantino; his
scripts are his outright, and his dialogue is so cutting. Many screenwriters
are hard to judge because a great screenplay can make a terrible film, and a
lot of films these days are rewritten several times, and it often seems like
“too many cooks.” There hasn’t been a truly great film where there was six
screenwriters!
I think a lot of writing has lost the suspense it once had,
especially in television. I remember the likes of J.J. Abrams’ “Alias” often
ended with a cliffhanger, but you don’t really get that now, except in comics.
Jonathan Hickman and Brian Michael Bendis are very good at bringing those
“WTF?” moments to the last page of a comic.
5.Should the question
mark in the above question be inside or outside the quotes?
Inside.
6.What’s your stance
on the Oxford Comma?
I write for an American gaming website, Warpzoned.com, and
my editors are always busting my chops for forgetting the elusive Oxford comma.
It doesn’t come natural to me. I guess I don’t think it is necessary to have
punctuation there.
7.What is your book “My
Right Leg Is Tastier Than My Left” about and how did it come to fruition?
There is a story behind the story. Essentially I was a Scottish
guy who had been living in London for five years, working as a media analyst
and freelancing as a script developer. When the current Conservative-Liberal
Democrats coalition government came into power, the first thing they did was
disband the UK Film Council, which meant I lost some of my freelance work. I
had also just turned 29, and finished making a short film, “The Collector,”
based on a short story by Jonathan Lethem. My creativity was fried and the mood
in Great Britain was miserable, largely thanks to the bankers getting bailouts
while the rest of us went poor. I’ve always wanted to travel the world, being
an Indiana Jones fan, and all the things in my life just made me want to escape
into the wild. So I did. I took a year off and just went travelling. I remember
a few months in staying at the Indy Guesthouse in Busan, South Korea. The
owner, Indy, has a large Raiders of the Lost Ark poster with his face
photoshopped over Harrison Ford’s. When I saw that I knew I had made the right
decision.
8.What’s your current
writing project?
I have just finished a feature film script, “The Unseen,”
for a director I know in London, so I’m waiting on his notes before I redraft
that. I’m also rewriting the first book in my “Spirits of Vengeance” trilogy,
“The Stone of Spirits.” I’m hoping to find a publisher for that soon, or
self-publish again.
I am also putting together three short film scripts to be
filmed by myself back-to-back, entitled “The Illuminant Midnight Project.” Each
film deals with the themes of life and death in their own way, and I’m hoping
to launch a Kickstarter campaign for that later this year.
9.What book(s) are
you currently reading?
“Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts. I picked it up when I
was travelling but never found the time to read it.
10.Who or what
inspires your writing?
Everything. I read a lot, watch ridiculous amounts of films
and television. I spend afternoons people watching, just picking out traits,
flaws, characteristics. I digest a lot of information, from photographs online
to tales people have told me. Music inspires me a lot; my early stories and
films were often named after the songs that had conjured them into my brain.
I’ve been slowly piecing together a post-modern novella that is a book about
where we get our inspiration. I have a file that I add snippets of inspiration
to. When it has enough weight I’m going to chip away at the raw information and
carve a story out of it, but that is years away.
Finally, is there
anything you’d care to add? Please also include where people can read your
published stories, buy your book, etc.
“My Right Leg Is Tastier Than My Left” is available from Amazon
US and Amazon
UK, Apple
iTunes, Google
Play, Barnes
& Noble, Sony
eBookstore and Smashwords.
I have just started my own film company, Rain Fire Films, through which I’m
hoping to make more short films and music videos.
Thanks, Andrew. Great interview. I greatly enjoyed As She Crawled Across the Table. Highly recommended.
Be sure to check out Andrew's Rain Fire Films, follow him on Twitter, and grab a copy of his book!
“My Right Leg Is Tastier Than My Left” is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, Sony eBookstore and Smashwords.
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