Buzz

Writers get a raw deal. Not because they're often undervalued and underpaid in the entertainment business, but because they rarely get to experience the effect of their work on an audience.

For musicians and actors, much of their art is about performing. They get to stand in front of expectant faces and live or die based on the response. A writer can't do that, novelists especially. Somehow I imagine reading Harry Potter with J.K.Rowling standing over your shoulder is an unfulfilling experience for both parties.

It's a shame. I've just got back from the World Premiere of 'Nothing Travels Faster Than Bad News' for my colleagues at work. Seeing my words and pictures up on the screen (and, indeed, me) and hearing people laughing in the right places and quietly attentive for the others... That was a buzz.

It was completely different to when I showed 'Trespass of the Magi' up in Dundee to solemn indifference. I should have been watching reactions, but once the film started with over a dozen people in the room, I kept my gaze fixated on the images I'd seen hundreds of times before.

Then it ended. And there was actually applause. It was then I noticed that the room seemed to have filled up considerably since the lights went out. It was all terribly embarrassing for a modest guy like myself, even more so when Colin steps up and presents me with a printout of an Oscar.

My acceptance speech sucked. I shall have to practice for the real thing. The worst bit was trying to thank all the people in the room who'd helped out with the film (trying to remember anything with that many people looking at you is a nerve-jangling experience).

Tonight's premiere in Derby should hopefully be a little relaxed.
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