Jeff Povey
About Author
Author Jeff Povey is an award-winning screenwriter. As well as several original TV dramas and feature films he has also written over 150 episodes of Eastenders and for Casualty, Holby, Grange Hill and Silent Witness as well as co-creating the recent By Any Means. Shift is his debut teen novel. This and the sequel, Delete, are published by Simon & Schuster.
Interview
DELETE
SIMON & SCHUSTER
MAY 2015
DELETE, the follow-up to the highly-recommended SHIFT, returns to the alternate world in which a group of young people have found themselves stranded. After some highly charged adventures in the first book, their numbers are depleted but those that remain are back together and desperate to find a way back to their real world. Rev's dad holds the key - if they could only find his research papers. But they also have to face the 'Others', their doubles with superpowers who are also in this alternate world and who seem hell bent on killing them....
We asked author JEFF POVEY to tell us more about DELETE and what he has planned for the next book. You can read an earlier interview for SHIFT, below.
Q: Delete has a slightly darker tone from your earlier book, Shift. Why has the story taken you in this direction?
A: When I was writing the sequel I realised that it needed a more serious tone than the first book. I didn't want it to become frivolous. Even though this is a complete fantasy, I wanted to bring a reality to it and during Delete, things are getting more desperate for all the characters and some of the friendships, especially between the girls, are being tested.
Also, I was having a difficult time personally because my dad died while I was writing this book and that probably gave the book a more sombre tone, even though I loved writing it and it was great to get away from everything while I was absorbed in the story.
Q: The books are very action-packed, and a little like video gaming - did you have that in mind when you were writing it?
A: The story does feel a bit like a video game because of all the action and skills involved. There is a big difference though; in video games characters are killed and then come back to life but I'm not so generous with my characters.
I'm not a gamer but my son is and I have listened to him and his friends playing online warfare and shooting each other. When he was younger we'd play games together but I'm not allowed to be involved anymore.
I wrote Shift thinking it was the kind of book he would read and hopefully think it was great, but I have to confess I've not even managed to get him to read it yet. He reads the classics and he knows what stories are but he'd rather sit and watch something; he loves visual entertainment. But I hope other boys will pick up the books and enjoy them.
Q: Did you enjoy returning to the same characters that you'd created in Shift?
A: When I revisited Rev in Delete, it was like having an old friend around again. I wrote the book through her, in the first person. I have tried to write in the third person and I can't do it, I have to be inside the character's head and as soon as Rev opened her mouth and said something, I felt I knew her. I really like her character, I get her and I see her voice and know what her heart and mind are doing. Writing Delete was like meeting up with an old pal and I'm dreading letting her go.
Rev also has an interesting boyfriend dilemma. It's a bit like in Hunger Games when Katniss has to choose between Peta and Gale. I thought, wouldn't it be clever if they were both actually the same person? Rev has two 'Johnsons' to choose between. 'Other' Johnson (with the superpower) is not smarter but he's more together, more aware of what he can do, and he went out with the 'Other' Rev so there's a bond anyway. He has an advantage and this Johnson isn't as dashing as he should be. I thought it would be every girls' dream to have two of the same boyfriends wanting to be with you.
Q: Why are the friendships and bonds between the characters such an important part of these books?
A: Friendships are important in this series because the more the characters mean to each other, the higher the stakes are if they lose one another. I wanted them to get to 50 years old and to still know each other and to reminisce about what they had been through together.
It's essential for the plot that they stay together - we need what each of them brings, their bravery or their jokes or their warmth, or their dress sense - and we need to learn how much each means to the other. If a character goes missing, you want their friends to want to find them.
But there needs to be casualties. I don't like losing any characters but I want the plot to be as realistic as possible.
Q: Were there any surprises as you wrote this book?
I try not to plot too much of the next story out because I feel if I know what's going to happen, so will the readers. I know what the end point will be and what the big story moment will be; I know what the answers will be and there's a love story so you'll need to find out who Rev ends up with - or if she ends up alone.
So yes, there were surprises as I wrote the book, especially when one of the characters dies on the train. I hadn't expected that but as I wrote it I realised that that would have to happen - you have to be true to the story. Nor will there be any easy answers in the final book. I want, when the characters are sent back to their world, for them to know it has happened; that what they went through was real.
Q: In both books your characters spend a lot of time in London. Why did you take them there - and how would you spend your time in a deserted city if it were you?
A: I put them on a train to London because I like the idea of seeing a big, empty city with the river Thames and all the buildings alongside it. There's one image in this book that I particularly loved, of a London bus driving through the railway station.
I think if I found myself in an empty London I'd want to go to Buckingham Palace - but wouldn't everyone? Or I'd like to visit the last place you're allowed to go, like MI6. Then I think I'd have to go and find some food, maybe an eight star hotel - the best I could find - but it might be a bit boring if there was no one there and nothing on TV. I think I'd just have to go shopping in that case and I'd try to find out who runs the biggest CCTV network in London and start looking for some people!
Q: What would be top of your list of worries if that happened?
A: Finding I was with someone like the 'Other' GG from Shift, because you can't reason with him, he's evil. He might start out nice but he'd start to hate me very quickly!
Then I'd be worried about all the nuclear reactors around the UK. There are about nine reactors and at some point they will all go pop, so I don't think I'd last very long in an unpopulated world...
Q: What's next for the characters in Delete?
A: The ending of Delete is a bit of a cliff hanger, but that's how I write television scripts for East Enders and it's how my favourite Marvel comics used to end; I couldn't wait to go and get the next one. The way I dramatise things is that I can't tell you the answers and there will always be questions.
The next book is called Escape and the starting point is that Rev's dad knows how to get them back to their various homes, but there's a bit of a twist about the dad... Also, because Billie has gone off with Johnson we're left wondering if Rev will ever see him again?
I think that will be the final book but there's a lot I want to do with it so we'll have to wait and see if I can manage it all...
Q: What are your tips for writing very tense scenes?
A: If you're writing one of those big set pieces, with a lot of tension, then I think the best thing is to visualise it and find out how honest you can be within it. You're not just covering the crazy stuff but the character-based actions; how will your characters get out of that impossible situation? The characters have to answer that question themselves.
I think you need to visualise it so that you are with your characters in the moment, so you have the action and then the emotions. Also, if you have the idea, don't skimp on it, go as big as you can. Write it as if you're watching the movie and taking notes.
Q: Where do you write?
A: I have a shed at the bottom of the garden. It's in a terrible mess, there are lots of papers everywhere, bits of scripts for East Enders, Musketeers, Casualty - I have a board on the wall that shows all the things I'm involved in at the moment and there are 14 projects, all at different stages.
I've also got a shelf full of things my accountant needs, broken laptops - six of them - and I've got a rocking chair for when I need to just sit and think, and lots of my wife's artwork on the walls. I've also got a copy of Jim Morrison's biography, No One Here Gets Out Alive. He's my hero. I read it when I was an accountant and it made me change my life and start writing.
I love writing and I love television, I watch it all the time.
Q: Have you read any other great books recently?
A: I read a book based on a very simple idea called The Martian by Andy Weir. The main character is accidentally left on Mars and has to survive a year before he'll be rescued and it's really good - it was made into a film. There was another I really enjoyed called The Rain by Virginia Bergan, it has a great premise which is that the rain has become poisoned; if a single drop falls on you, it will kill you...
SHIFT
SIMON & SCHUSTER
MAY 2014
In SHIFT, a debut novel by JEFF POVEY, an hour in detention turns into a nightmare for eight teenagers as they are ripped from their everyday world into a parallel world - where all the people have disappeared. All except for a small group of teenagers who seem, at first, to be just like them - only they aren't so friendly.... The teenagers soon realise that the people they have seen are their 'doubles' but with super powers - and that their doubles are out to get them!
It's a thrilling, adrenalin-busting adventure that we're sure young people aged 12+ will love! Author JEFF POVEY tells us more!
Q: SHIFT is your debut novel - so what's your day job?
A: I write for the BBC television series East Enders; on and off I've been working for East Enders for 20 years which I think equates to about 200 episodes. I love television and the drama of soaps.
I have written scripts for other programmes too like Casualty and murder mystery programmes, but those always end and while it may grip you, after you've watched the programme you'll move on to something else.
The great thing about the soaps is that that they are constantly there and you value the characters and when it's done well, soaps are amazing and that goes for all the soaps! There is a huge amount of 'event' TV but these programmes go on day in and day out....
Q: How do television scripts for programmes like East Enders come together?
A: At the very beginning of this year we all got together at a story conference. So there were ten people from the Story Department at the BBC, plus the researchers, the programme team, an executive producer and the producer, and the writers.
You have 20 or 30 people in the room and the writers have to pitch their ideas for the programme in the weeks ahead there are 50 characters at the moment in the series so there are a lot to work with. We pitch our ideas from 9am to 6pm over three days, then the story department goes away and writes it up into a story document.
We need 16 episodes for each month. I usually write two of those; I'm given the skeleton of the story but I have to bring it to life through the dialogue and settings. We even have to write what time of day it is and what sort of make-up the women should be wearing - for example, they can't wake up looking like they're straight out of Dynasty!
With all the drafts, it takes about six to eight weeks before the episode is ready to use and by then, you're already working on your next one or two episodes.
Q: What happens if your ideas are turned down?
A: As a script writer you have to be tough. If your ideas are used that's great but you also have to be sensible and accept that not all your ideas will work out. I've got used to it over the years.
You have to realise that you can't be brilliant on your own, especially in the world of TV because there are 50 other people around you who also deserve to have some say in the programme.
It's a hard thing to learn - I know writers who will get tearful and worried if all their ideas aren't used but I think it's just part of the creative process.
Q: Given how successful you are in television, why did you want to write a book?
A: I love reading novels and I have a book on the go all the time. I was reading quite a lot of fiction on the Kindle and thought that I could do that. At the time I started writing Shift, I also had four teenagers in the house two of them are now over 20 and I wanted to write a book for my youngest boy who wasn't a reader.
Q: Why did you write the story in the first person, from Rev's perspective?
A: As soon as I had the narrator for my story, I found I could write it. Rev is sort of based my third daughter. I've started other novels before and never been able to get on with them because they weren't written in the first person so I couldn't get the voice right. That might be because I am a script writer where you need to be inside the head of the characters, and I'm not great at descriptive prose. But once I got into Rev's head, I could see it all happening through her eyes. I really liked the character, a slightly flawed teenager, and I knew it was vital to get her voice right.
Q: Have you based other characters on people you know?
A: I feel I know all the characters as they are mostly based on people around me and my family. Johnson is like one of my daughter's boyfriends - who also looks like him! - and the Ape is like that person we've all seen, every day of our lives, who has to shout things out and is always very loud but who can be quite loveable once you get to know them.
Because I had teenage daughters who went to an all-girls school, I've seen a lot of girls like Cassie who is very thin and rather mean. As for the guy GG, we had a kid come round to a party wearing his mum's wedding dress! How could you not be inspired to write about a character like that? The final character, Moth, is named after my brother, who isn't in a wheelchair like Moth but I liked the idea of one of the characters having a physical obstacle or challenge.
There's quite a large cast of characters and, when they arrive in another dimension, they each find they have a double with special powers - who wants to kill them. In the first book, you see them being killed off one by one although there are forces at play that means some can come back to life....
Q: If you had a doppelganger, what would his superpower be?
A: I think Id like him to be super-handsome! Actually I think not being able to be physically hurt would be great and much more useful than being able to fly around!
Q: Are you a serious person or do you prefer humour?
A: I'm the kind of person who would rather make a joke than be too serious in my day to day life. I think taking yourself too seriously is the worst thing.
I've put quite a lot of humour into the novel because you can't have teen angst without humour. It helps that the characters are not quite on top of what is happening in this 'other dimension' world they find themselves in. GG is such a great character, he's witty and keeps them all going, and Ape is funny because he's so stupid and nearly gets them killed so many times!
Q: What are your top three recommended 'must see' films?
A: First off would be Planes, Trains and Automobiles - that was the film I took my wife to see when we first met and it's an amazingly dark black comedy. I also rate Man Bites Dog about a serial killer who films himself going and killing people and talks to the camera while he's doing so, it's very black; and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which I love. That's the film that made me think about heroes and anti-heroes and I realised you could have a not-nice person who is still a hero after all.
Q: What is one thing we don't know about you?
A: I can tell you all the countries in the world in under ten minutes. There's 197 of them - and I can also tell you how many countries there are in each continent.
Q: How does your writing day go?
A: I write in a glorified shed at the bottom of the garden on a table which is a bit of wood propped up on another block of wood. I start writing after 8am and work through to lunch time, I take a break and then I carry on writing until six or seven in the evening.
When I wrote Shift, I booked a flat and went away for two weeks to write it. I realised that if I wrote ten pages a day over 30 days, I will have written a complete novel and that's what I did. It's my job and I get on with it.
Having said that, there were also days when I would read what I'd written and realise that it had all gone wrong and I'd have to delete a chapter or two and begin that part again. Some nights I'll stay up until 2am to get it right. But I don't see it as hard work because I love what I do.
Q: Any bad writing habits?
A: My distraction is the internet, that's my bad writing habit - you can look at one page and an hour later find you're reading about holiday villas and wonder where the hour has gone... But the worst thing though is sitting here and getting fatter. I do no exercise at all while I'm writing so I think the busier and more successful you get as a writer, the less fit you must be!
Delete
Shift
