Respect the Writer

This week's Words of Wisdom are Respect the Writer. Every play, film, book or musical has its writer and the writer or writers are its prime creators. Every word of dialogue, every twist of the plot and every note of the music has been created by them and they should be respected. So, for example, take care to deliver every line exactly as written: an approximate paraphrase is simply not good enough.

Despite their pre-eminence in the creative process, writers are curiously unappreciated. In the New Year honours list far more actors are decorated than authors. Hit songs are routinely ascribed to the singers that first performed them rather than the songwriters that wrote them. In books of quotations classic comedy lines are listed under the actors that delivered them rather than the writers that thought them up. (So, just for the record, Morecambe and Wise's material was written by Eddie Braben; Tony Hancock's by Galton and Simpson.)

In the land of the world's greatest playwright, Shakespeare, and the world's greatest novelist, Dickens, we should appreciate writers more. Actors should learn about the writer's craft: the use of words, the structure of stories, the insight into human nature. Try writing yourself and find out how difficult it is to create something original and interesting.

Respect the Writer.