[spoilers] Ruth's Diary

[almh]

I will upload all the details later today, but something major is the death of her father in 1981 when she was 10/11 (depending on when in the year he died.) As you might know from Harry's Diary (yes I did check that the dates correlated!) her birthday is 29th April, and she was born in 1970. She joined GCHQ straight from university in 1994, and she was seconded to MI5 on 4th September 2003, but actually joined a year later. That's all I can think of, as well as Peter's death.

I will upload her file in entirety later today, because there are some interesting snippets such as the reference from her classics Professor at Corpus Christi, and things like that.

[JHyde]

Ooooh that is interesting.

We know a little of what you'll be doing over your Christmas break almh!

[almh]

No, that is all I will be doing Actually it's not all Spooks related... well, I'm watching Doctor Who as well!

[Tea Lady]

You guys are so organised I agree with most of what you have said. Beginning with her reasons for wanting to leave GCHQ is a good starting point. Harry's Diary only started when he took the job at 5 and even though I am only 40 pages into it, reference to matters which took place before he joined 5 are just told in flashback form.

I think though that I will need to rewatch series 2-5 in order to really get into Ruth's head and heart. Four people will all see different things and interpret things differently, but I consider this a good thing. It will probably take me till over Christmas to watch all these episodes again. I dont know what you guys think?

I think if one person takes it in turn to write a particular section in chronological order, then we all make comments and suggestions, then one of us as Chief Editor has the final say and makes the alterations (if any.)

[almh]

Of course we're organised Unfortunately, Spooks is the only area in my life where I am organised

Yep, I agree with that, sounds like a plan. Do you think we should still go through with everyone writing the first(/first two) chapters together, or would we just rely on one person to make sure that Ruth's voice stays fairly similar throughout? Obviously everyone's own writing styles will show through, but I still think that we need to keep her voice fairly consistent.

[JHyde]

Given you're our showrunner, it might be an idea if you take a pass at the first two entries and then we can have a group analysis, and make any adjustments or discussions we want to have. Obviously you can chat with us individually for guidance if you feel like you need it, but that might be best. I think it's better if we go by maybe two entries at a time anyway (or 1 if it's really long) just to develop some consistency of narrative for her.

And then if you, almh, look at our entries before they go to Mod approval, you an tweak anything first.

Is this too much to put on you at the start? Basically we're volunteering to have a pass at this once a month, which isn't too outrageous.

[almh]

Oooh, show runner. That sounds cool. I don't mind doing the first two - anyone else have any opinion on that (yes I am constantly asking but otherwise sometimes people don't say anything...) I think that's a good idea to have a group analysis on the first two, to make sure everyone is comfortable about it.

I don't mind reading them before they're published Do you know if we're going to have our entries moderated like on the fanfiction area? Because this won't be on the fanfiction area, it's going to be in Character Section? If you don't know I'll just ask Nitrus later (poor guy - the number of emails he's got about this!)

I don't mind doing all this at the start - obviously if anyone else wants to get more involved they can help too

[JHyde]

It's OK. I can talk to Nitrus about how the threads will be approved.....maybe you and I can do the approving, I'm not sure. We'll see. Once there aren't any new eps for a while I'm sure this will seem a blessing in disguise

[almh]

How can it be a blessing? lol. I suppose this will now replace everyone's Friday/Wednesday night watching - writing Ruth's Diary instead! Just kidding.

[JHyde]

No, that's what I meant.