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My new baby has been conceived (after several late nights groping for ideas… and lots of laughter) and it’s a farce.

Having spent the last two years immersed in a dark, dark literary place with The Tipping Point I was ready for something a little lighter and came up with the (perhaps crazy) notion of writing a farce in novel form. Can this work? Farces are best suited to stage/film – sustaining the necessary pace and humour over the length of a novel..?

I’m not at all sure, but the outline is taking shape and I haven’t laughed this much in a long time… it has to be worth pursuing.

Working title is La Folie and I’m having a lot of fun with muddled identities, mocking the world of online relationships and generally creating a cast of hapless idiots to feed my burgeoning Humour Addiction.

Watch this space…

Well… I eventually finished the first draft a couple of weeks ago but am still awaiting the warm glow of satisfaction. That said I went through two pregnancies waiting for the Great State of Blooming to occur and it never did, so possibly I am just not the sort of person who relaxes.

Possibly I am just a miserable git.

Possibly I am a Realist at heart (and if those of you who know me could, at this point, suppress any audible amusement it would be appreciated) and recognise there is still a long way to go with this book.

The manuscript is currently with the Great Osiander and I await his verdict with some anxiety. Firstly he’ll be the only person to have read the entire novel other than me. That in itself is both exciting and nerve-wracking. Exciting because an Objective Professional is going to see the whole and tell me whether it works. Nerve-wracking because an Objective Professional is going to see the whole and tell me whether it works. It’s bound to end in tears… this is clearly a friendship doomed, but hopefully a Better Novel will rise from its ashes.

Inspiration…

On a completely different note, I saw my favourite female singer/songwriter recently – Thea Gilmore (http://www.theagilmore.net/). She was brilliant, as expected. Thea’s lyrics and music have been massively inspirational over the years – she’s incredibly dark at times, which is always going to work for me, and lyric writers are so wonderfully succinct. I have a strong belief that *all* writers can learn from this brevity.

And on yet another musical note… I’m listening, as I write this, to Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO9dbmJ_2zU) which is, I think, one of the most powerful songs ever written. The original by Nine Inch Nails (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjwgYvzQWS4&feature=fvw) is also sublime. I often listen to both back to back – and this, again, provides a valuable lesson for writers in how a shift in voice, style and emphasis can have a powerful impact on any text.

We are glorious manipulators! It’s probably my favourite aspect of writing – the tweaking of structure, pace, words & punctuation for deliberate effect…

… which is why I should now be happier about having a first draft to edit… and I am…

I am.

I think.

No it’s not. My work has barely started. Final chapters may be almost complete, but weeks… nay, months… of editing lie ahead.