No, you haven’t missed anything, I missed Saturday, ‘no post’, as they sometimes say at the breakfast table. Reason? Well, probably due to a late night on Friday, which was due to live music at ‘the Secret Garden’, and we went there following a tap run-through with the full cast, and that followed on the heels (well, the heel-toes) of a lunch in Yialos, so it was all a rather long day on Friday which led to a long lie in on Saturday.
It’s actually Sunday now, though this isn’t going up until Monday. And the point of today’s post, if there is one, is that I want to copyright a couple of quotes. I’m not sure it’s actually possible to do that but I have been working on a new book and come up with some quotes and I wanted to get them out and ‘published’ before anyone else came up with them, so we’ll know they came from my characters. (Assuming they’ve not been used already.)
Nothing very grand or thought provoking, just a bit of fun. The new novel is a comedy one so when I sit down to write a chapter I have to ‘let myself go.’ Basically just let it pour off the top of my head – though I would have been thinking the chapter through the day before, overnight, or even in my sleep. That’s why, if you see me staring off into space and apparently not listening to you, it’s usually because I am. Not listening I mean. I am trying to, but the scenes and characters in the next chapter are jostling for attention and the brain is trying to figure out a story. I don’t mean to be rude, but that’s how it is when I am in full flow writing mode. And that, after three months of not being able to get down to it, is a very nice thing indeed.
So, yes, I have to sit down, with the chapter point, the ‘POC’ as I call it (the point of the chapter – as every chapter needs to have a point to move the story forward) clear in my head, and then I just let it all hang out, or rather, pour out. I can go back and tidy up the mess later and knock things about, and see where my characters led me while I was doing that stream of consciousness thing. I often find myself heading off in directions that the previous day’s chapter-planning think didn’t take me. That’s always fun.
Anyway, while doing all this, I have also set myself the task in the new book of starting each chapter with a quote. Only one is a real quote, but the others are made up. To use real, real quotes you have to pay people, but I think I am okay with the one from the vicar of Snargate who died in 1845 or something, I think that one is out of copyright. The rest are mine and here are two of my favourites. Actually, the first is Neil’s favourite (he being my first draft test driver has read the work so far) and the second one is my favourite. A brief explanation of each is given:
The story is all about a new reality television show that is all about reviving remote British seaside towns with live variety shows where the local community get together and perform. The show is call ‘So you think we’re remotely interested?’ (Or just ‘Remotely’) and is a big hit. It’s coming to ‘Middlestone on Sea’ (“The beach at Middlestone was once celebrated, but sadly now even the tide has turned against it.” ‘Fading gems of the Kent coast’ – May Godbehere (1900 – 1962)) where the two young (main) characters both hang their hopes and dreams on being ‘discovered’ in the show. One, Gary Scott, is a theatre queen and comes out with: “What is theatre if not life, and what is life if not theatre?” That’s the one Neil liked.
The two main characters dislike each other, and one notes about the hated family next door: “The Hunter family are so in-bred, they don’t have ancestors, they have incestors.” And that’s the one I liked.
Remember you read it here first folks. Have a good day and I’ll be back with more rambles (possibly even about Symi, Greece or something interesting) tomorrow.
