Busting guts and acting up
Happy New Year Friday!
I trust you have all sprung the knots that bound us to 2017 - may the Bacchanalia continue long into 2018.
As you may know, since November I've been working on a new novel with Curtis Brown Creative. Led by award-winning novelist, etc. Charlotte Mendelson, the course is great impetus and has inspired a sharp left turn in my writing process.
Rather than launching into an idea and following the blind tapping of my fingers on the keyboard until I hit The End, I have instead spent the last month tracing and retracing my novel's storyboard. What I have now differs vastly from the synopsis that won me the place on the course.
It started with my long walks in the Lake District before Christmas, writing themes and characters into a special WHSmith notebook. Each time I think of the novel (and most of my time is spent thinking, not writing - another change), I add another layer, building it up like strips of papier maché on a party balloon.
I hope that, this way, I will start writing (when I start writing) with a story that has satisfying and surprising structure, with revoltingly authentic characters whose every move is simultaneously inevitable and unpredictable. It's an ambitious aim, and we'll see together whether I can make it happen.
As well as Charlotte, Curtis Brown and all the delightfully engaging students on the course, I have assistance from one of my new favourite books on writing: John Yorke's Into the Woods. As an avid fanatic for spreadsheets, I love forensic explorations of story structure and the magician's hat trick of schemata. It all looks so simple: a tribe of monkeys in an air-conditioned office, if only they could type.
In preparation for my first tutorial with Charlotte, I wrote up my initial story outline, which is far too thin to share without embarrassing myself beyond necessity. But here's a snippet from Act 1.
The novel is Catch-22 meets On The Road, except on the M1. If that's your sort of thing, let me know what you think. And I'll steal all your ideas :)
Act 1 Synopsis
1. Andrew is carefully driving his wife Alicia from their semi-detached home in Caversham, Reading to Heathrow airport. Alicia, a contemporary dancer, is going to a week-long dance workshop in Berlin; she'll be back on Sunday, in time for their (boring) wedding anniversary plans. Establish that Andrew believes there is a best way of doing everything, and fastidiously follows the advice of Californian lifestyle guru and now reclusive Scottish laird, Butch Griddle. Establish that he's got a meeting with an important client at work this morning. He is a rising-star actuary for a Reading-based company. His job is to calculate the value of human life in various future scenarios for business clients and so far he's been very successful.
2. Andrew's schedule is slightly delayed by a rambling conversation with their octogenarian next door neighbour, Miss Tree. While Alicia is charmed by her fanciful stories, Andrew thinks Miss Tree's memory has gone and doesn't believe a word. Miss Tree mentions that she's planning on driving up to Scotland tomorrow to visit her daughter. Andrew hustles Alicia into the car, wishing that they had more sensible neighbours.
3. In heavy traffic on the M4, they are involved in a slow speed crash that does minor damage to one of Andrew's brake lights. Alicia urges him to forget about it and keep driving – they're no longer so early for the flight, but Andrew plays by the book and gets the details of the other driver, a frightened young man.
4. At Heathrow. Just as Andrew's about to take the lane that leads to the Heathrow drop off parking, Alicia tells Andrew that she thinks they need some time apart. She's been meaning to have this conversation for a long time. Andrew drives around and around the roundabout while he debates whether to take the short stay parking exit and risk missing his important meeting, or carry on to the drop off which wouldn't give them any time to discuss this bombshell.
5. Andrew plumps for the 5-minute drop off. Alicia realises that her flight isn't from Heathrow: it's from Gatwick, North Terminal. They have 45 minutes to make the 43 minute (legal) drive. The atmosphere in the car is frosty to say the least. They arrive just in time and Andrew helps Alicia with her bags, running to get a trolley. He's mistaken for a porter and an elderly woman asks him to help her to her gate. Andrew starts to refuse, but then notices the woman's missing eye and reluctantly agrees. If the M4's cleared up, he'll still have just enough time to get to his meeting on time.
6. But when Andrew gets back to the drop off after helping the elderly woman, his car is disappearing over the horizon, towed by airport security...
Did you know that opticians can diagnose diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems and arthritis from looking at a photograph of the back of your eye? Apparently I'm fine - look at that optic nerve! Oh - sorry - should have warned you: gross picture of my eyeball coming up.
>> INPUT
Five things that have inspired me this week. Feel free to share yours.
COMEDY: Hammerhead by Joseph Morpurgo at Soho Theatre. Infeasibly good "stand up" show, based on a one-man performance of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
BOOK: The Art of Losing Control by Jules Evans. An avowed Stoic philosopher realises there's more to life than rational dominion over your impulses: religion, dance, rock'n'roll, psychedelics, sex and violence for starters.
SCIENCE: Staring into another person's eyes can make you hallucinate. Giovanni B. Caputo (2015) Dissociation and hallucinations in dyads engaged through interpersonal gazing. [Or try this Guardian write up]
TV COMEDY: Inside No. 9 is back for Series 4. I haven't watched this yet, but Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith appear to be in possession of unlimited entry, queue jump passes into the comedy imaginarium.
ADHACKING: First day back at work and Special Patrol Group are once again subvertising on the Underground: "Women of England, heirs of glory; Heroes of unwritten story..."
OUTPUT >>
As you may have noticed, this mailing list is the engine room of my writing. I really appreciate all you do to make me want to be a more thoughtful human. Here's some you might have missed:
2017: No News is Good News (January)
After the Christmas, the Crisis (January)
Dave's Books of the Year 2017 (December)
Learning Arabic from a Syrian wanted by ISIS (December)
Tomsleibhe, Isle of Mull (November)
...COMING UP...
My tutorial with Charlotte next Wednesday. Steeling myself. Curtis Brown are also putting on a Q&A with author Imogen Hermes Gowar for us on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to seeing how she differs to Jeffrey Archer!
The Crisis at Christmas post-Christmas party is tomorrow. A chance to catch up with new friends and entwine my fate more closely with theirs.
In case you're wondering: my episode of The Narrativist is still under construction. Stay tuned!
Gut Buster 2017 on New Year's Day. A 10k run in the frozen mud, near the Roman ruins of Calleva Atrebatum in Berkshire.
Ankle-deep through a ford, knee-high through a brook and the finishing straight was a recently ploughed cabbage field. All for a medal and a mince pie. Thoroughly worthwhile.
Next year we'll do the 10 miler!
In the spirit of Bacchanalia and embracing the anima as well as the animus, here's something more ancient to end:
“He is life's liberating force.
He is release of limbs and communion through dance.
He is laughter, and music in flutes.
He is repose from all cares - he is sleep!
When his blood bursts from the grape
and flows across tables laid in his honour
to fuse with our blood,
he gently, gradually, wraps us in shadows
of ivy-cool sleep.” (Euripides, The Bacchae)
Can't wait for tomorrow's communion!
- dc
p.s. You know there's always a pretty picture if you scroll to very, very end, don't you?
SALESY BLAH
I (try to) make a living by writing. If you could use my writing services, or know anyone who could, please get in touch. Stone the crows! I'd be thrilled if you fancy...
buying a book: I'm told Life To The Lees: Cycling Around Britain is good
supporting this mailing list by sending me a tip on PayPal
or simply forwarding this email to a friend!
*|FORWARD|*
Thank you!
www.davidcharles.info
@dcisbusy
This map shows the birthplace of almost every character in Homer’s Iliad, shared courtesy of the excellent Kottke.org. Click the map to see more detail.
