Fairytales for a digital age

I woke up on Friday morning with a song in my head.

When I was in sixth form, some of the guys from the year above me formed a band. They called themselves “To Jane”.  They used to play gigs in small pubs and clubs in Oxford.  I never really knew them, but I liked their music.  I’d go and see them, when I could get past the bouncers without ID.

I bought the tape.  It was a blank C60 with a white sticker and the band’s name on the front.  I played it on my walkman when I wasn’t listening the The Cure, or Marillion, or All About Eve.

Years passed.  I left my walkman on a tube train.  My tape decks gave up the ghost so I bought a CD player.  When that died I hooked my amp up to my PC and started listening to mp3s.  Every time I moved house, I lugged a dusty box of cassettes that I could no longer play.

And then suddenly one morning, I couldn’t stop humming this fifteen year old tune.

I sat at my desk, on Friday morning, and wondered where the members of the band were now.  Chances were they were sitting at desks, like me, somewhere out there in the grey November world.

I wonder what they would say if they knew that somewhere, someone was still humming their song.

Two days in, and 3773 words down.  So I’m officially ahead of schedule.

Actually, it’s gone pretty smoothly so far.  So far all I’ve had to do is throw my characters together and watch them bicker.

Wonder if it will all be that easy…

November 1st.  9.39am.  No excuses.  It’s time to start novelling.

Still not entirely sure how I’m going to begin.  This is more than a little alarming.  Guess the only thing to do is fire up word and see what happens…

The next door neighbour cut down the holly tree outside the study window yesterday.  This makes me sad.

Just under 29 hours till the start of NaNo.  I almost have a plot.

Or at least, I have three characters, who are going to hate each other when they meet. That’s almost the same thing, right?

Actually, I feel less prepared for this NaNo than I have for any so far.  For the first time ever, I don’t have an opening line echoing in my head.  When I boot up my PC on Friday morning, I’ll have no idea what to write.

Unless inspiration strikes between now and then…

If Berlin was a film it would be in an entirely different genre to London.

London would be a Tarentino film.  It’s crowded.  Noisy.  The soundtrack is so cool it hurts.  But it can’t quite make up it’s mind what it wants to be.  Walk from Kings Cross to Camden on a Friday night, and you’ve gone from seedy crime thriller to zombie flick in just a few paces.

Berlin is different.  Berlin would directed by Sofia Ford Coppola.  So it’s easy for me to say that after drinking whisky a hotel bar.  But it’s more than that.  Berlin’s a big, empty city.  It almost feels like there aren’t quite enough poeple to fill it. But then duck inside a cafe or a bar, and there are plenty of stories to be told.

I spent last night walking around the almost empty streets of Wilmersdorf.  It seemed like every third building was selling paintings - or antiques - or furniture straight from the nineteen thirties.   Almost like the whole city was an art gallery open just for me.

Neal Stephenson’s new novel arrived in the post. Today is a good day.

I still have no idea what I’m writing for NaNoWriMo. Word on the street is it’s only six weeks away…

Insomnia. No - not my current state of being, but my first FTDA project. Read it here:

Insomnia

See those two little words in the bottom of the poster on the homepage. ‘Every Monday’. No pressure there then…

A huge tip of the hat to the good folk at Moviestorm - who’s stunning package quite literally made this possible.

This site is a place to upload various bits and pieces of writing I’ve been tinkering with over the years.

I write lots.  But I’m much better at starting stories than finishing them.  So FTDA is my incentive to keep going till I get to the end.

Hello world…