Suddenly, out of nowhere, I am rather unexpectedly
working on a new novel.
It is not, I must confess, a particularly serious
project. It’s a bit of fun, really, which is possibly dangerous if you go with
the idea that you should always write from the heart, and so forth. But on the
other hand there seems to be an audience – albeit a very small one – which actually
wants to read it, and it’s raising some money for charity, so it’s probably
having a more positive impact than any of my other works of fiction.
It all started last Sunday morning, during an edition of Treasure Quest, a radio programme I produce for BBC Radio Norfolk. The radio car team were heading for Scarrowbeck
Road in North Norfolk, and the observation was made that “Scarrowbeck” sounds as if it should be some sort of historical
romance. Presenters David Clayton and Sophie Little started joking about what
characters might be in it, and the listeners joined in, on the show’s Facebook
page as well as on the show itself.
That evening, purely for a bit of fun, I wrote the first
chapter of Scarrowbeck and posted it
on the Treasure Quest Facebook page.
Just a two-and-a-half thousand word pastiche of a cheap and cheerful
Victorian-set costume drama.
I was, admittedly, quite pleased with it – I thought I’d
done a decent job of capturing something of the genre. It’s always easy to
write the beginning of something, of course, and trying to write in a
broad-strokes parody of a certain style is also easier than casting about for
your own voice, whatever that might be.
But nevertheless, it went quite well, so I thought,
perhaps, I could have a go at carrying it on. I also decided to try and make
some money for charity out of it, by setting up a JustGiving page where people
could donate £5 per chapter, with the aim of ending up with 30 chapters - £150
for Children in Need. At time of writing half the money has already been
raised, so it looks as if I am well and truly committed to it now!
On the one hand, you might think “why are you wasting
your time messing around with this nonsense?” But at least I am writing something. Until I started writing Scarrowbeck, I hadn’t written any new
fiction all year. Since January, I
have been buried deep into the research for my prospective new Doctor Who Magazine submission, which is
finally coming towards its conclusion. It’s been a fascinating and enjoyable
experience, but has left me with little time for anything else. So it’s nice to
be writing something, anything fictional again, the fact I have monetised it
for charity means I have the added discipline of having to get it done.
Plus, unlike pretty much any other fiction I have ever
written, there is actually an audience for this. It may be only a dozen or so
people, and most of them will quickly get bored it I suspect, but even so… They’re
there. They exist.
And it only takes me about an hour or so to write each
chapter, based on the two I’ve done so far. That’s not too much of a
commitment. I’m aiming to do two a week, so should have it finished sometime in
the summer. Plus the idea of writing something in serial format is rather
appealing.
It’s better to be writing something than nothing, anyway.
So if you do want to follow it, the chapters will be available as they are
written on the Treasure Quest
Facebook page, here. And if you fancy donating to the cause, you can do that
via the JustGiving page, here.
In other news, as mentioned my new DWM piece is going well. I have done far too much research really, as it’s difficult if not impossible to
squeeze it all in while making a short enough and readable piece, but you never
know what you’re going to need to know to write well about something. I’m also
working on another new documentary project for the radio station, so plenty of
irons in the fire. Plenty of productivity.
So a little nonsense fiction can’t hurt!
