Hello,
I thought I'd write a blog about why I write what I write. Why romantic comedy? Well, to answer that question, we have to go all the way back to the heady days of the late 1980's.
Hair was large, glasses were larger and jumpers were perhaps even larger. I was a boy in my early teens and just discovering the joys of comedy. For those of you who don't know, the 80's and early 90's were a hotbed of comedy in England. We had wonderful comedy shows on television like Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses, Bottom, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Reeves and Mortimer, Men Behaving Badly, The Mary Whitehouse Experience and many more. It was at this time I started thinking about comedy a lot and I sort of knew I wanted to do something with it. I had absolutely no idea what, just something. Anything.
I knew I would never have the balls to do stand-up and to be honest, I don't write very good jokes, let alone deliver them on stage to a bunch of pissed-up, potential hecklers. I did, however, quite enjoy writing character based comedy. I started drawing cartoons at first, which was fun, but a tad limiting and so I started writing short stories and then longer novellas and then eventually the holy grail..a novel.
I have to back-up a touch though. I think it was 2001 or maybe 2002. I had graduated university in 1999 and was working in an office somewhere doing something very trivial and dull. I was also going through a bit of a dry spell with regard doing anything remotely creative - work will do that to you. However, that was about to change when I picked up a book by the author Mike Gayle, called Turning Thirty. It was funny, light-hearted, written simply and above all, it was about someone like me, someone I could relate to. As soon as I finished this book, I read his other books and I knew I had found what I wanted to do.
I used that moment as a starting point and then I read similar books in the genre starting with the brilliant Nick Hornby. I also watched films and TV shows because to me it's all the same. It's about the writing. Whether it's a sit-com like The Office, a novel like About a Boy or a film like Four Weddings and a Funeral, it's all about the quality of the characters and the quality of the writing. The important thing though, is I was inspired to write meaningful romantic comedies with great characters people could relate to.
My first attempt at a novel was called, The Trouble with Love, and was only read by a handful of close friends. It probably/definitely wasn't very good, but it inspired me to keep writing and get better.
I like to think my work is funny, entertaining and makes people happy, like any good comedy should, but it also has great characters people can relate to and sympathise with. My favourite sitcom is The Office (UK version, obviously), not because it's the funniest, but because of the characters. The characters in The Office are wonderful and the writing is perfect. I love the work of Richard Curtis (Four Weddings, Love Actually), because again the writing is sharp, funny and the stories compelling.
I write what I write because it's me. It's in me. I think as writers we're merely the accumulation of our existence. My life has been shaped by comedy and comedians. Without wishing to sound like David Brent, my heroes aren't scientists, philosophers or sports stars, they're comedians. Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Ben Elton, Ricky Gervais, Any of the Monty Python team, Pegg & Frost, Mitchell & Webb etc. I aspire to write the best comedy fiction I can. If I tried to be serious or write a sci-fi, I'd probably get about two paragraphs in before thinking of a way to make it funny. I can't help myself.
My newest novel, Happy Endings, isn't the balls out laugh-fest that Thirtysomething is, but it's still in my mind a romantic comedy. It's straighter and leaner than Thirtysomething, but it's coming from the same place. I'll always write books like this because I don't know and don't want to write anything else. I love writing about relationships and love because it's the essence of life. Whether it's about growing up, starting, maintaining or losing a relationship, it's what life is about and it inspires me.
When I was a kid I read the Adrian Mole diaries a hundred times over. I loved them and devoured them and in many ways, This Thirtysomething Life, is a sort-of homage to them. It's a simple story about someone trying to get through life and perhaps that's why it's so easy to relate to. It's about people like me, people like you and people like us.
Hugs
Jon X
