Hello,
In the quest for subject matter for my latest book, I trawled through probably hundreds of old ideas I had lying around, I racked my brain for new ideas, read books, watched television, saw films, stared into space a lot, drank many cups of tea, and eventually after much backwards and forwarding with my agent, I decided on one. And here's the thing...it's about nothing.
Let me explain.
At the moment there are lots of books out there with big ideas, big plots, and they're great, and I had a few of these ideas myself, but after really thinking about it, one little idea kept coming back to me. I can't go into great detail just yet, but to give you the gist, it's a book about a very normal, suburban family. There isn't a big, elaborate plot, there aren't lots of characters, and to be honest, some people might think its boring. So, why am I writing it?
It's no secret that I get a lot of my inspiration from sitcoms. I love them. They're probably my favourite genre of anything, and my favourite sitcoms are the ones where not much happens. Think Seinfeld, The Office, Outnumbered, these are programs about ordinary characters in very ordinary situations. When I set out to write my new book, I definitely had these in mind. The story and the comedy comes from the characters and their everyday existence and that's it. There are twists, turns, heart-warming sweetness, sadness, truth, intense awkwardness, but at the very heart of it, its just these people trying their best to get through life without making a massive mess of it. This is the story I wanted to write.
It's probably the most challenging book I've written so far because I don't have a plot to fall back on. It isn't structured in the usual way, and although there is a hook (I can't say yet what it is), the essence of the book is just these characters living out their life. The only thing stopping it from meandering towards boring is the writing. I'm so glad that I chose to work on this book because it's making me think in a different way, and honestly, there aren't other books out there like this. It is different. Whether it works or not will be down to the readers, but I'm hoping that like my favourite TV shows, it's unique take on modern banal suburb life (or suburbanality, as I call it) will keep people hooked until the very end.
Until next time.
Hugs,
Jon X
