A very happy Friday to you all. I hope you've had a lovely week. I'm in the middle of editing book number four, and so I thought I'd write a last blog about 'This Family Life' before I move on. It's funny being a writer because we spend so long writing books, getting to know the characters, submerging ourselves in the worlds we create, but once we finish them we never really going back to read them. At least I don't anyway. Maybe it's because I read them about fifty times while writing them. Anyway, so before I say goodbye to 'This Family Life' for good (at least until I write 'This Fortysomething Life' anyway), here are my final thoughts.
When I started writing 'This Family Life' I struggled a bit at first. I found it hard to find the story. The trouble with writing a diary novel is keeping the main story going alongside all of the day-to-day more mundane entries. If you've read 'This Thirtysomething Life' or 'This Family Life' you'll know that a lot of the comedy comes from observing life. I like to take things that each of us go through in life and point out why it's funny - almost like an extended stand-up routine. It's these observations that form the basis of a lot of the comedy in the book. Like for example when Harry goes to management training, which I've done myself, and just the absurdity of it. Writing this book I had lots of funny ideas, especially on being a parent, but how to form all of that into a coherent story?
A couple of things happened which brought the plot together. I'll try and explain this without giving too much away. Probably the biggest breakthrough I had was deciding to bring Harry's parents into the book in a big way. In the first book, they only played a very small part. They were peripheral characters, who although I loved writing, didn't really play a big part, but I decided that they would play a much bigger role in this book. I also think it makes sense because speaking from experience, when you have children grandparents do play a bigger role in your life and so it felt only natural. Once I knew they were going to be in it a lot more, I had to create a storyline for them and this is when things started to click.
The second thing that happened was that I introduced new neighbours. I sort of knew from the start that I wanted to create some new characters for this book. I loved the characters from 'This Thirtysomething Life' and most of them are back, but I felt like I needed a new set of people who would dramatically impact Harry and Emily, and so new neighbours seemed like the obvious choice. Having a new couple on the street with their own child, set off a whole new world of story ideas. So from struggling with ideas for a strong plot line to thread through the book, suddenly I had almost too many ideas. Actually when I sent the first half of the book to my agent, the first thing she said was that I was trying to do too much. There was too much going on and that I had to focus the story more.
The good thing about having too much is that it's easier to cut back rather than think up new ideas. I was soon decided on the main story lines and after that the book wrote itself. Not literally, obviously, but it it did come together very quickly. I already had so much comedy material, so many ideas for set pieces, scenes, and characters that once the main story came together, I just needed to hang everything else on it.
I love writing these books and I'm definitely going to revisit Harry, Emily, and baby William again. I'm turning 40 next year and so once I have some very real experience of that I'm sure I'll be able to write a 'This Fortysomething Life' and who know where Harry will be, if he'll have more children, the same job, etc, but one thing is for sure, whatever happens to Harry and co, it's going to be funny, heart warming, and I'm going to really enjoy writing it.
 |
| Pop on over to Amazon and pick up your copy |
Until next time.
Hugs,
Jon X
