Creative Ambitions

I started a novel last year. I’ve always had a creative side trying to get out. I guess it’s the combination of me being both a Pisces and left-handed (sadly this also means statistically I’ll die about 9 years younger than most - curse my writing preference.)

In my teens I wanted to be a cartoonist. I created a whole world for these two cartoon fellows – Ben ‘n’ Bill (NOT Bill & Ben – there’s a difference.) and they had many adventures to amuse a selection of my school friends. They were printed in the local paper and came on the top 200 of the Lloyds Bank Channel 4 Film Challenge. I still doodle them when bored but it’s been a good 10 years since they had a 40-page adventure.

The net has been the main vent for my creativity over the last 10 years. Numerous WebPages on Red Dwarf and the Big Breakfast.

But like Dave Gorman, there’s something inside me that longs to write a novel. Everyone was surprised when I announced it was a contemporary story set at a university. They all expected Science Fiction. I was really enjoying writing the story of Chris and his life at uni. His failed romance, his numerous visits to casualty and a number of drunken mishaps and quarrels. Then my hard drive died. I do have a back up but it’s 7000 words shorter than the lost 40,000 word hard drive version and the knowledge that I have to re-create a number of chapters had doused the flame that was fuelling the story.

I still have ideas for that novel and a number of others zooming around my head. I hope they see the light of day.