NOSE TO THE KEYBOARD

My friend Jordi arrives on Wednesday.   Jordi does E.U.-ish things in Brussels but he’s a film buff and a scriptwriter as well and we are writing a script together based on my novel BURNING BRIGHT.  

I met him in Macedonia in the snow when we were there observing elections.   The snow was deep the going was tough but he made me laugh, I made him laugh and we’ve been friends ever since.

Hotel Romantica, Velez, Macedonia where Jordi and I met

Writing fiction is fun but it is a solitary pursuit and it is next to impossible to shard the joys with people who don’t write.  when you join a group of friends and they ask

“How’s it going?”

And you reply

“Great I made Hetty have an affair with her boyfriend’s uncle.”

They’re inclined to raise eyebrows, take deep breaths, smile pityingly and go back to talking about real people. 

But when you co-write you can both laugh your legs off at Hetty’s predicament,   You can egg one another on to even greater extremes.   You can cackle delightedly at  alternative scenes which don’t really fit but are hilarious.

And when it comes to the serious bit, you have somebody there to bounce ideas off.   Someone to challenge you, someone to push you to clarify your thoughts and someone whom you can challenge back.   And, because your time together is limited – yes folks, we DO have lives – you have no time for brow-clutching, no time for agonising over the perfect phrase, no time for writer’s block, you just have to get on with it.

The process is liberating, energizing and great fun.   I recommend it to everyone.