Things to do when you should be writing, #2

Don't ever accuse me of being topical. But I'm sured I've bored a number of people in the pub over the years with my thoughts on this, and I thought I'd do the experiment for real. How to explain? I shan't. Just follow me:

A dice game.

Take six recent-ish Booker Prize winners employing a certain modish and overused formula that will one day look so, like, dated:

Pool 1:

Inheritance
Line
Life
History
God
Remains

Pool 2:

Loss
Beauty
Pi
Kelly Gang
Small Things
The Day

You can guess the rest, and indeed the point I'm trying to make.

Early results from the Booker Prize Winning Title generator:

The God of Small Things (Yeah, I vaguely recall this one...)
The History of Loss
The Line of The Day
The Inheritance of The Day
The Life of Loss
The Life of Pi (x 4 - maybe not as original as it seemed?)
The Remains of Pi
The History of Pi
The Line of Pi

Then that was quite enough pi for me. I had a go at swapping pools 1 & 2 (just to see whether it makes any difference which order the nouns are placed...)

The Loss of Life (x 2)
The Day of The Line
The Day of History
The Pi of Beauty
The Day of Remains
The Beauty of Remains
The Loss of Inheritance
The Kelly Gang of Line (ok, this may be the exception that proves the rule)

Now I don't expect this to become a craze (whatever happened to D & D?) but any thoughts/improvements to this little game would be welcome...

Lit crit of the week

"When you die, you will realise reality has punctuation." (Thanks to John for that one...)

Things to do when you should be writing, #1

Create an illustrated edition of your previous novel in the style of The Strand magazine

DARLINGTON FRIGG

“TOM WISHED SOMEONE WOULD PUT BLINKERS ON HIM, SO HE DIDN’T HAVE TO FEEL SO SPOOKED STANDING HERE AMONG ALL THESE BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. AND FOR SOMEONE TO FEED HIM LUMPS OF SUGAR – HE MISSED MRS LUDD’S CAKE HORRIBLY. AND HE WISHED SOMEONE WOULD LAY A FRIENDLY HAND ON HIS FLANK TO REASSURE HIM. AND HE WISHED HE HAD A TAIL.”

67

Combatting Dust

... is an experiment of a novel I'm trying to write, in blog form. I know - I can hear you groaning. When I read a version of this out recently, including medium strength language that has now been stripped out, it was my uttering of the cursed word bl*g that seemed to upset people the most. But I promise there is sound artistic reason for it, even though I can't explain it without giving away the premise of the piece.

If you're interested, have a peek at the blog link on the right - or even the link here - and see what you think. I'd be interested in your comments (only, if you comment in the blog itself, I may be forced to take moderating steps, otherwise the story could get a little too metafictional and silly....)

To begin at the beginning...

I'm not the real Bruce Banner. Or his alter egos, David Banner and T.I. Hulk. By day, and by night, weekdays and weekends, I am mild mannered Jamie Mitchinson. And I don't think there's going to be any poetry here, either. Just so we're clear about that.

I have no idea what this blog will become when it's older, but it's mainly interested in writing, books, daydreaming, that sort of thing. I just hope it pays no attention to the careers advisor, and doesn't worry unduly about what will happen if it messes up its A-levels.