When I had to earn a living from writing I wrote plays for radio, television and the theatre, plus lots of commercial scripts for management training and promotion. Once I had retired I could turn to novels and short stories – definitely not an option for most people needing to earn money to pay the bills.

This novel began life in the 1990s – it’s the one on which I honed my skills in prose. Over the years the honing process continued until finally, with the help of an excellent editor, we reached a publishable novel.

It’s a bit whacky, of course, but those of you who know my work will not be surprised at that. The publisher describes it as:  “One man’s funny, touching and unpredictable journey through life, love and reconnection”. Enjoy.

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A classic example for me came during our visit to the Falkland Islands in 2002. Dee was there for the BBC to make a programme 20 years after the conflict and I went along for the ride. (At my own expense, of course.) One day we went out to Darwin and while there saw the Argentinian cemetery. Most of graves had no names but some had bunches of flowers lying on them. At the time it was difficult, if not impossible, for Argentinian families to visit the Falklands and we later learned the flowers were left by a local woman – which was not a popular act. When she was challenged and asked why she said:

“Because his mother can’t.”

Fifteen years later that became the title of a story in my “Personal Islands” collection about isolation and being alone. I still find that statement very moving.

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Having launched my new website and announced I will be writing a regular Blog, I now have to put my money where my mouth is and write something. But what? I think the best I can do is share some of my thoughts about being a writer based on my experience over the last 50 years. Let’s think of these Blogs as “Random Ramblings Of A Writer”. A good place to start is by sharing some of the questions I am often asked in the Q&A session at the end of one of my talks. Recently I was asked: “Have you got any advice for my nephew who wants to be a writer?”

Well, that’s not exactly something you can provide a useful answer to in a Q&A session and I said so. However, based on my writing career of more than 50 years, there are always a few words of advice I can offer to anyone who would like to be a writer. On this occasion I settled for:

“Write. Don’t just talk about it.”

“Use your own voice – don’t try and imitate someone else.”

“Don’t try and write the final draft the first time round.”

I pointed out that all my books went through several drafts before the structure and the balance were right.

Incidentally, I believe that an image is a good way to attract attention but if all I did was use pictures of me or my books, that would be very dull. So here is a picture of a house on a Cornish cliff top where I have often stayed. I have never written a book there, but have often sat looking out at the view while making notes for a new writing project. The line from Winnie-the-Pooh comes to mind. “Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits.”.

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“If a man is out of step with his companions, maybe he is marching to the beat of a different drum.”

That’s me.

My intention is to update this Blog regularly with various random off-beat thoughts about the process of writing, pieces of writing that have inspired me, the origin of some of my books and so on. 

It’s ironical that, although I have had a long and interesting career in playwriting, radio and television production, audio book publishing and now novel writing, the main things people remember are that I wrote for ‘The Archers’ (Radio 4) and ‘Rainbow’ (ITV). Still I guess that’s better than being completely forgotten.

If you have any comments on the site or the Blog please let me know. Learning never stops.

Michael

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