Writing

I’m writing a new project at the moment that’s quite abstract and dreamy. It takes place in and out of different realities and different timescales, works on the power of real and fake memories, doesn’t always follow a linear pattern and often breaks that fourth wall by acknowledging the conventions of literature and trying its hardest to break them. It’s an interesting piece of work to immerse yourself in because often I don’t have to break any rules as the piece seems to exist outside of them. I’m always inspired by things like Wes Anderson films, that don’t follow a typical narrative strand, or meta-fiction like Charlie Kaufman that plays with the illusion of realities within fiction. Writing yourself into the plot of a film you feel is too ambitious to write is one of my favourite celluloid moments. Dave Eggers is good at playing with the idea of what a book is, striving to create a package that is so much more than the words, like McSweeneys or the entire impressive gamut of ‘A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.’ There are so many different ideas now of what fiction could be that trying to cover new ground is almost impossible. This book works as a perchance to a dream, it seems to be taking the shape of a trail of thoughts, how memory works linking strands in like six degrees of separation, a spiderweb of anecdotes that comprise your life, from the quieter moments to the ones refined and reworked till they work in party situations, taking on a new form of reality, becoming a ‘bit’, a piece of your reality that works better as a fictionalised bit of humour or shock and awe. I know how the book starts and I know how it ends and it cannot deviate from those two strict points for the crux to work. It’s fun wading through the middle not knowing entirely if it will work. it’s an ambitious piece of work, asking a lot of its reader, asking for suspensions upon suspensions of disbelief. I don’t know, at this stage, if the finished product will ever see the light of day but it’s nice to throw yourself into a new piece of work.

Recently I have:

- Watched ‘No Heroics’ as an experiment as I wrote a script on the exact same idea that a commissioner liked but said had just been made. I like it, and it does my idea better. Mine was more narrative based where this done the situational observations and universe jokes much better.
- Listened to N.A.S.A.s ‘Spirit of Apollo’ album. With a guestlist of MIA, Rza, Ghostface, Method Man, Karen O, Nick Zinner, Santogold, David Byrne, Tom Waits, E-40, SpankRock and others, it’s an impressive castlist rocking out some amazing beats. Most eclectic album of the year so far and destined to be the hipster’s chosen hip-hop product for 2009.
- Read Art Spiegelman’s Breakdowns (and heard Christian Bale’s- arf) and it is a special piece of work.
- Stopped going out practically.
- Started rehearsing for a one-off Britishness Test next month.