...to find rejection letters from Aitken Alexander and Conville Walsh.
Ho hum.
I still have a few days of polishing the changes I made to the middle of Insecticide, but then my thoughts will turn to what to do next.
I think the aforementioned screenplay idea Fuck Me Backwards would be the most fun, but I'm currently in the middle of The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe and it's turning my eye somewhat. It's a good-but-not-great coming of age story that reminds me of White Teeth but isn't quite up to the same standard.
However, it is a proper book and I can't deny that writing one of those is somewhat tempting.
I've spent the last year apologetically explaining the plot of Insecticide to those that ask about it and I'm not sure I'm quite ready for a year or two of doing the same with FMB.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that you can only write what you can write, and that is a combination of 'can' as in 'have the ability to' and 'can', as in 'all those other things that stoke your enthusiasm to the extent that you can sustain the months and years of writing and rewriting'. If I don't feel like writing another book that I'm not looking forward to explaining to people, then it seems a bit pointless to start it.
Then again, perhaps I should just follow what enthuses me and not worry about the possible reactions.
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