Clichés though they may be it is true that (a) there is nothing new under the sun and (b) history repeats itself. I was fascinated to read in the Kenneth Williams diaries, April 5th 1976, in the middle of a disastrous financial crisis for the country, Harold Wilson resigned and handed power over to Callaghan – “this mediocre man” Williams calls him. Thirty years later what happens? Tony Blair resigns and hands power over to another mediocre man, one Gordon Brown, and what is the situation in the country? Financial crises of an even greater magnitude than in 1976.
I have decided there is no great kudos in being a writer. Writers are two a penny and, as the population of the world expands, it stands to reason so does the writing population, especially with all the courses available in “creative writing!” In this Friday’s Daily Mail no fewer than twenty four books are reviewed. How many are reviewed in other publications? If there are supposedly about 22000 playwrights trying to earn a living how many plays are written every year? And if 120000 books in English are published every year, how many books are published worldwide? Half the Brazilian rain forest disappears into the printing presses of the publishing world. There are good writers, bad writers, hack writers, ghost writers, script writers, writers of comedy, playwrights, writers of misery memoirs, romantic novelists, historical novelists, journalists, columnists, poets, essay writers, writers of chic-lit, celebrity writers, technical writers, editorial writers (though I suppose these could come under the generic title of journalist) lyricists, crime writers. Then there are the thousands of factual subjects that can be written about. It’s no wonder there is so much frustration from unpublished authors, especially when one reads books published by major houses that should never have seen the light of day in the first place, and I have no doubt there are some who feel my books could be placed in that unwelcome category. The remainder tables await! Only metaphorically now as these days one is published print on demand and there are not thousands of unsold volumes waiting to be got rid of.
Ah, well, plough on regardless and, as Stanley Miller, once flavour of the month with the television companies, said to me many years ago, the time to carry on writing is when everyone else is giving up. It is said that, like the eight notes of music, there are only eight basic stories and everything is a variation thereof. If that is true it is quite amazing how much variety can be wrung from those eight basis plots.
Kenneth Williams again – “It’s incredible how much correction one’s writing needs, I go wrong in delineation as well as with punctuation and it is amazing how often I repeat myself, forgetting I’ve already used a particular phrase. There is a point in all work when you should commit and leave well alone.” Quite right too. I will now leave this well alone.