More Writer's Blog

OK, so here I am trying to write another story for The Sleaze. Once again, I just can't seem to get started. Which is quite frustrating, as I've had a pretty good run of being able to get the buggers written lately. Having said that, this particular story has been causing me trouble for a while now. It was meant to have gone in last week, but, having failed to get a handle on it, I swapped it with Blown Away, which was far easier to write, the first paragraph already being to hand in the form the original first paragraph of Sex Bomb which I'd discarded. The idea behind this new story is quite clear, it is just the execution which is proving problematical. It is another tilt at the whole business of conspiracy theories, putting forward the idea that the promulgation of such theories is itself part of the real global conspiracy to divert people's attention from what is really going on. This is an idea I've been harbouring for several years now, inspired, in part, by Richard Condon's Kennedy Assassination roman a clef Winter Kills, in which the protagonist discovers that all of the various conspiracies surrounding his brother's death that he has investigated, were simply inventions to divert him from the truth. They've all been devised by a former academic employed by the real villain, and all contain just enough truth to seem plausible.

Clearly, one of the key elements for this proposed story will be exactly what the truth being concealed is - to unveil it as simply another wild conspiracy would defeat the object. The most plausible ultimate 'truth' I can come up with is that the world really is as mundane as it seems, and its leaders really are as flawed and incompetent as they appear. That isn't what has been holding me back. Rather, it is the 'framing' of the whole concept which has had me stumped. I think I've finally come up with an approach: a schism in the world of conspiracy theorists. The story can be presented as reporting the controversy stemming from the publication of one theorist's revolutionary article (suggesting the theory outlined in the first paragraph of this post) in the main (fictional) conspiracy journal, and the reaction of his conspiracy community peers, particularly their disappointment in his final conclusion that there is no overarching global conspiracy. By charting his disenchantment with conspiracies, the whole field can be satirised. In the course of all this, various of my pet (completely made up) conspiracy theories can be brought in as the theories championed by his rivals, for further piss-taking. I've always liked the 'feuding whackos' format for stories - I've previously used it successfully on Die, Lady Di and The Monster Hunters.

Once again, working out the story details in a post seems to have helped! Hopefully, I'll be able to get cracking on this story soon and hopefully get it posted some when toward the end of next week. Keep watching The Sleaze!