The working title… What’s in a name?

I realized recently that I had a blog that I was paying for and not using. What prompted me to start taking notice of it once again was because of my close friend Kate who, after already fighting and winning the battle against breast cancer and along with her husband Bob tackling cancer himself, now has the unenviable task of battling leukemia. Writing has already proven to be something of a soothing vice for her and has made the decision to continue to walk us through her journey via her blog, with each step being just that little bit more challenging as time goes on. You can see her journey here and purchase her book “Thanks for the Mammaries”.

Recently, it came as a startling realisation amongst my closest colleagues at work that nobody is indispensable. Despite the other two male workmates being in positions of leadership, we all began to ponder on some shared hopes and dreams outside the workplace. What came as a surprise was the shared vision that each of us had, in the possibility of one day releasing a children’s book. Whilst my mates had only a general idea of what they would like to do, I admitted that I had already jumped the starter’s gun and was on the way to making this into something tangible. I explained that it followed the exploits of a little girl called Amanda who was a brat, who would learn through her imagination, and from the disappointment of her parents because of her antics, how to be a much nicer person to be around. She had a toy panda, named Alexander, and the story would follow the two of them off on their adventures together. I made it sound wildly expansive and detailed when in truth, it was as loose as the ideas the other blokes had. I gave it the working title of “Amanda Demander”, after the name I used to give my daughter when she would act this way, i.e. like a “little princess”, or dare I say it, like a brat.

I first worked on this idea during Covid in 2020 and thought I could make a fist of it. I had the overall concept in place, a rudimentary story line and an idea of who she would meet and what she would learn along the way. Given that everything is a franchise these days, and my novels that I am working on now are no stranger to this, I wanted to explore if this were something I could do as a stand-alone project. I like the idea of a story being able to stand on its own two feet and be a great tale in its own right. These days, I guess like all stories, stage plays, scripts, etc., it depends largely on the success of the story to see if it generates the right audience or has large enough sales to justify taking the journey any further. Time will tell, as will be the case if I decide to commit.

It seems that if I am to take this any further, which I seem to be leaning towards, I’m going to need to find the encouragement to go beyond. I suppose this blog is a start. If I can take anything away from my friend Kate’s situation, is that it is good to write. It is good for the soul. It is good to play with ideas. It is good to bash your ideas and feelings out on a page in the hope that people will take away just that little bit of inspiration to go just that little bit further, and battle on.

If Kate can do it with all her crap going on, then surely, I can.

Mw.