So why do I keep it all secret? After all, I have lots of projects on the go. More than I can keep track of – I make a list – and more than my girlfriend can care about. Even ‘failed projects’ are simmering away on back-burners, occasionally to twitch zombie-like into life. Nothing ever gets written off; I’m always keen to recycle material wherever possible, because good or bad, like it or not, this is the only world we’ve got.
And the other reason why I don’t like to talk about stuff is because of tempting fate. I’m not superstitious but I think that, like karma, sometimes superstition is a meme that has endured because it's a good guiding principle. Like Sod’s law – it doesn’t exist but sometimes it’s a good idea to act as though it does.
So I won’t announce or discuss stuff I’m writing until the contracts have been signed. In fact, I’ll wait until someone else announces it. Decisions have a nasty habit of getting un-decided at the last minute. And there’s nothing to be gained by jumping the gun. There’s nothing more fate-tempting (well, there are lots of things, but for the sake of rhetoric, let’s pretend there aren’t) than announcing something prematurely. You’ll just look like an idiot if it doesn’t actually happen. You’ll look like Captain Bullshit.
And often the best part of writing is having a marvellous secret. That’s what’s exciting about telling a story – only you know how it ends. As soon as you’ve told someone about it, it loses something.
