Tap tap tap. Ka-ching! • 1 December 2007 • The SnowBlog

Tap tap tap. Ka-ching!

          
Early word-processor

I've just been doing a bit of writing. Nothing too unusual in that. My day-job of posting little graphics on the Snowblog doesn't fill the entire day, and the rest of the time I either look out of the window or write stories. No, not 'like a child would'. Honestly, show some respect!

What's been a little weird about this most recent writing project is that it's been so structured... and not by me. It needed to be a certain size, it had to be finished in a fraction of the time I'd normally spend on something like this and for various reasons it ideally needed to fit in the gap left by some things I'd already written. Oh, and when I sat done to zip through this thing I didn't even have a story in mind (as far as I could tell). That in itself is weird, because why would you sit down to write unless you had a story to tell? Anyway, the thing is that I'm not too unhappy with the results. (For anyone who's interested in the details I'll probably write a little post with more info in a little while.) But I didn't have to break any of my own rules of storytelling; I didn't have to fudge anything; and whether the end result is popular or not, I don't think I'll be too embarrassed by it (though if everyone hates it I might keep mentioning how little time I had to write it). All in all, it's made me wonder how far I could push this writing 'to order' idea. So I was sitting here thinking about what I'd write next if my only motivation was to  be able to afford a nice holiday, or maybe some new double-glazing. So what do you reckon? What's the most commercial thing I could possibly sit down and write? I'm not for a moment saying I'd do it, but then again you never know. I am blessed/cursed with quite mainstream tastes. I wouldn't have any artistic objection to writing a techno-thriller or a book about dragons or a rom-com. Which is another way of saying that I wouldn't necessarily hate the material. So any suggestions? You're not allowed to put forward celebrity biographies - not unless there's a market for fake ones - but what else do you think is going to be enslaving the reading public's eyeballs in 2008? 

As a special bonus, if I am able to buy a big millionaire's boat with the proceeds, then anyone who makes a suggestion can come for a ride on it. The author of the winning suggestion can steer for a while and wear the captain's hat. And maybe have a small bag of my spare money. 
Rob