A very good place to start....

So, after many months of perusing a number of different blogs, covering a number of different topics, all the while envious of the individual bloggers' ability to write with a grace and style which far exceeds my own efforts, I have finally taken the plunge and created a blog. Not, you understand, because I think I could be as entertaining as Fat Mammy Cat or as inventive as TwentyMajor. I don't for one second think that I have some wealth of knowledge that the great, web-browsing public want to share and I know for a fact that the chances of me producing thought provoking political commentary are roughly similar to those of Louis Walsh claiming he is quitting the X-Factor and actually fucking doing it. I just want to try. To see what, given some level of commitment and dedication, I might be capable of.

Occasionally I try my hand at stand up comedy although these occasions have, over the past year or so, become more infrequent. Much of this is due to a reluctance on my behalf to actually get the finger out and call the folks who run comedy clubs and book acts (well, I say "acts", I really mean "open spots") but a certain amount of it stems from the fact that I find my current material tedious. I can rattle it off in my sleep, I no longer get nervous before gigs because I know it inside out - which kind of deadens the thrill of making a room of strangers laugh. So, naturally, I set my mind to writing some new material - but it proved to be something of a struggle. The ideas are there - that I'm convinced of. It's the process of actually putting those ideas down on paper where I hit a brick wall - planning the structure, adjusting the phrasing, changing words, trying to make it snappier, sharper, punchier...

I'm thinking that maybe if I write regularly, about anything, my writing should improve or at least become a little more graceful. The ideas should come quicker, the story will flow onto the paper requiring only minor editing. Well that's the idea anyway....

... and already I'm thinking that maybe I should just quit right away. Not only have I mentioned X-Factor (which I detest) and Louis Walsh (whom I despise - but more about him later) but the title of this post is a lyric from "The Sound of Music" song "Do-Re-Mi".