About Michael Macbeth

[the_gneech]

Michael Macbeth started his life in my mind as basically a Dirk Gently clone; I had read both Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul and I liked them both, actually much more than Adams' more well-known Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. But besides just liking them, I felt like I could take that ball and run with it, so to speak. Since Adams himself seemed disinclined to write another Dirk Gently book [1], I thought this might be a good way for me to build on something, while still doing something original.

The character of Michael Macbeth came quickly and easily ... he's largely a combination of Stephen Fry, Doctor Who, and myself. ;) (Or at least, myself as I was at the time ... I have since lost my interest in bagpipes.) I put him in Gray Beeker's old Richmond apartment, because it seemed to suit him so well, and wrote a few scenes to get his patter and mannerisms down. Almost instantly, Stray Cat Strut came flying out of my fingers and onto the page, and I thought, "Wow! I'm really on to something, here!"

And then...

And then...

Nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing -- I have, I'd guess, about 100k+ words of MM fragments, vignettes, scenes, outlines, notes ... none of which work. If I could get Michael to focus and get a real story out of him, I'd easily have at least one finished novel and the better part of a second one by now.

Michael, you are frustrating.

I have a huge, fat binder crammed to bursting with writing about Michael Macbeth! What do I have to show for it? One 5,000 word short story, Stray Cat Strut, which is a great little story, but keeps utterly failing to do anything else.

What I want from Michael Macbeth, is to crank out a book every year ... I want to do with Michael, as Rex Stout did with Nero Wolfe ... find a formula that works, come up with a neat idea each time, and get a nice little gravy train going. My problem is, while my writing is fine and polished, I have a real problem coming up with satisfactory ideas.

I wonder if I could find a collaborator, an "idea man" as it were. And I wonder, if I found one, if I'd be willing to let go and work with them. I'm very possessive of my work (as katayamma can attest). I do my best work when I'm either coming up with ideas for someone else, or when turning somebody else's ideas into reality ... it's this doing both parts that kills me.

-The Gneech

[1] I seem to remember that his last recorded comment on the subject was to the effect of, "The third Dirk Gently book has suffered terribly from being forced to have Dirk Gently in it." Now, of course, Adams has passed on, so I don't think we'll be seeing any more Dirk Gently. The door's wide open for Michael, if he'd just step through it!

Comments

Naaaaaaaaaaah!

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Adams is the type to come back and write another book, just because he doesn't give a damn what some blue-shirted doctor with a tricorder told his friend, Jim, when he examined the cold, lifeless corpse, still clutching its precious teacup. :)