Thanks for the Divine Inspiration, Fleabag...

I do love a good plan. A future project, broken down into bullet points, priorities and a timeline. Thrilling. I have plans for everything - archived past events, or ongoing current stuff. At the moment my desktop contains documents relating to the clothes needed for an upcoming mini-break, money everyone owes me for booking my brother's wedding accommodation, and a multi-foldered file containing the planning and research for Book Number Three. I do love a good plan. 

Indeed, the file for the next book is filling up nicely. Snippets of dialogue that I've noted as it popped into my head, photos of locations where the action happens, a basic plot - it's all in there. I've even got a date set in mind to start writing. Mid-June. That takes me to a part of the year when all the busy-ness has finished. Birthdays, weddings, and holidays are over. I can type through the summer heat whilst taking full advantage of the air con in Costa. I have a plan, it's going to start in June, and my life feels ordered and calm as a result. 

Perfection

Except of course it's not. Best laid plans, and all that jazz. Obviously there was going to be a spanner in the works. Nothing runs smoothly, even when there's a colour-coded timetable to guide proceedings. The reason that things are up in the air at the moment is simple. I watched Fleabag last week and now all I want is to be Phoebe Waller-Bridge and write utter perfection. 

I wrote notes about Fleabag
instead of sleeping. 
Ep 4 notes wouldn't 
fit on a screenshot.

OK. Let's back track for those not up to speed with my head. Series Two of BBC1's Fleabag airs on Mondays. Tonight's is episode five. Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes and stars in it, and it's perhaps the most perfect half hour of television I currently watch in the week. The characters, the dialogue, the situations, the humour, the poignancy, the layers, the questions I have after every episode - all lead me to conclude that PWB is an absolute genius. Last week's episode made me hyperventilate. Then it made me go right back to the start and watch again. Then, a few hours later, I watched it a third time. Then I followed the Fleabag hashtag (#fleabag #justsaying) and saw everyone else's thoughts, which were - unusually for a Twitter hashtag - a hundred percent positive. More than positive, they were completely reverential. Then I had a sleepless night thinking about all the things I think about this series. And then I watched it again. I won't lie, it's been quite the week.

But I digress. I'm not here to write paragraph after paragraph about how good Fleabag is. I don't need to. You've either seen it or you haven't. You know or you don't. What I'm digressing from is how my best laid plans of a writing schedule have gone awry. Put simply, by immersing myself in quality writing from PWB, I've been given a creative boot up the backside. My juices have been flowing (now then) all week. What was boxed off to start in June, when all of life had calmed down, is now rearing its head nearly three months early. I am gagging to start writing again. I cannot wait. I want to do it now.

The past few days have seen me scribble away in my planning book. Asterisks, arrows, and PTOs are littered all over the place. I've developed my three main characters with loads more depth and backstory. Loads more nods to the past and echoes of previous behaviours. Loads more good writing. I'm desperate to dive in.

This wasn't so full last week. 

I realise it's hugely arrogant to say I've been busy doing 'loads more good writing'. (And that sentence alone, suggests I'm lying or delusional.) When the book is finally finished, it may turn out to be a big fat pile of rubbish anyway. The point is, that in watching the execution of absolute quality, I've been inspired to do better myself. No plot detail or character trait is the same - I'm not knicking anything from someone else's TV programme. I've just been pushed towards cracking on with the ideas I had, but making them work better. June might be when I set aside the time to prioritise this project, but I'd be stupid to ignore the rush of adrenaline I've got right this second. If inspiration is striking now, I have to go with it. I have to ignore my schedule! 

So what's my point this week? I concede it's a ramblier ramble than normal. (Blame Fr. Kneel!) I suppose my point is that when plans go off track, it isn't always a bad thing. The past few days have been a creative hotspot. And if I'd waited until June to start, what are the odds that I'd have been dragging myself out of bed to look at a blank screen for hours, more times than not? No thanks, I'm not a gambler. I'm not taking that risk. All I can do now, is squeeze in as much writing whilst the juices are flowing. Crack on whilst the buzz is at its buzziest. And as for the quality inspiration that's kick-started it all? I'll be keeping Fleabag firmly on the planner. For ever and ever... Amen.

Have a lovely week, folks.