THE RETURN OF THE QUILLER!?!

Actually...no. Not really.

I started this blog as a vehicle to get me to write every day. And it worked.....for about three days.

The trouble was and has been the layout and the content. I never really gave much thought about what subjects I would attempt to discuss or a particular theme for the blog, at least one that ties all the posts together no matter how loosely.

Then I kind of came up with the dull, ordinary office boy who becomes a minefield of opinions and frustration once he leaves that environment, which seems sensible as people always say 'write what you know'.

Except I don't really know or enjoy this type of thing. Sure, people who know me will say that I tend to enjoy a good rant and a moan. But in reality who doesn't? Most people have a gripe about what irritates them at some point during the day as the majority of them are exactly the same - powerless to really change the world and pissed off with the apparent stupidity of those that can.

Once you get through this clusterfuck of ranting there isn't really anything tangibly beneficial left. I can sit here and probably type through the night about everything that fucking irritates the crap out of me and spout philisophical ideology about why that may be. But I don't want to do that. And the reality is after about five or six paragraphs - nobody wants to read it.

When you consider that after getting home circa six o'clock of an evening I still have other items such as tidying, eating and entertaining on my to-do list, I don't really want to sit for between one and two hours knocking up a quasi-funny ranty blog post that starts off making fun of people and tails off towards the end when a point has to be made. It isn't sustainable because I don't care enough about the subject matter to consistently maintain the quality writing each and every day.

Free writing is the main objective of this exercise - but free writing about subjects, genres and ideas that people will want to read, laugh at and digest and most importantly come back for another dose the next day. And if I want people to do this, surely what I am saying is that what I write here reflects my voice as an author and by definition what my voice has to say about the things that are important to it.

And ranting about how much of an arse some untouchable political or religious moron is doesn't reflect what I care about. It doesn't showcase my talents as a writer primarily because after the bile has been digested it just doesn't matter.

I care about storytelling. About creating a world completely separate from the day to day almost monotonous grind, where people can sit even if it's for ten minutes with a brew and enjoy a good story.

And for me, taking people on a journey with you regardless of how absurd or how unfamiliar that journey may be is a challenge. To create a story that matters to the reader within a world that starts off as a stranger and over time becomes almost as important to them as the reality they exist in is one of the great joys of been able to write fiction.

So I am officially retiring The Quiller. He had a good run. Well, short - but good. The Quiller blog posts will be either archived or deleted as of midnight tonight.

The blog will be completely transformed for the Second Coming. The layout, design, style of writing and themes will hopefully be clear to you when you check back.

There will be a new Twitter account and the Facebook page will be edited to reflect the new style alongside the blog.

If you're wondering what direction the blog is going to take here's a little teaser (this will be edited and honed before being officially launched but the angle will remain the same);

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