An Even Worse Idea than Universal Credit? Let's Give it a Try!

Last week, I made a rash undertaking to have a go at NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - and, in response to a request from a fan of the Welfare Rights Lit books, agreed the one-month book would be set at the Solent Welfare Rights Project. 

This was a daft thing to pledge to do since, at that point, I hadn't quite finished my current Daphne Randall 4mph thriller and whodunits always take a little longer to wrap up because you need to keep trawling back through your text for continuity errors and plot holes.  I can now, as of this morning, claim to have finished the first draft of The Wychnor Mystery.  It won't be on general release this side of Christmas as it still needs a thorough revision, my proof-read and passing as seaworthy (or at least, given a boat safety check) by one or more of my trusty volunteer proof-readers.

However, this is day 6 of the NaNoWriMo challenge and I have only 1000 words of one draft opening scene for an untitled Universal Credit-themed story.  Target word count for a 50,000 word novel (or 'flash fiction' as I call it) would be 10,000 words by now.  Either I lock myself in my room for the next week and get on with it or we accept NaNoWriMo may not be happening this year.

That would be a shame because, this morning, I had either the most brilliant, or the most ridiculous, idea for this book.  It came about as I was browsing the UC guidelines for a working title (as you do...)  There were snappy phrases such as 'full work-related requirements', 'in-work conditionality', 'alternative payment arrangement', minimum income floor', 'limited capability for work-related activity element' and 'real-time reporting', to mention just a few.  It was this last one that struck a chord.  What if, instead of having the usual long-winded story arch, my next book was simply a real-time look at the Project, its staff and service users, right now?  And what if I blogged each day's story directly to readers, as it was written, typos, glitches and all? 

That would be crazier than carrying a bag of teddy bears around town to promote Stoke-on-Trent's bid to be City of Culture if not quite as much as deciding to blithely carry on with the roll-out of Universal Credit, despite the advice of the best brains in the business.  I'm still six days behind reality but it looks, from the Paradise Papers revelations, as if  I couldn't have picked a better time to catch up with my imaginary friends in the south and write some good old-fashioned, politically-motivated fiction.

Let's do it, people!