Finding My Voice with a Guide for Hitch-hikers

According to one of those anecdotes that a person tells so many times that the person later forgets the actual event and only recalls himself telling the story, one night in 1971 a young man was hitch-hiking across Europe, like a number of young people did at this time, before hitch-hiking lost its "cool." On that night, this young man was drunk, lying down on a field near Innsbruck, Austria. He was looking up to the stars. Next to him was his copy of Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe. He then had a thought - "Would it be a good idea for someone to write a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy?"

This idea would form the basis of franchise that morphed from an idea about a comedy series where the Earth gets destroyed in the end of every episode. The result first aired on BBC Radio 4 40 years ago, leading to a series of books, a few stage shows (including one where the audience sat on a hovercraft), a TV series, a video game and a feature film, starring Martin Freeman. 

I bring up Douglas Adams' The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy here because, recently, I have been getting reacquainted with it. This is because BBC radio is in the mist of transmitting the whole radio series, plus a new adaptation of the sixth book. And with this, I have re-watched the TV series and film on DVD. So, right now my mind is brimming with ideas relating to manic depressed robots, the "Shoe Event Horizon," and super fast space travel made possible by a warm cup of tea.

Also, I have been looking inward to myself and my work. Been almost 30 does make you do that. For years (maybe since I started writing fiction back in 2003) you could say I was in my "finding my voice" phase of my artistic career.  A phase pretty much every creative goes through. You start off copying other people's work, dissecting it to find out why it works, and using that knowledge to improve your own. Finding originality is overrated - mostly by lawyers who specialize in intellectual property. If you marry this with a lot of practise you (eventually) get a true creative. But a potential creative in this phase can be vulnerable, so don't insult their work so called "friends." Leave the most serious criticism to people who really know their stuff ... and Simon Cowell.

Recently I began writing a big story. It was of an idea I had for years. (I wont's say what it is let) While I was doing so I realized something - I'm becoming Douglas Adams. Of all the sources of inspiration I have ever found (and I have found a LOT of inspiration all over the place) the works of Douglas Adams can be seen as the most significant. And thinking back its no surprise.

I first read his stuff back in high school. I was looking for a book to do a report on for English class and I found in the school library The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. I found it interesting. The ridiculous situations with (some) logic, how technology is used in the story and how he describes things were things that stood out to me when I first read it.

I had heard about The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy some time earlier (in 2003 it was voted fourth most favourite novel in the UK in a televised survey). But it wasn't until the movie came out in 2005 that I finally got familiar with the story. Not long afterwards I read the books. It was by this time that the idea of the big story I just started writing was beginning to form....

I don't what to reveal what it is about right now. All I can say that its basically a fictional account of a world-changing event that happened in a cartoon I was watching back in 2005, caused by an object in a way that'll make the idea of tea been the source of creation of a new form of spacecraft propulsion look like a lead balloon.

As I began writing this story I noticed the Doug Adams hallmarks in my approach to storytelling - the ridiculous situations with (some) logic, how technology is used in the story and the long-winged way he describes things. They are there as clear as day. I can't deny it now. I'm becoming Douglas Adams.

Outside writing fiction, Douglas Adams does share some similarities to me, particularly on the subject technology. He was a avid fan of computers, especially the Macintosh. In fact, he is claimed to be the first person in Europe to own a Mac. He was an Apple fan boy long before it became cool and then annoying. 

It's a shame he died before he could see the iPhone. That device would have pan-galactic-gargle-blasted his mind.

Anyway, I must stop now. Time to grab my towel.