How a Terrible Sitcom Idea Turned Into a Novel
I’ve always felt there was something creative bubbling away inside me, but life has a knack for getting in the way.
Early Days and Creative Sparks
I was born in Shetland and grew up in the Highlands. Because of my dad’s job, we moved around a lot. By the time I finished school, I’d been the new kid five times. You learn to blend in. Keep your head down, don’t stand out, and just get through it.
I made some brilliant friends along the way, but I also spent a lot of time on my own. Most of that was spent with my head buried in a book or glued to a film. I’d end up building whole worlds in my head, but whenever I tried to write them down, they never felt quite right.
Since I didn’t think I was much good at anything creative, I figured I’d go behind the scenes instead. That’s why I studied Film and Media at university. Turns out there aren’t loads of jobs for Film graduates, so I did a bit of everything — worked behind bars, on farms, sold gas door to door, and eventually found myself in call centres. I stuck with it, worked my way up into management roles and leadership teams, and somewhere along the way, I forgot all about being creative.
The Moment That Changed Everything
The one thing that never left me was stand-up comedy. I’ve been obsessed ever since I saw Rik Mayall perform at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness when I was fifteen. I used to tell everyone I was going to try an open mic night. I said that for about twenty years without ever doing it.
Then one of my best mates got seriously ill. I was visiting him in hospital and mentioned a stand-up course I was thinking about doing. He’d heard this all before and just said, “For f!*$^’s sake, will you shut up about it and just f*$^ing do it?” Given the situation, I couldn’t argue. So I did it.
Turns out I wasn’t bad at it. More importantly, I loved it. I’d finally found something creative that clicked. And there’s something magic about making people laugh.
Finding My Flow Through Laughter
Stand-up is writing. It’s rhythm, character, timing. One day, while working on material, a daft pun popped into my head. I won’t tell you what it was — it’s both unfunny to anyone else and a spoiler for the book — but it gave me an idea for a sitcom.
I planned it out and wrote one episode. It was awful. Set in a call centre, with a supernatural character and two humans who didn’t realise the other wasn’t human. Everyone was sarcastic and miserable, and there wasn’t much reason for any of it. I binned it.
But the characters wouldn’t leave me alone. They kept hanging around in my head, asking why I’d given up on them. Eventually, I realised the problem wasn’t the characters — it was the world they were in. They weren’t meant for a sitcom. They belonged somewhere darker, stranger, and more rooted in the kind of stories I grew up with. The folklore of the Highlands.
That’s when things started to click. I began blending modern Scotland with old myths, and added a bit of humour. After years of writing things that didn’t feel right, I’d finally found my voice.
That story became Soon Enough — a dark, funny supernatural urban fantasy set in modern Scotland.
It took years of writing the wrong things to finally find the right one. But that’s how it all began.
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