I have a weird brain. Who else could have taken my random thought and turned it into a novel about a lonely man who marries his imaginary friend, has an imaginary child, and then they become real? This lunchtime, during an entertaining conversation with my friend Kirsty Harris aka Dr Orchid, I think I may have the beginnings of my next, crazy, mixed up, wonky-to-the-core story…
You Were My Betty
Charlotte is a straight As student in the final year of university, distinctions with virtually her every essay – First Class Honours can only be all but a formality.
She is working on her final dissertation, a labour of love and hours of research in the making, with the pet name of ‘Betty’. When her supervisor is unexpectantly taken ill she has no on to talk through her ideas.
Then she meets a girl who is to become her closest of friends: Elizabeth. She seems to know everything about the subject – an invaluable and irreplaceable help to her – utterly clueless when it comes to real life. When the dissertation is finished, Charlotte realises how much she has come to depend on her, and finds it hard to accept that she must leave.
That’s when she realises the Elizabeth, now her closest of friends, is actually her own dear Betty, her dissertation in human form…
Yeah, that’s right. I have a weird brain.
It occurs to me that what with Elizabeth being a book and all, with the same ribbon in her hair as runs through the middle of Betty the book, there is lots of potential for little jokes about being ‘left on the shelf’…
Also, the librarians in the library should be an obstructive and unhelpful lot (with apologies to my librarian friends who are anything but obstructive and unhelpful…) should be goblins with hook noses and cackling laughter.
I think there with be a friend – or at least someone who wants to be friends with Charlotte – watching her from afar, wanting to help her but to shy to approach when Betty is around. Betty must leave Charlotte, but Charlotte has made her be too close, and Elizabeth doesn’t want to leave – doesn’t want Charlotte to have someone else. The dissertation that turns…?
I’m going to enjoy writing this story. Although quite how I write a story about a straight As student with all that knowledge when I am anything but straight As… 😉