Comedinsanity.

Happy Friday!

We've been in the writers rooms for Foiled and we record next Saturday so I've spent most of the week staring at a computer screen and laughing.

To the untrained eye, there really is very little discernable difference between writing comedy and insanity.

It's hard to explain what's so great about the Foiled writers rooms, but I'm not exaggerating when I say they are my favourite two days of the year.

I suppose, imagine that you're buckles deep in the hardest part of your job, with only two weeks until the deadest of deadlines. Then imagine that your supervisor pays for six specialists to come in and work on your project with you for two days.

There's no element of competition, everyone wants the best for the project and, ultimately, it's still your name on the project.

Wouldn't that be cool?

So the next 8 days will be spent trying to sift what was just funny in the room from what might actually be funny on the radio.

I'm sure these last 8 days will still get stressful, but it's a whole lot less stressful for us now, knowing exactly what needs to change, and with a carnival of suggestions on how.

There's also not much better feeling than having a roomful of professional comedians laugh at something you wrote. Imposter syndrome is fading...

~

If you haven't already got your tickets for the Foiled recording (they're free) then you might want to click here. Everyone's invited and you'll get the chance to hear your distinctive laugh on the BBC so that's fun.

Willow the Wisp

There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream

The path under our feet was springy with the litter of fluff-ball catkins blown from the branches above.

The leaves are shaped like cats' paws, glossy on the recto, gentle silver hairs on the verso.

Aspirin bark is cleft with character, shimmering on the surface, lichen in the crevices.

The pussy willow, common sallow, broadleaf grey willow, is native to Britain.

If you like this sort of thing, then you'll probably also like my back catalogue of over 500 posts, all found at davidcharles.info.

I've published 5 books, including stories of hitch-hiking from London to Ben Nevis, and cycling 4,110 miles around Britain. Visit my tiny book shop.

The ebooks are Pay What You Want, so you choose the price tag. Can't say fairer than that.

Good news you might have missed, from the inestimable Future Crunch:

Staggering numbers of whales are being sighted off the shores of New York. Cleaner waters have caused a 540% increase in numbers in just eight years.
The UK's astonishing coal free run continues. The National Grid says the country has not switched on its coal plants since 18th of May.
In the last three decades, dementia rates in Europe and North America have declined by an average of 15% per decade.

YNWA,

- dc

p.s.: Up top is an accidental photo of starlings in murmuration to scare off a predator hawk. Nature is, like. Isn't it?

CREDITS

David Charles wrote this newsletter. David is co-writer of BBC Radio sitcom Foiled, and also writes for The Bike Project, Forests News, Elevate and Thighs of Steel. Reply to this email, or read more at davidcharles.info.