i would really like to write something based on the place i work. there are some very interesting characters there, but i think i need some distance between the office and myself so the writing doesn't just turn into one huge, thinly veiled bitch session. yesterday i was editing something that the marketing guy had written, a couple of pages of 'company profile'. the writing was so distracting - it was like he'd crafted a moderately understandable sentence, then put it in the thesaurus machine and cranked the handle one time too many. i was sharing my pain with a fellow employee, and in the course of my intra-office-computer-messaging-therapy-session, i came up with a character that would be based on the marketing guy. in business hours, he would be known as 'roget dovetail'; the minute night fell (or more like the minute he fell asleep, ie in his dreams) he would change to his sexy, for-the-ladies persona, 'thesaurus rex'. there are so many weird relationships in the office - and i don't mean that people are having affairs, there's none of that going on (that i know of, at least) - there are very interesting dynamics happening on our floor, and between some of our people and others who work on other floors within the same building. also some interesting things have happened in the past that stick in my mind... the more i think about it, the more i realise there are quite a few good stories there. but i must finish writing what i started before i start on something new. would make an interesting second novel though!