With the preparation done, I started work this morning on the second comedy I’ll be taking to the Edinburgh fringe festival this year - “Big Fat Losers”, written by but not starring me. No, for once, I’ll be taking a backseat and producing writing and directing the other two plays, as (bizarre as this may seem) I’m the only person who’s “been” to my shows, “heard” them but never “seen” my shows. So creatively this is another step up.

BFL also marks a gear-change for me as a writer. I always wrote according to my strengths but also my weaknesses, therefore some scenes (characters and plots, let’s be honest) were never as good as they could have been because I knew (or was terrified by) my limitations as an inexperienced performer. But, this time, not performing myself, I can really let the characters bloom, their emotional journey can travel from brain to page to stage without the intervention of my own creative worst enemy. Me.

I really feel liberated; the subject matter is outside my usual comfort zone but bizarrely it’s “very me”, I see myself in all four characters and as much as they are all “losers” (insert your own punchline here) I want them all to succeed.

Can’t wait for this year’s festival. This won’t be me just “putting on a show”, this is a new me, marketing myself (professionally) as a writer, producer and director. This is Michael J Buchanan-Dunne act two; I’ve laid down the character’s backstory (wannabe writer dreams of success), he’s confronted his villains, he’s aware of the climb ahead and the success and failure which awaits, but now there’s no turning back.

This will not be a story which ends on page 15. This is not a hastily scribbled outline which remains in a drawer. This is not a fairy tale. This… is the beginning of something epic. Get your popcorn ready.

More soon. Mxxx