Still, this is all meant to be a bit of a voyage of discovery, innit? I perhaps need to learn the trick of making even the serious bits silly, or most likely, making the silly bits also serious. It's certainly something I enjoy when I'm reading/watching a story; Alexei Sayle's gorgeously surreal, dark stories spring to mind. As do less highbrow things like Jonathan Creek. Hmm. You know, although I may not exactly be "finding my voice", I think I'm getting a few good hints as to where to look for it from the whole exercise.
Anyway. Fewer than 3,000 words to go, and two days to do it in. I think I'll have to have a think about writing a bit where I can try to combine silly and serious as much as possible...
We stepped around the circus people, and went to the reception desk. A harried-looking older man in a shirt and tie was sitting behind it, shaking his head in consternation at the chaos. “Unbelievable,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of stupid accidents in my time, but honestly! Tell me,” he said, turning his attention to me, “If you were a lion-tamer, and a clown asked you if you could have a go, would you let him?”
I didn’t really know what to say to that. It was so far outside my area of expertise that I’d have needed both hands, and torch and a GPS to find an answer.