So here it is, The Front Man, my short novel, badly written. I intend it as a kind of donation to the creative writing community.

I went to more than a few creative writing courses whilst writing it and was frustrated by the lack of a specific example to discuss. Many of us only have access to finished stories that have been thoroughly edited by publishing professionals. What I needed was to see a piece that was full of mistakes and repetition and bad punctuation. A piece that I could learn from. A piece that no-one in the group had written. A piece that could be discussed, dissected, rewritten, savaged.

If you are an aspiring writer then I hope it will help to see a piece that is not polished and primped and professional. Perhaps you will learn something from my mistakes.

If you are a creative writing tutor and need something for your group to discuss then feel free to pick out the worst bits, they shouldn’t be difficult to find. Distribute it, rewrite it, annotate it. Use it for illustration, as a jumping off point or a warning. If you are feeling generous, point out what I’ve done right.

If you print any part of this site please do remember to reference it as www.a-short-novel-badly-written.co.uk so that other members of the writing community can take it with them and continue to use it.

Take a look at the writing by going to...

I wrote The Front Man over about three or four years. It grew from from a short story idea, when I shared the story people said to me, 'that's great, but we want to know what happens next,' and as time went on, I discovered there was quite a lot that happened next.

I enjoyed writing the story, because of its origins there was always an unplanned element to the writing that meant I travelled with the characters, rather than attempting to guide them.

When I finally felt I'd finished, I paid to have the novel read by a professional book doctor service and, while I secretly hoped the verdict would be that this was the best novel ever written in the history of all novels, I wasn't very surprised when I was told that it was unpublishable.

Rather than leave Flynn, Jay, Cat and Spider languishing in a bottom drawer I have decided to unleash them, with all my inconsistencies included, for people to learn from.

As I'm sure all writers out there will understand, I invested a lot of time and emotion into the story, so I've decided to keep my name out of the proceedings so I can get on with the next novel, which is very, very different.

Have fun.