Why I stopped writing jokes and started writing novels
By Catherine Brinkworth
Agatha Christie started writing because her sister bet her that she couldn’t do it.
Madge challenged Agatha to write an unguessable mystery in which the reader had the same clues as the detective. Friends and family members’ ultimatums also led to the writing of Frankenstein, King Solomon’s Mines, and Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham. That’s quite a lot of literary canon we have, just because a few people wanted to shut their loved ones up for six months.
I wrote a novel thanks to my spouse. “We should write a book” was, for about a year, just one of those things my husband says that I tune out, like “you should always be able to tell which way is north” or “stop letting squirrels in the house”.
I’d been a comedy writer on radio and TV shows since 2019, and I’d started off a few years before that writing one-line jokes for Newsjack. Unintentionally, I’d begun with the basic unit of comedy and then worked up to sketches, short films, half-hour pilots, and a movie screenplay. Finally, in 2023, my husband woke me up one morning to announce that the plot of our novel had come to him in a dream. I was having a slow month, so I agreed to co-author the first thousand words as an experiment. As a writing partnership, we are now over 200,000 words deep in novels and short stories, and our first book, a cosy crime comedy, is coming out with Penguin on 26 February 2026.
I am so pleased I made the leap – writing a book was the missing piece in my career. But I’ve also spoken to many incredible comedy writers who say “I could never write a novel”. This always sounds like a shame to me because I know they comfortably have the talent and ability and I’d love to read their books. So in case it moves the dial towards my selfish ends, here are some reasons I am glad I took my focus off writing one-liners and sitcom pilots in order to write a novel.
I Prefer Prose
It might be personal preference, but I much prefer writing prose to screenplays. In my career, I’d always felt something wasn’t adding up: how could I so desperately want to be a writer, but have got nowhere trying to write a makeable pilot? At the point of giving up, trying prose helped me see that I’d been in the wrong medium. I now think it might be pretty sound advice for writers to try a few different mediums. Even if you’re already a great screenwriter, hey, you might turn out to be a genius novelist.
It’s More Likely To Get Made Into A TV Show
My husband (who is not a vegetarian), once wrote a story about a world where meat was illegal and it won, as a competition prize, a half-hour Zoom call with a top literary agent. The agent gave him this advice, and honestly, it’s proved pretty solid for us so far.
In a difficult TV landscape, a novel – which comes with a fully written plot, a seal of approval from publishers, and sometimes, even, a readership – can be perceived as a safer bet. There is currently no Pie & Mash Detective Agency TV show, but I noticed remarkably more interest from the industry compared to any pilot I’ve written, and my husband and I are the furthest we’ve ever got along the pipeline towards the small screen.
It’s a Satisfying Life Achievement
I don’t have children or a high-flying corporate career and so far, my quest to beat the Mega Breakfast Challenge at the Dalby Café has been a series of gory failures. However, I have written a book, and if I’m honest, it does feel quite nice. I am 35, midlife is approaching, and I’m hoping I’ve squeaked this achievement under the buzzer in time to prevent me panic-booking a skydive.
It Helped My Other Writing
When I returned to screenwriting, I found I could now write a lot quicker and maybe more loosely. A half-hour radio sitcom is about 5,000-6,000 words long, which is just under 6% the length of a crime novel. I used to spend ages carefully crafting scenes of pilots. Occasionally, in the process of book writing, I have backed myself so horribly into a corner against a deadline that I’ve been forced to write 6,000 words in one day. Naturally, a lot of thought still has to go into the concept and plotting of a new pilot. But when it comes to the writing – a bit like how runners get faster by adding distance runs – I find it easier to work fast now I’m used to large volumes of words.
Perhaps this has convinced you to give a novel a try; you might find it’s a huge and rewarding feat that takes all your focus for a few thrilling months. And if so, tell your family members I said: you’re welcome.
Catherine and Jo are a married couple who write under the pseudonym J. D. Brinkworth. Their debut series “The Pie & Mash Detective Agency” is out on February 26th, published by Century Crime, Penguin Random House.
Local schoolteacher Dev Hooper arrives home from work to find his girlfriend, Nellie Thorne, has vanished. But she’s not the first Nellie Thorne to disappear. In fact, she’s the fifth in fifty years.
Enter Jane Pye and Simon Mash: a millennial couple who signed up for a private detective night class on a whim. When they’re assigned Dev’s case for their coursework, they quickly realise they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.
Armed with just six weeks of notes, matching trench coats, and questionable detective skills, they set out to solve a case that has baffled Kent’s police for decades.What links the missing Nellies? And why does everyone keep talking about ghosts!?
