Would-be novelists are regularly told to write what they know. But far too often a writer’s story is either unremarkable or poorly constructed.

For Tim Clare, presenter of Channel 4’s How To Get A Book Deal and occasional writer for the Independent and the Guardian, it was realising he didn’t have what it takes to write his first book that actually made it.

“I had wanted to be a writer ever since I was little,” says the performance poet who is bringing his Edinburgh preview show to Upstairs At Three And Ten.

“I studied it and worked at it for years and years and then I had to watch as all my best mates started getting massive publishing deals and doing really well.

“At about the same time I got sacked from my job and got dumped. Because I’d just moved in with my girlfriend, it meant I had to move back in with my parents.”

The only thing Tim had left was the novel he had been working on.

“I thought it’s like an underdog story,” he adds. “All these bad things are supposed to happen to me and then I’ll end up telling the world on TV. It’s meant to be.”

Tim’s story starts at 3.30am, with him hunched over his computer. A penny drops as he realises the novel he’s writing is terrible; the one hope he has to turn his life around is not worth the culled trees for its paper. He has been stopping himself from admitting it, and at that moment he begins to crack up.

With a name like Death Drive, the show, which is based around Tim’s memoir We Can’t All Be Astronauts, unsurprisingly, is a little dark in places.

“There’s nothing like seeing your dad have a go at an activity to make it seem embarrassing. It turns out suicide is no exception,” says Tim, who admits he has now exorcised his demons.

He says what can often be a sad subject is done with a light touch, and that he finds it refreshing when occasionally other men confide in him they have suffered similarly – that there is no shame or irregularity in depression.

Tim compares the show to one of his favourite podcasts, The Moth, a New York-based show, which delivers ten-to-15 minute snippets he compares to the best pub anecdotes.

“When one of your friends is telling you a story,” he says, “and it twists and turns, and some bits are funny, some bits make you go ‘Oh my God’, some bits make you sad, and you get to the end and it surprises you and makes you think about the world in a different way – that’s what I’m aiming for.”

The show is told as performance poetry, which he says is a difficult medium to explain because often it’s a hybrid.

“You end up describing it as something it’s not,” he continues. “You end up saying it’s got some poetry, but it’s not mostly serious or clever, so if you come for that as a fan of poetry you’ll probably be disappointed.

“Then there’s music, a ukulele, but not a lot, so don’t go expecting a gig.

“It’s got some stand-up but there’s lots of serious bits in it too, so you end up approaching people and going ‘Yeah, you’re going to be disappointed!’”

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