I’ve mentioned before in this blog how I’m a bit of a control freak. I’ve discussed how, in most aspects of my life, I like to be the one in charge. I like to stay in control and I don’t like leaving things to chance.

This applies to my writing as much as anything else I do. It’s important for me to stay in control of my narrative. I keep tabs on exactly where the plot is heading, and exactly what all of the characters are up to. I can’t allow any loose ends, or leave any plot point hanging. I have to be in control of it all. If I have to choose between neat and messy, I pick neat every time.

I’ve written before about how a big part of my personal and professional style is being a problem solver. I could almost describe the job I do as being a professional problem solver, as it generally involves finding elegant solutions for often tricky problems. And in my personal interactions, I tend to slip very quickly and easily into problem-solving mode. If anyone suggests any kind of issue they might be facing, my brain tends to jump ahead, attempting to find an answer to the problem (often to the detriment of the remainder of the social interaction.

I probably don’t strike people as a particularly passionate person.

I don’t say a lot, and when I do, I’m pretty quietly spoken. I’m undemonstrative – I don’t act in ways that draw attention to myself. I certainly don’t dress in ways that draw attention to myself. You might easily be led to believe I don’t particularly care about anything much. You’d be wrong.

I like to think of myself as a grumpy old sod. I’m a complaining old whinger, a cynic to the heart.

Being a cynic is great. It’s especially useful if you want to be a writer of humour, particularly with a satirical edge. How else can you catalogue all the stupidity and mean-spiritedness of the human race if you’re not already walking around with a mindset that focusses on all of that stupidity and mean-spiritedness.

I blame it on The Simpsons.

From its earliest days, one (amongst the many) of the ingenious tricks employed by that revolutionary, adult-oriented animation series was the inclusion of numerous little pop culture references. And not just explicitly, in elements like the plot or the characters. Sometimes, a little thing like a throwaway piece of dialogue or the way a particular shot was framed created an allusion to another pop culture source.