Frank account
A single Facebook post about becoming a new dad saw Matt Coyne become an internet sensation. Now he is turning his hand to fiction writing and stand-up. Catherine Scott reports.
BECOMING a parent is lifechanging for most people, but for Matt Coyne, the last eight years have changed his world beyond recognition. From being a struggling graphic designer, a single post to his family on Facebook has seen him become a blogger with more than 450,000 followers, a published author and now a stand-up comedian in the middle of a sold-out UK tour.
“It’s ninety per cent blind luck," says Coyne about his success.
“There were a number of women blogging about the trials and tribulations of becoming a parent and I think publishers were looking for a dad’s voice and I happened to post on Facebook a 1,000-word post when Charlie was a few months old, mainly for family about how much life changes and how phenomenally happy I was that Charlie was in our lives even though all this stuff was incredibly difficult and much harder than I thought it would be. It just seemed to resonate with a lot of people.
“But within days it had gone from 10 likes to 30,000 people and ended up being seen by 15 million people after being shared by the likes of Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher. It was mental.
“And then I was being contacted by publishers to write a book. People say it was brutally honest but I think of it more as a love letter.”
Coyne was also inundated with requests to appear on television shows around the globe.
“It was a very, very weird week. Charlie was only three months old at the time, I was already absolutely dead on my feet and I’m trying to cope with the weirdness of being a dad.
“So to throw in the weirdness of being on Australian TV at three in the morning, it felt like I was drunk all the time.”
The result was his first book, Dummy, published in 2017 which became a best-seller. The follow-up – Man vs. Toddler – about how parenting gets even more challenging and chaotic once walking, talking and potty-training arrive, followed a few years later and together they have sold more then 100,000 copies.
Coyne vowed that Man vs. Toddler would be the last book he wrote about Charlie, who is now eight.
“The publishers were really keen for me to write another book about my life and relationship with Charlie but once he started school I just didn’t think it was appropriate.”
And so Coyne turned his hand to fiction and next month sees the publication of his debut novel, Frank and Red, about a grumpy old curmudgeon (Frank) whose only company is the “ghost” of his dead wife, Marcie.
When six-year-old Red, a boy struggling to adjust to the separation of his mum and dad, a new school, and the demonic school bully moves in next door, he decides that Frank will be his friend.
"Red is curious, smart, he never stops talking, and he’s got a trampoline,” says Coyne.
“Red was easy to write as he is very much based on Charlie and the conversations we have all the time. Frank is a bit of my dad and a bit my granddad when they are in a very grumpy mood.
“The publishers did take a bit of convincing and when I look back at the first 30,000 words I wrote, they were pretty terrible. But in the end they went for it and I wrote it in less than year.”
Coyne says he found fiction writing more challenging than non-fiction, but possibly more enjoyable.
“I felt with the first two books and the blog that every paragraph had to be funny and it is more observation of life. I couldn’t move on to a new paragraph unless there was a joke or something that would make people laugh.
“With fiction, you have to have a lot more character development and structure – if you had a joke in every paragraph, it would quickly become a bit tedious.
“I do find non-fiction easier to write. I enjoyed writing fiction immensely as I really had little idea where it was going to end up – I was learning to write as I went along.
“There is nothing I would rather do. There are few jobs I have had that I look forward to getting up in the morning and going to work but writing is one of them.”
Coyne, who says he writes best when he’s in the local pub, has many more ideas for further fiction novels and if the initial responses to Frank and Red are anything to go by, we will be seeing more from him soon.
“I have also written two children’s book that come out this year – Charlie approves but I think that’s because one is about a fart and the other about monsters,” says the father-of-one.
“I like to go to the pub on a Thursday and I find I write better there. You can’t just sit in the pub by yourself, you have to do something and so I take my laptop and write. If I write at home in the spare room, I find myself easily distracted.”
Although no longer officially writing about Charlie, his son has been involved in the publication of Frank and Red and even has his own copyright and contract on a drawing in the book and is mentioned in the credits at the front.
Coyne continues to write the blog Man vs. Baby, in collaboration with Charlie. “I ask him if he wants to be involved now – sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn’t”
Coyne has also branched out into doing stand-up. “I was broke,” he says. “I needed something to do while waiting for the book to be published – I needed something to get me out of the house.
“When you are writing, you just don’t see anyone until publication comes around and you go to book signings. I had to get out and do something else.”
He decided to do a comedy show about Man vs. Baby close to home in Sheffield.
“It seemed to go down well and so I did a few other venues around Sheffield, then felt brave enough to take it on tour elsewhere – I’ve been all over the country and just have a few dates in February left.
“It seems to resonate with people. I want people to know that it is okay to moan about your kids. It doesn’t mean you don’t love them, Being a parent is really hard and can be incredibly frustrating.
“Being a dad is the greatest thing I have ever done, but it still drives me mad when he won’t put his shoes on – but that’s okay.”