I’m delighted to say that the first of two ‘Say What You Want To Hear’ (aka ‘swywth’) plays I’ve written for Radio 4 – ‘The Startup’ – goes on air on Thursday 11th February 2010, starring Stephen Tompkinson, Ewan Bailey and Keely Beresford.

I’m hoping that you the audience are going to help with the storymaking process by sending in a certain type of short message that I’m calling a ‘swywth’ (please don’t ask me how to pronounce that).

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/swywth/ for for details.

What is a ‘swywth’? Well, it’s a word I’ve invented to describe a secret thought – specifically the kind of secret thought that knocks around your head regularly but that never normally gets said out loud.

For some, a swywth is the pep talk you give yourself in the morning when you look in the mirror. For others, it’s the judgement you silently pass on your colleagues as you sit through yet another boring meeting . Or perhaps it’s a regret, a cherished memory, an ambition – or some nonsense from childhood that haunts you as you stare out of the bus window.

Whatever it is, it’s actually pretty rare for a swywth to get written down, let alone spoken out loud.

But now thanks to a special arrangement with BBC Radio 4, I’ve been lucky enough to have helped set up a system whereby people can send in their swywths to a website and then get them read out and recorded by Radio 4 announcers, presenters and actors. A small but significant selection of these audible swywths  has already been published back to the web as sound files for us all to listen to.

I’m hoping that as the swywth bank grows, we can get more and more eminent and surprising speakers to read out your swywths. Personally, I’m hoping, for example, to get Harrison Ford to read out mine. A crazy dream I know – but no less crazy than some of your swywths I imagine.

THE RADIO PLAYS: ADD YOUR SWYWTHS TO THE MIX

And in the meantime, I’ve been inspired by the Say What You Want To Hear system (S.W.Y.W.T.H. geddit?) to write two Afternoon Plays for Radio 4 that tell a story about how swywthery came to be invented and how swywths can affect different people in very different ways.

As part of the story, I’m going to try and get as many people’s swywths as I can into each play. Indeed some of the swywths might even have their own special effect on the characters and colour events – especially in Play Two.

So if you fancy your secret thoughts appearing in a radio play, send in your swywths soon. Who knows where it will take us?

(You can also join in the ‘swywth’-making process on Twitter, on Facebook, on Youtube, on Flickr.)