Her teacher was really enthusiastic ('The children have all been making their own books recently, so perhaps you could come along and tell them about being a professional writer. My daughter Holly, who is seven years of age, persuaded me to come in to give a talk to her class. Or better yet, tell someone an important dream - 'Well, I was in this house that was also my old school, and there was this nurse and she was really an old witch and then she went away but there was a leaf and I couldn't look at it and I knew if I touched it then something dreadful would happen.' - and watch their eyes glaze over.) And I don't give straight answers. In my case, they also want to know if I get them from my dreams. And hardest by far is the process of simply sitting down and putting one word after another to construct whatever it is you're trying to build: making it interesting, making it new.īut still, it's the question people want to know. Creating believable people who do more or less what you tell them to is much harder. I tell them, truly, that I have far too many ideas for things as it is, and far too little time. I'm reasonably gracious with these people.

The proposal is always the same - they'll tell you the Idea (the hard bit), you write it down and turn it into a novel (the easy bit), the two of you can split the money fifty-fifty. It's such a Doozy that they want to Cut You In On It. Everyone's got an idea for a book, a movie, a story, a TV series.Įvery published writer has had it - the people who come up to you and tell you that they've Got An Idea. And thirdly, the ideas aren't that important. Secondly, I doubt anyone who asks really wants a three hour lecture on the creative process. Firstly, I don't know myself where the ideas really come from, what makes them come, or whether one day they'll stop. As if there's a huge secret, and, for reasons of my own, I'm not telling them how it's done.Īnd of course I'm not. They look unhappy, as if I'm trying to slip a fast one past them. Then I got tired of the not very funny answers, and these days I tell people the truth:

Pete Atkins is a screenwriter and novelist friend of mine, and we decided a while ago that when asked, I would say that I got them from him, and he'd say he got them from me. In the beginning, I used to tell people the not very funny answers, the flip ones: 'From the Idea-of-the-Month Club,' I'd say, or 'From a little ideas shop in Bognor Regis,' 'From a dusty old book full of ideas in my basement,' or even 'From Pete Atkins.' (The last is slightly esoteric, and may need a little explanation. And writers are asked where we get our ideas from. Doctors, for example, are always being asked for free medical advice, lawyers are asked for legal information, morticians are told how interesting a profession that must be and then people change the subject fast.

M Is for Magic by Neil Gaiman