Philip Pullman on Creative Inspiration: Write to Please Yourself

One movie based on a story by Philip Pullman is “The Golden Compass,” with a talented cast including Dakota Blue Richards (photo), Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and others.

On his site, he addresses a number of questions about his life and work as a writer:

Were you encouraged to be creative?

No, I was ignored. When anyone took any notice it was to point out what a twit I was, and laugh at me.

This was the best possible preparation for the life of a novelist.

If you have grown-ups fussing over you and encouraging you and taking an interest, you begin to think you’re important, and furthermore that you need and deserve their attention.

After a while you become incapable of working without someone else motivating you. You’re much better off supplying your own energy, and writing in spite of the fact that no-one’s interested, and even learning to put up with other people’s contempt and ridicule. What do they know, anyway?

What inspires you?

Three things. (1) Money. I do this for a living. If I don’t write well, I won’t earn enough money to pay the bills. (2) The desire to make some sort of mark on the world – to make my name known. To leave something behind that will last a little longer than I do.

(3) The sheer pleasure of craftsmanship: the endlessly absorbing delight of making things – in my case, stories – and of gradually learning more about how they work, and how to make them better.

Who do you write for – children or adults?

Myself. No-one else. If the story I write turns out to be the sort of thing that children enjoy reading, then well and good. But I don’t write for children: I write books that children read. Some clever adults read them too.

How long does it take me to write a book?

It depends on how long the book is. THE FIREWORK-MAKER’S DAUGHTER took me six weeks, THE AMBER SPYGLASS three years.

What advice would I give to anyone who wants to write?

Don’t listen to any advice, that’s what I’d say. Write only what you want to write. Please yourself. YOU are the genius, they’re not. Especially don’t listen to people (such as publishers) who think that you need to write what readers say they want.

Readers don’t always know what they want. I don’t know what I want to read until I go into a bookshop and look around at the books other people have written, and the books I enjoy reading most are books I would never in a million years have thought of myself.

So the only thing you need to do is forget about pleasing other people, and aim to please yourself alone. That way, you’ll have a chance of writing something that other people WILL want to read, because it’ll take them by surprise.

It’s also much more fun writing to please yourself.

Quotes from philip-pullman.com

~~~~~~

Visited 1 times, 1 visit(s) today

* Note – Links to programs and products may be affiliate links, which means a company or publisher provides a small commission to me paid by them, if you decide to purchase. There is no extra cost to you. Commissions help support my efforts in creating the free content you read on my various sites, plus help pay for costs such as website hosting and software. As an affiliate for companies such as Sounds True, as well as a few coaches and psychologists, I provide links to programs that may be helpful for creative people. Thanks for reading articles – and for following these links.