I love hearing about different people’s inspiration and why they decided to take up a career in writing. I have asked many writers this question “What inspired you to write?” and I have heard so many different answers. Some people have always wanted to write, but others got into it later in life.
I really had to think about my inspirations because when I was younger I didn’t really read many books. I found the school books pretty dull and not entertaining, but I do remember when I was six I wrote a story called “Captain Zack” about a spaceman superhero. He was a superman rip-off, but back then copyright wasn’t really something I thought about. I will say his back story was pretty good.
That was my first taste of writing. I found I had a knack for story telling when I turned up late for school, which was practically every day, and I never used the same excuse twice. I could come up with the most elaborate set of events and convince people it was true. I also think they stopped caring. One day my dog ate my homework, which was TRUE, and the only one they didn’t believe.
I loved telling stories, as I grew up on movies like “Never Ending Story”, “Labyrinth”, “Willow”, “Witches”, “Back to the Future” and “Starwars”, which have really moulded the stories that I want to write and tell.
During secondary school I read “Goodnight Mr Tom” and “The Silver Sword” I loved these WW2 books and they were the first things that pulled me into reading. I then borrowed “Infinity Welcomes Careful Drives” from my brother and I was hooked. This is a sci-fi comedy that was a T.V show called “Reddwarf”
I loved telling stories, but Doug Naylor and Rob Grant did this thing where they told scenes from another person’s point of view or the point of view from a plant, which I thought was really clever. It is why in my books I tend to introduce a talking tree, a lamppost flickering out of existence, a snowdrop that is afraid of heights or a strange animal that has a walk on part and you watch an important scene through its eyes.
The Reddwarf series really sucked me into the world of books. I then turned to Terry Pratchett and since then I have loved adventure, fantasy books. I mean I have read these books on the ferry and burst out laughing in a room of crowded people and then gone “My shoes are on fire” to turn embarrassing into pity, as people think I’m mad. Incidentally, I know longer use the ferry!
This is my path into writing. I loved the awesome 80’s movies, a few really cool WW2 character stories caught my eye and when a dull subject (I was a teen!) can be turned into this personal, amazing and uplifting story it was like having a super power. I wanted to have that effect on people. The Reddwarf books motivated me to try my hand at writing and Terry Pratchett inspired me to tell the story I wanted to tell, no matter how weird and wonderful.
This is my path. What inspired you to enter the world of writing?
