Ask the Author: David Griffiths
Answered Questions (5)
David Griffiths
I go for a walk down the sea-front and listen to the waves. It clears my head and lets me focus on the issue at hand. This usually lets me see a new angle on whatever the problem is, and then I get my notepad out (I always carry one with me) and jot down the ideas that have come to mind.
NOTE - I don't suppose that I have to walk down the sea-front to get past writer's blocks (I suppose I could just get on a bus and let it circle around for a while), but since I have the sea-front nearby . . .
NOTE - I don't suppose that I have to walk down the sea-front to get past writer's blocks (I suppose I could just get on a bus and let it circle around for a while), but since I have the sea-front nearby . . .
David Griffiths
Being able to sit somewhere nice (in a coffee-shop, by the sea-front, by a lake) and do some writing and feel really lucky that you can be doing something that you enjoy whilst sitting somewhere nice.
David Griffiths
Write a lot. Don't be critical of what you are writing whilst you are writing it. You can be critical after you have written it (that is what re-drafts are for), but if you are critical before you write something, you will never write anything.
Also, don't think that you will make any money from your writing. Most writers (even quite well-known ones) don't make much money (if any) from writing. Write for the love of writing. It can (and should be) be a pleasure in itself.
Also, don't think that you will make any money from your writing. Most writers (even quite well-known ones) don't make much money (if any) from writing. Write for the love of writing. It can (and should be) be a pleasure in itself.
David Griffiths
I write a lot of short stories, and they can be triggered from a headline in a newspaper or from a half-heard fragment of a conversation on a bus or in a shop. I like to go for walks (often down on the sea-front near where I live) and I often get an idea just from watching the waves, or listening to the wind in the rigging. I think you just need to keep your mind open. Don't let little thought bubbles explode and just drift away. Catch them . . . explore them . . . expand them. Then write about them.
David Griffiths
I first had the idea for my Acme Time Travel books round about 1993, sitting on a London-bound train. I pondered the idea for a while, then tried to write the story, then got stuck, left it for a while (ie a couple of years), tried writing it again, got stuck again, then left it for a few more years. About three years ago I picked up the idea again, but this time I concentrated on building up the back-story. I realised that the previous times that I had tried to write this story, the reason that I had got stuck was that I had never developed the back-story sufficiently. I spent several months developing the back-story, and then found (to my utter delight) that I was able to drop my principal characters onto the back-story and they "engaged" with it. A truly marvellous moment.
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