When I go into schools I'm asked where I get my ideas - like there's some magical repository I know about, and am there to divulge. So the question always panics me. Because I haven't found the answer either. Maybe there are some authors who get those eureka moments - the idea comes to them in a flash and a whole book suddenly appears. But for me, ideas aren't usually recognisable as ideas when they first occur. Probably better to call them passing thoughts or questions. 'Why is that woman at the bus stop looking so angry?' 'How long has that backpack been sitting unattended on the bench-and what's inside?' 'What was going through his head when he wrote that piece of graffiti?' 'How would I feel if that witch of a woman was my mother?' Two of those passing thoughts eventually turned into books. The others are still on the back burner.

But clearly something has to happen between that first passing thought and the thump of a book on the doormat. In my case most of the interim is spent staring into space, youtubing kittens falling off mantelpieces, staring into space, drawing intricate spirals in different coloured pens on the backs of envelopes, staring into space, wondering what ever possessed me to think I could write, staring into space... At some point in between all the compelling displacement activity, other passing thoughts and questions begin attaching themselves to that first passing thought. And those questions start to clump together to form a kind of strand, which eventually starts to shape itself into something resembling a plot. It is at this point that the players begin to emerge - my characters. And they are the ones who finally breathe life into this thing I'm trying to mould. The moment they storm onto the scene, I can forget any semblance of being in charge. They will push the plot onto a course I hadn't predicted, and force me to steer into unchartered territory. But to be honest, that is the bit I like the best. Occasionally I'll find they've hauled me into a cold dark cave with no hint of an exit, and I have to take the reins and pull us back onto the path. But who doesn't get a thrill exploring the odd dark cave? It makes finding the path back home so much more rewarding!