Goodreads asked Derek Smith:

How do you get inspired to write?

Derek Smith I begin writing whether I am inspired or not. Initially a writer has little to go on, a one line idea, perhaps a setting. That's not a lot to get inspired about. I need to build it into a pile, rather like a compost heap, which begins to heat up of itself. That heat is my inspiration. To get there, I need to throw into the heap the various characters and the setting in detail. How the characters might interact, the conflict between them, possibilities of romance, and in the books I am writing at the moment, murder. At a certain point the mass begins to steam, that's when I get away from the planning and start writing the book.

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