Goodreads asked Katharine Quarmby:

How do you get inspired to write?

Katharine Quarmby It depends on whether it's non-fiction or fiction. Of course, for journalism, my day job, I often get commissions (or pitch). Sometimes (quite often) that work has led on to a book-length project. For instance, Scapegoat started with an investigation of the killing of a disabled man. Fifty or so articles later, I thought I had a book! Similarly, with No Place to Call Home, that started with a 2006 visit to the Irish Traveller site in Essex (later evicted in 2011) called Dale Farm. With fiction, it's more unconscious - both for children and adult writing. It can come from a newspaper piece, or from something in real life, but then it evolves.

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