Many people that like reading fantasy, are secretly aspiring writers. What is your advice to them?
To people that want to write, I always say: write. Start easy. Write something you would like to read yourself. Pick apart your favorite books and see how they are put together. Do the same with books that are praised by critics. Take a book you like, and rewrite it. Remove parts, change how it is built up, whatever. Not to get the results published – that would be plagiarism – but to get experience. Then proceed to write a summary of a book. Make a prologue for an imaginary book. That would, you get closer and closer to the real work. But seriously, don’t start with a series of over ten books. (laughs)
A bad childhood doesn’t hurt either, I’m told…
Indeed. Not and then, parents approach me to ask: “My child is talented, how do I encourage him to write?” My advice is always: “Give them an unhappy childhood”. All writers I know personally, and also painters and other artists, have all had an unhappy childhood. Or at least a very insecure childhood. You really don’t need to hit your child for that: moving every six months is enough. I can’t guarantee that they will actually become writers—they might as well turn into psychopaths—but it is a condition. Also, it might well be possible that a psychopath writes perfect books. In that regard, I can’t vouch for the mental health of myself and my colleagues.
Is writing therapeutical? Or is a bad childhood an inexhaustible sources of inspiration?
The latter. Children who experience what things in some way, often tend to seek refuge in the save, trusted world in their head. They become dreamers. And that budding creativity can later be turned into books or paintings.
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