Good writers: reading a good book (or watching a good film/TV
series, or playing a good game) is always inspiring. I started wanting to write
when I was tiny – I read Jill Murphy’s The
Worst Witch when I was in first school and dressed up as Mildred Hubble for
World Book Day and wanted to wear my witch hat and write stories about witches.
From there I went to Goosebumps and through various Urban Fantasy and Horror and the works of
Stephen King and James Herbert and Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman…
Although I’m pretty sure that if I were
in fact a witch, I would be trying to turn that into a career and also destroying
excessively loud music systems in shops rather than writing. Sorry.
Bad writers: a lot of bad writing has a lot of potential. It’s
kind of tragic that it’s not teased out. On the other hand, thank you, bad
writers, you’ve given me something to play with. (Twilight, for example, is a well of 'good ideas done horribly' that never, ever runs dry.)
Nerdy research: It’s useful to have random facts in your head
if you need inspiration. Sometimes it’s for stories. Sometimes it’s a reason
why you’re juggling cheese or staring at cats.
My life: my life story is long, weird, and depressing as hell.
On the other hand, I do have a wide range of emotional inspiration when
writing. On the third hand, I’m not going to use it as direct inspiration. It has
the potential to get too disturbing due to my personal feelings about these
experiences.
As for what else? I don’t know. Being an introverted child
with few friends and no siblings probably overcharged my imagination. That’s
probably why I write; otherwise my brain would just overflow.
That and the fact that I was never accepted into Miss Cackle’s
Academy.
I’m kidding.
