"We ought to make the process of writing books seem less daunting to those who are starting out."
So, let us begin by scrapping the notion of originality...
"In a profession without rules, the one essential is that writers have to be magpies: bits of films, songs, other people's journalism, other people's books, conversations, someone they saw in the street are the flotsam and jetsam that are going to give shape and colour and inspiration to the story under construction. No writer in the history of the world is original, they all depend on other writers' work, or the narrative of a previous book, and that is the way it should be and always will be. First-time writers begin and give up because they think their work must be original. Nothing could be further from the truth. Can't think of a plot? Take a classic of literature or the theatre, rename the characters, move the location and bring it up to date."
FROM: http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20130308&page=23
Jack King is the author of Agents of Change, WikiJustice, The Black Vault, and The Fifth Internationale.
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