Why do some novels make me want to write?
It’s certainly not a feeling that I could do better. That couldn’t be further from the truth. But this inspiration doesn’t happen with everything I read. I’ve noticed lately that while I may have enjoyed two books equally, one of them will make me itch to pick up a pen or reach for my keyboard, and the other I’ll enjoy simply as a reader.
I’ve been devouring children’s and YA books lately because that’s the kind of author I want to be when I grow up [This is taking longer than anticipated].
Take a book like Skellig, by David Almond. It is the story of a boy who finds a dusty old angel living in an outhouse and is one of the most perfect works of children’s fiction I’ve ever read. It’s so gorgeously written, I am weak with envy at Almond’s skill. However, I enjoyed it solely as a reader. But when it comes to another of my recent favourites, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, I felt a powerful creative tug. The Ness book is set in a world where everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts. A boy called Todd and his talking dog stumble upon a patch of silence, which proves to be a discovery that puts their lives at risk. This book is every bit as beautifully written as Skellig and literally made me cry, gasp and laugh. I know I couldn’t write something as good, any more than I could have written David Almond’s masterpiece. But something about it fired my imagination in a way that made me want to sit at my own desk and write like a demon.
Another book in this vein is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, bought because I’d heard so much hype about it. Like the Ness book, it is set in a brutal futuristic world and here teenagers must fight to the death on a grotesque reality TV show for the nation’s entertainment. I read it greedily, gripped and transported, and then I devoured the sequel equally quickly. [My eldest son didn’t actually speak for two days over Christmas when he read it. It’s that kind of book].
The Hunger Games gave me that same itchy-fingered feeling and made me realise that I’d love to put all my fears about not being up to the job to one side and write something that would definitely be called High Concept. I have no idea if I can even begin to carry it off. But at the moment, the trying seems a huge adventure, rather than a terrifying mountain of imminent failure.
So I come back to my original question, which I’m asking because I genuinely don’t know the answer.
Why do some novels make me want to write?
