Morris Gleitzman Quotes

It's rare that I actually have a story in my head. I have events or 'what's the next move?' Like, Maggie, 'where's she going to go in this story, where's she going to end up?' Then the story has to fill in the in-between, and that comes as I'm starting it.

There are times that you have a plot in your head, but then you find that the characters don't want to do that. When you're looking at the story from the outside, you can create whatever twists and turns you want. But when you're writing, you're inside the characters' heads, and you see that they may be motivated to do something different.

Plot and character are virtually the same thing.

I think it is important that you care about the characters, and you are not just waiting for the next action sequence but have a vested interested in what happens to them.

For me, screenwriting is all about setting characters in motion and as a writer just chasing them. They should tell you what they'll do in any scene you put them in.

I'll tell you the secret. When you begin with a character, you want to begin by creating a villain.

When you're writing a novel - at least the way I write is I work from what I would call 'emotional atmosphere,' ambiance to ambiance.

I try mainly to just focus on character and what my character's point of view is, with each person, and try to figure out story.

I always devise a background so that it makes what your character goes through logical and keeps up the continuity.

So I work hard to present the human side of my characters while not neglecting the plot.

I'll generally write out every scene that's in the film on a couple of pieces of paper, just with a little one-line. And then I can scan it a bit and go, 'This first third of the film, generally, I'm kind of calm.' Then I might do something on one piece of paper that just relates to the energy of the character.

Coming from TV and film, rule number one is that you always service the main character first and foremost. If that's not working, you've got nothing.

If you don't have people that the reader cares about and stories that are gripping, you've got nothing.

I don't need all that much - I just need to know who my characters are and what kind of jam they're going to get into, and I'll write myself out of their jam.

'The Names' is planned as a nine-part series. I have a kind of road map: I know the final scene of episode nine. But as to exactly how we get there, what detours or horrible accidents we might have to pass through, I like to keep that a little fluid.

For me, plot always comes out of character, so I had to be sure of my characters.

We don't experience our lives as plots. If I asked you to tell me what your last week was like, you're not really gonna give me plot. You're gonna give me sort of linked narrative. And I wanted to see how do we bring that into fiction without losing the reader.

I do novels a bit backward. I look for a situation, a milieu first, and then I wait to see who walks into it.

A story isn't interesting unless a character has real challenges to deal with.

I just have to let the story go the way it needs to go and let them take the detours they want to take, and I'll get to the end.

It was really fun to start writing movies because you could actually take characters whose voice you enjoy writing in and have actual things happen to them for more than five minutes. It was really fun to thread it together.

Lots of times when I'm offered things, I can't see how a story gets filmed. Either it's too internal or it doesn't have a strong spine.

My only conclusion about structure is that nothing works if you don't have interesting characters and a good story to tell.

It always comes down to script and characters.

My characters are not thinking about the act breaks. They're thinking about what they need to do to move forward. As long as I focus on that, the story starts to progress. As soon as I think, 'We're 20 pages in, something better blow up,' we're in trouble.