It's kind of surprising how often I get this question
I get this question almost everywhere I go in the world
and my answer is kind of a grateful 'No, I don't see a difference.'
Everywhere I talk to teenagers all over the world
whatever group of teenagers I'm talking to
if it's in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Budapest...
I was in Ljubljana, was in Taipei or even all over America...
they ask the same questions
and they have the same concerns and the same worries
and are thinking about the same issues
so I don't actually see a difference and I'm happy about that
because I think if teenagers are the same the world over
then there's kind of hope for all of us
because you know maybe nations are not as important as we seem to think they are.
So, no, I don't see a difference and I'm very happy.
My missions are never usually that concrete in my head
I mean I always go after what I feel is the most truthful character
and what I want to see
And I often write a lot about things that I didn't see growing up
Things that I wanted to see, and longed to see but never saw
And so that's probably where Adam came from.
And that's probably why I responded to his story so much
He was somebody that I would have been
thrilled to be able to read about when I was 15 or 16
So it's not a conscious decision because I don't think you can
I don't think you create a living character that way.
If you start with a set of circumstances
rather than, I don't know, the 'spark' of a character
but it's definitely there: that idea that it's not a big deal
because, guess what, it's not a big deal!
I've always said one of the ways -
one of the ways to change the world is to act as if the world has already changed
And I'm a big believer in that, so this isn't a big deal
so I'm not going to pretend that it is in the book
so let's just get on with telling a story.
What advice can you ever give about fitting in?
That's the thing.
To be a teenager is to not fit in,
That is the whole, sadly, the whole operating principle
of what teenage life is like.
It's why you feel so different as a teenager.
It's the very first time you've stepped away from your family
And it's the first time you've said 'I am not that thing'
'I am now this new thing, I am my own thing.'
And that's a lonely step
because you are literally stepping away
from everyone that you've known up to that point.
And this is the time where you find people:
find your friends, find your tribe
find the ways that you belong, ways that you can fit in
So there's no way to make that artificial.
I'm afraid you just kind of have to not fit in for a while
and that feeling which I think is not -
I don't think there's much negative about that
I think certainly writers come from a feeling of not fitting in,
many artists do, and you know certainly many scientists do
so I think there's no way to artificially fit in
Trying to find out who you are,
the process of trying to find out who you are is difficult.
And it should be
because you are valuable and who you are is important.
So concentrate more on, I think, discovering your boundaries,
discovering the things that matter to you
The fitting in will come later
and it'll come at the right time
so there are bigger fish to fry
there's more exciting fish to fry which are...
Well, they're you, they're the important, essential 'you'.
So concentrate on that I think
Erm, what I'm trying to do now is I'm trying to think of what other book of mine has a ghost in it!
I suppose not ghosts but I am really a very big believer
in the idea that there's no such thing as a realistic story
even if it's set in contemporary London, right now, today,
it's still fantasy, because it's still characters that you've created
arcing towards their destinies
and there's coincidences and there's a -
a plot and a climax and so on.
I think all stories are fantastical.
And if I believe that that's true, I think if I can embrace that
then the boundaries between 'putatively realistic', which I don't believe exists,
and fantastical are much easier to cross.
So a thing like a ghost in this book
or the Noise in the Chaos Walking trilogy
or the Monster, obviously, in A Monster Calls.
To me, all that needs to happen is I need to
make a world where these things logically take place,
where these things are in fact 'realistic' and that's all I need to do.
And I think if you - well, you know, why not?
Why not push a story? Why not?
All a story is, all fiction is, is a falsehood that reflects a truth.
These things do not exist they are not real
but within that they reflect a truth so why not? Why not go for it?
The whole world, the whole possible universe
the whole potential universe is your canvas
why not really - why not go for it? Why not throw in a ghost or two?!
I don't regard the books as, sort of, someone's complete life.
So, in relation to this question I don't regard the story as the full story, if you see what I mean.
I regard them as a little slice of the character's lives
but it is the story that I want to tell about the characters lives
and then I kind of feel like I should let them get on with it
without me badgering them and pushing them around and making them suffer.
So I don't - I rarely ever feel a real strong impulse to revisit books
that I've already written because I feel like that story's been told
and I'm so terrified of complacency
I think complacency is the absolute death of creativity
and I am worried about complacency
I never want to think 'Oh, I'm going to do this great!'
I need to be frightened and I need to be worried
and so unfamiliar territory is better for me, creatively,
but the characters I like
probably not to revisit as a story
but the characters that I do wonder about,
You know, I always wonder how Wilf is doing now.
from Chaos Walking
and I'd love to know... I love Tommy from More Than This
I'd love to know what he's up to
I think Tommy is one of my favourite characters ever that I've written,
and actually, since Release takes place on a single day
I'd love to know what happens to Adam after that day
because there's some big things that are about to change
and I'd be curious to see how he handles them.
But these stories are done.
I think it's time to send the characters out into the world
and let them find their own destinies
while I look for new ones