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Yesterday I went to the ballet in Glasgow. And I spent a lot of time thinking about defeating baddies. It was Scottish Ballet’s Alice, which was weird and wonderful and daft and complete nonsense (entirely in keeping with the books). But they added something new – they had the writer on stage, dancing with the characters, being part of the (almost) story. Sometimes he would come and rescue Alice from the other characters, and I kept thinking, “There’s no point looking surprised and upset, mate, you created them, you can’t complain about how they act!” But there was also a baddie, the Jabberwock, fabulous in silver and blood. And it was the WRITER who fought with the baddie and persuaded him to mend his ways. Which I suppose the writer always does in a story, though he doesn’t usually take personal credit for it. And I spent most of the second half thinking about whose job it is to defeat the baddie. Isn’t it the writer’s job to create CHARACTERS who defeat the baddie, rather then doing it him or herself? But maybe that’s in books, not in dance… and that’s what I love about ballet, that you can enjoy the dance, and think about lots of other things at the same time, because there aren’t any words to miss. What do you think? Whose job is it to defeat the baddie?
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You’re looking at it from the wrong angle. It is the baddy’s job to defeat US! Most of them aren’t very good at it, though.
I can only imagine what it must be like to be a professional writer so it must be good to go and watch something inspiring. I agree with you and if I ever wrote a book, I would make sure there was quite a bit of combat!
The weird thing is that you can be inspired more by things when you’re NOT looking for inspiration. I’ve just noticed a connection between a hero in something I’m rewriting, and the baddie in a film I went to see for fun last week. I wasn’t trying to be inspired, I was hoping to be entertained, to let someone else do all the work, and now I’m scribbling down ideas all over again!
But you’re always telling me how characters take over the writing in order to get themselves where they want to be in your stories!