Benjamin Wood (writer)

"I’ve always been a relentlessly creative person. Creativity has saved me from mental trauma. I’ve always been amazed at how a piece of music, a feat of architecture or a picture could move me. I have looked into what the origins of creativity might be, whether there’s a scientific explanation for it, or whether it’s something less knowable. And since there’s no definitive answer to it, it’s grown more compelling. I also find it difficult to write about characters who don’t have an instinct to create something. I always want to write about people who are looking to add more to the world than they’re taking from it."

"I tend to read a lot of life stories of artists or creative people who I find inspiring. With this, I was reading about Alasdair Gray and Francis Bacon and . I tried to find ways to appropriate elements of their lives and create a viable character of my own. I try to build a character out of found materials and my own personal reflections, to mould them into something that’s believable and authentic — as authentic as fiction can be, anyway."

"I do a lot of thinking about the arc of the story before I begin—who the s are at the beginning, who they will become by the end—but I never have a rigid plan. Instead, I do the plot-making equivalent of looking up the journey on the map before I set off, noting where all the important junctions and turn-offs are, then putting the map in the glovebox; and if I happen to encounter a more direct or scenic route along the way, or if any landmarks I thought I would stop and see get bypassed, then I don’t worry too much about it—as long as the journey is interesting and I reach my intended destination. Then I go back and delete all the tiresome road travel metaphors I’ve put in."