Patrick Ness on Ideas

The hardest thing about writing a novel or writing anything is that a novel will eat ideas like forest fires through trees. You need way more than a single idea. The first thing I do when I get an idea that feels like there might be a story there, the first thing I do is I wait. Because a good idea, you can tell is a good idea when other ideas start to stick to it. And if your idea is a good idea and there’s a hook to it, things will just start to pile on top of it. One idea will become two and two will become five, five become ten. And then maybe you’ve got enough to fill 300 pages.

Watch the full interview here.