A lot of kids ask me: Where do you get all your ideas? I think that’s because when you read a book, there are so many little word pictures that it’s hard to imagine just writing that from scratch. And the truth is, (awkward pause), I don’t. Er, write from scratch, that is.
I’ve included a short snippet below from the third book in my Georgie Tanner series, Flight of the Evening Star. It’s a fun little scene that demonstrates how I do write interesting scenes with all those little word pictures. Let’s start.
Every scene needs a big idea. Something that gets your fingers typing. For this scene, I had the big idea of a character in a costume shop who is wearing so many disguises that you never really know what he looks like. You’ll see what I mean when you read that scene.
I could never have written this off the top of my head. So I took out my trusty notebook and spent time thinking up fun and quirky ideas you might find in a shop like that. It went like this … I scribbled down “reversable eyebrows!” Yes, that made me chuckle. What about something ridiculous like “exploding feet”? (That went in too.) Now for the gadgets. “Expando shoes. Hypno glasses. Knockout gloves. Plastic explosive snot!” You get the idea.
Not everything I jotted down went into this scene. A few things went into another chapter. Some didn’t go in at all, but that’s how it is with books.
After, say, twenty minutes of dreaming up weird and wonderful things, and wondering why I have nothing better to do with my life, there it was! A whole page full of ideas. Now I’m ready to write about that big idea, and I won’t get stuck trying to think of the little details.
Have a read and see what you think. Then why not pick a big idea you have for a scene and give it a go. That notebook of ideas will be your best friend.
They were still catching their breath when Georgie turned and saw a peculiar little back-alley shop, tucked in between The Cat and the Fiddle and Jack of all Blades.
Bradley’s Disguises & Nasty Surprises – Your own mother won’ t recognise you!
She whipped out the card that Max had left in her pocket, which up until now she had completely forgotten about. ‘That’s it!’ she squealed.
A mechanical clown laughed as Georgie pushed through the door. It was a very small shop, with just one display window that was crammed with so many wax heads, reversible wigs and exploding feet that it was quite impossible to see through it. Inside the shop, there wasn’t a single patch of wall, floor or ceiling that wasn’t taken up by dusty boxes of false moustaches, extendable fingers and removable moles. A crowd of wax dummies were propped up all over the place. A few were even lying on the floor, beneath an extremely tall shopkeeper draped in an eight-foot trench coat. The head of the shopkeeper was hidden amongst a selection of inflatable stomachs that were dangling from the ceiling. Georgie cleared her throat. ‘Hello?’
The figure gave a sudden jerk and tripped over backwards, disappearing into a pile of boxes. A cloud of dust wafted into the air as a little man with pointy chin-whiskers jumped up. ‘Customers!’ he shouted with a delighted lisp. The man stumbled forward on the tails of his coat. ‘Do not be alarmed by my apparent change of height,’ he declared, shaking their hands vigorously as he revealed a mechanical apparatus that was dangling from his legs. ‘Bradley’s extra-extendable platform shoes! Tap your toes to go up – kick your heels to go down – available in three designer colours.’
‘Wilson Bradley, inventor and genius, at your service. How may I help you? No, let me guess!’ A large magnifying glass hovered three inches from Georgie’s nose. ‘It’s a nose job, isn’t it? How long do you want it – six inches – seven inches? I wouldn’t go much past ten or people start running into things.’ Mr Bradley laughed, dusting off an old stool. ‘Here – here – sit down. I’ll start you off with some of my patented freckle remover.’
Georgie tried not to giggle, though the freckle remover did sound interesting. ‘Actually, we were just curious. I think a friend of ours might have been in here recently.’
‘Is that so?’
The shopkeeper spun around and gave them a wide, toothy smile. Several teeth were sticking out at awkward angles. They pretended not to notice. ‘Yes, a bat,’ Georgie continued bravely. ‘Sort of small – pointy ears – I think you sold him one of your Booby-Boxes.’
‘Booby-Boxes!’
A tooth bounced across the floor. Georgie turned green. ‘Is everything alright?’
Then, to everyone’s utter disgust (and to his own personal delight), Mr Bradley reached into his mouth and pulled out a fat molar. Thomas looked like fainting. ‘Real, yes? No! It is instead my latest creation. I call them Destructo Dentures. Ideal for faking a nasty croquet accident.’ He demonstrated by squirting a tube of fake blood over his mouth and spitting out a handful of teeth.
‘And the best thing about them…’ Mr Bradley continued, throwing a tooth into his mouth and swallowing, ‘Chocolate! Now, who did you say your friend was? A bat?’
Georgie was fighting back an extreme case of the giggles. ‘Yes. It’s quite possible he flew into something.’
Mr Bradley stroked his beard thoughtfully. The beard dropped onto the floor. ‘No … no bats, I’m quite sure of that. I never forget a face. But now that I think of it, I did sell a box like that to a possum in a trench coat. Didn’t get a good look at him. Never took off his glasses. Bright little fellow, that one. Knew a lot about exploding tonsils. Ah, that reminds me!’ He made a sudden dash for the back room, stumbling over a mannequin as the mechanical clown laughed again. Georgie looked over her shoulder. The door was swinging.
‘Aha!’ She turned back in time to see an avalanche of boxes. Mr Bradley reappeared through a cloud of dust. ‘Now I remember the fellow. He left a large sum of gold on deposit, saying someone would be in to spend it. I guess that’s you, so you’d better take one of my catalogues. Careful, page fifteen is booby-trapped.’ Then Mr Bradley began wiggling his toes. The children watched him extend up in front of them and squint over Georgie’s shoulder. ‘What happened to your friend – that odd little chap in the hat?’
Georgie spun around. ‘Where?’
‘He was right there when I nipped into the back room. Next time you see him, be sure to mention I have a nice set of reversible eyebrows in his size.’
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