Thinking differently

[John Dean]

I have always thought - and I know I will be shot down for this in some quarters - that writers view the world differently to a lot of people.

Talking to writers certainly bears that out, though, the way a word, a phrase, an image, an idea can create a train of thought that evolves into a story.

I was talking to a writer the other day and he told how a line he used in a conversation triggered something deep within and produced a story that did very well in a short story competition.

Never is the writing process more pronounced, in my view, than when writers take something ordinary, routine, part of our daily lives, and present it in a way that is somehow different.