Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
‘the great democracy of reading and writing’),
Philip Pullman • Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
And meanwhile the book is lying there forgotten. Because you left the path. Because you became more interested in the wood, in elaborating all the richness and invention of the world you’re making up. Never leave the path.
Philip Pullman • Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
And while you’re doing that, if you also give the reader enough visual clues for them to know where a scene is taking place, and who’s present, and what time of day it is, and where the light’s coming from; if you make it clear who’s speaking and what they’re saying; if you put the camera in the best place, and don’t move it till you need to; if yo
... See morePhilip Pullman • Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
The opening governs the way you tell everything that follows, not only in terms of the organisation of the events, but also in terms of the tone of voice that does the telling; and not least, it enlists the reader’s sympathy in this cause rather than that.
Philip Pullman • Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
But if we find we can make money by writing books, by telling stories, we have the responsibility – the responsibility to our families, and those we look after – of doing it as well and as profitably as we can.
Philip Pullman • Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
Words change, they have a history as well as a contemporary meaning; it’s worth knowing those things.
Philip Pullman • Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
because the storytelling camera doesn’t only see in space, it sees in time, and that’s much harder to find the right place in.
Philip Pullman • Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
If they didn’t want me to steal from their story, they shouldn’t have invited me into it – that’s my view.
Philip Pullman • Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
You often need more than one person in a scene to make it work.
Philip Pullman • Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling
‘Where do I put the camera?’ I think that that’s the basic storytelling question. Where do you see the scene from? What do you tell the reader about it? What’s your stance towards the characters? These