David Almond reveals how his novel Skellig became a play, opera and film
David Almond
David Almond is a British author whose novels include Kit’s Wilderness, The Fire Eaters, Clay and Jackdaw Summer. The Fire Eaters won the 2003 Whitbread Award, while his first children’s novel, Skellig, set in his hometown of Newcastle, won the Whitbread Children’s Novel of the Year Award and the Carnegie Medal. It has since been adapted into a stage play and an opera. The film of Skellig
What made you become a children’s author?
I didn’t plan it. It just happened. I wrote a whole series of short stories, Counting Stars, that grew out of my own childhood.
When they were finished I found the story of Skellig beginning to tell itself in my head. When I started to write it down, I suddenly realised it was a story for young people. I was amazed - and liberated!
Did you find an agent or a publisher first?
I found an agent, Maggie Noach, when I was writing a long, never-to-be-published novel called Séances. I sent her a few chapters. She liked them.
When the book was finished Maggie started to submit it. When it was rejected by everybody, I thought I’d lose Maggie, but I didn’t. She stuck with me for years, never made a penny from me until Skellig
Did you face much rejection initially?
For years I was published in small magazines, small presses. I had lots of rejections. The first novel I wrote took me five years and was rejected by every single UK publisher. I was dogged, thick-skinned, and I made sure I looked after myself financially by taking a series of jobs. I ended up as a part-time teacher, which was perfect – a good balance between having time and not being poor.
When Skellig came out I’d been writing seriously for about 15 years. It was wonderful to read the review that called me an overnight success. You have to write because you are driven to write and because you love it. There has to be part of you that knows it’ll all work out, and another part that really doesn’t give a damn.
What would you say are the key ingredients to a successful children’s novel?
The same as for any novel: strong storytelling, strong language, a strong vision.
What do you find the most challenging aspects of writing?
Getting the words to work.
What do you enjoy most about it?
The opportunity to write in a range of forms: novels, stories, short novels, picture books, plays; the chance to collaborate with wonderful artists. The children’s book world is a place of great energy and experimentation.
How do you think living in the northeast influenced your writing?
It’s behind everything: character, landscape, language, history, weather…
What was the inspiration behind Skellig?
Skellig just came to me as I walked along the street. It draws on much of my own life - things from my childhood (eg my sister’s death and my mother’s arthritis); it is set in a house in which I lived in Newcastle; it’s influenced by many of my favourite authors (eg Marquez and Carver).
But somehow all of the influences and inspirations had been working without my conscious knowledge, and when the story began it often seemed to write itself.
How did Skellig come to be adapted as an opera?
Braham Murray, the director, loved the book and thought it would work wonderfully as an opera. He sent the book to Tod Machover, the composer, who fell in love with it, too.
The three of us met up, became good friends and found that we shared an artistic vision of what the opera could be like. I wrote the libretto. Tod began to write the music, and the Sage Gateshead came in as producer.
How did it feel to see Skellig transformed into a film?
It’s been going to happen for several years. The film world moves very slowly, and then suddenly gets into action. I went to see some of the filming, saw some of the first rushes (which were terrific, and showed that the ordinariness of the setting is maintained), and met most of the cast. It’s scary – it’s very difficult to make a good film, but the casting is great, with wonderful intelligent actors playing the main roles. So I’m hopeful it’ll turn out well.
With your novels, what comes first – the plot or the characters?
It’s unpredictable - sometimes it’s just a fragment of a story, a snatch of dialogue, a setting, a glimpse of a character. The story grows like an organic living thing. I don’t plan and plot but the framework of possibilities develops as I write. I don’t know what the end will be.
Which sense is most important to you when you are imagining a scene in one of your books?
A good scene has all of of them, sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste, even if they’re not described on the page.
Whose writing do you admire?
Marquez, Borges, Carver, Chris Abani, Heaney, Angela Carter, John Donne…
Please describe an average writing day.
Ideally: into the shed at 9am; lunch at midday; begin again at 1pm; end at 5-ish: write 1000 words a day.
But these days there are many (often wonderful) distractions and I have to make sure that I protect my writing time, and have enough days in the shed.
What advice would you offer an aspiring novelist?
Write it. Be brave. Write the best book you can. Do one page then another page then another page. It’s difficult, but there are also moments of great magic. Work hard, and your imagination will give you gifts.
What are you working on at the moment?
A short story for The Sunday Times, and a new short novel, The Thirteenth Fish.
For more see www.davidalmond.com
The Fire Eaters
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I think Skellig is an amasing book and I will hopefuly enjoy all of David Almond’s other books.If Iwas asked to compare David Almond’s work to another auther I would choose Michael Morpurgo because there writing style is similar.