9. Don't spend your ideas too freely
I
can't remember who said it – probably a famously boozy writer
like Kingsley Amis – but it's true, you can spend ideas
enough to fill a whole novel, just chatting for
an evening in the pub.
It isn't that the ideas are suddenly no good any
more. The problem is, they have no more mystery. You talk and you talk.
You find out why so-and-so doesn't believe in God anymore and why what's-his-name
is the black sheep of the family. You get a brilliant idea as to how
this all fits into the political scene about 12 years ago and you find
you can base one of the ministers on a woman you know from your children's
school.
So when you sit down to compose the thing, there doesn't seem to be anything left to discover in the writing.
At the time, while you were talking, it was like taking apart a clever machine to see how it works, but can you put it back together again? (Remember what happened to the Pianola in 100 Years of Solitude?)
So, resist the temptation and keep it for yourself.
PS In fact, it was Anthony Burgess.
