Phillip Pullman

So Phillip Pullman is getting a bad rap at the moment, a lot of Christian blogs warning everyone that the Golden Compass movie, based on some of his books is leading children to atheism… which is his goal of course — being an Atheist, that would be obvious.

So I thought I would try to post something positive about Phil…

I found an interview with Phil about how he writes, and as I am fascinated with how people work and create I though I would post an excerpt here:

Full Interview

Q: Where and when do you write?

A: I write in my shed, at the bottom of the garden. It’s quite comfortable in there, but because of my superstition about not tidying it during the course of a book, it’s now an abominable tip. I write by hand, using a ballpoint pen on narrow lined A4 paper (with two holes, not four). I sit at a table covered with an old kilim rug, on a vastly expensive Danish orthopaedic chair, which has made a lot of difference to my back. The table is raised on wooden blocks so it’s a bit higher than normal.

I write three pages every day (one side of the paper only). That’s about 1100 words. Then I stop, having made sure to write the first sentence on the next page, so I never have a blank page facing me in the morning.

After lunch I always watch Neighbours. Soap operas are interesting because there’s no limit to the length a story can have it can go on for months, if it’s got some life in it. I like watching the script editors losing interest in one story-line and promoting another instead, and it’s fascinating to watch some characters gaining story-potency as others lose it, and to try and work out why it’s happening. Neighbours is better than EastEnders or Coronation Street for this, because there’s no distracting social comment. It’s all pure story: one thing following another.

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