Reflections Read Online Free

realized that they provide a fairly complete picture of my growing ideas and convictions about writing for children, writing, and fantasy generally. They move from a discussion of Tolkien’s narrative, to reflections on my aims and methods, and then to efforts to describe and chart the creative process itself. Some items made me laugh as I reread them. People, I thought, might enjoy these. Then it occurred to me that this collection could amuse and interest students too, and might also be useful to teachers of creative writing and tutors of university courses on children’s literature and fantasy, of which there are now many.
    Curiously enough, almost none of these items was spontaneous. Except for “The Children in the Wood,” which is an early meditation on the needs and habits of children, all the rest were requested by bodies in America and Australia as well as in Scotland, Ireland, and England. Nearly all these requests were for something amusing but serious in intent, which might lift the tone of an otherwise solemn conference. For instance, “Inventing the Middle Ages” was written for a conference at the University of Nottingham where contributors discussed the dialects of a number of small regions, the influence of the Vikings, the meter of medieval poetry, and suchlike topics. The organizer said she hoped I would approach the Middle Ages from an entirely different point of view, and I did my best to comply with this.
    It is in the nature of such a collection of writings that certain facts and ideas tend to get repeated, although I hope not too often. As I do when writing a book, I tried, in each lecture or article, to present people with something different from what had gone before. In the process I found my own thinking expanding.
    Some of the shorter items were requested by magazines for children. “When I Won the Guardian Award” was written for a children’s group in Rochdale, and likewise, I think, was “The Halloween Worms.” “Some Hints on Writing” and “Characterization: Advice for Young Writers” were both requested by the BBC for an educational website. The letter on the advantages of studying Anglo-Saxon at university is included because most people still do not believe how many highly respected writers have been inspired by learning the language and literature of that time. And, though I found I had written many reviews, I have only included one: of Boy in Darkness , by Mervyn Peake. I felt this was necessary as it is an account of the way even the most baroque fantasy can be directly relevant to ordinary life.
    Various threads run through this collection, but by far the strongest is that of the need for fantasy in all its many facets and its value for children and adults alike. It is my hope that some of these items will be of use to people.
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    â€”Diana Wynne Jones
    November 2010

The Children in the Wood
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    Written around the year 1981, this brief, personal story about narratives is, Diana says in her preface, one of the few articles she wrote that was not commissioned. Instead, she says, it is a “meditative” piece.
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    F rom my window I can see a steep stretch of woodland, which is really the garden of a big terrace of flats. I have watched it for five years now. It is full of children who appear to be mad. A group of girls totter down the slope. Each is wearing a skirt of her mother’s and holding a homemade crown onto her head. Every so often, they all stop and shake hands. Further along, another group of girls wanders among the bushes. Some bushes seem to terrify them. They clutch one another and scream. But they seem quite unaware of the bush beside them where three boys are crouching, armed with guns, and do not even look when one boy throws up both arms and dies. The girls in crowns seem equally unaware of four other boys struggling on their bellies up the gentle slope toward them. These boys seem to