5 pieces of advice from David Walliams for budding writers
Comic, actor, presenter and TV judge David Walliams is a busy guy - he's also been a children's book author for 10 years now. And not just any author - his books have been translated into 53 languages and sold 20 million copies. Meanwhile, he's now exceeded 100 weeks at the children's No.1 spot. Not bad by any standards hey?
If you're a budding star author, or just love to read and write, here are some of the tips he dished when he came into the Radio 1 Breakfast Show studio.
1.) Write for pleasure.
David's brand new book, Bad Dad, is out now. "It's really an adventure story," David told Grimmy. "I write books really just for the pleasure of children reading them, I don’t necessarily think you need to bash them over the head with some moralistic lesson or big important theme every time."
2. Find inspiration in everyone you meet.
David revealed that Raj, a super popular character from his books, was actually based on a real life shop owner in his neighbourhood - but that he had never told the man he was the source of such inspiration.
“(It's) a wonderful thing you find you can do when you write books and come up with comedy sketches," he said. "You can always base it on people you know and people you meet."
3. Understand the real meaning of success.
David might nearly be, as Grimmy put it, "Like the Adele of the book world!", but he measures achievement by his own metrics.
"Success is great, but you know what it’s like, facts and figures," he said. "There’s nothing nicer than someone coming up to you in the street and telling you they like what you do. Especially when grown ups say, 'Oh I couldn’t get my kid to read a book until he read one of yours.' So it's a pleasure."
4. Take constructive criticism.
“Do your research!” - David Walliams takes some constructive criticism of his books
David responds to fans of his literary work.
**SPOILER ALERT**
Responding to feedback is a key part of progression in any profession, but as an author you'd kind of hope the person critiquing your book had actually, you know, read it.
David listened happily to various suggestions from fans who called in to the Breakfast Show, but slightly lost his cool when one fan asked to see "a bit more" of his character Gangster Granny.
"If she'd read Gangster Granny, she dies at the end, so there can't be any more, ok? You say you're a fan, you're clearly not. Get your facts right!"
5. Scary can be good.
Some of David's books, such as Demon Dentist, are preeeeeeeeetty terrifying (even for adult readers!) But according to David, scary can sometimes be good.
"It’s good to be scared right?" he said. "As a kid I loved to watch Dr Who, a little bit scary is good. Roald Dahl books are scary."
