Patrick Ness on The Crane Wife

'Writing has no rules, only guidelines. Which you can ignore as much as you want.'

We at Booktrust have been fans of Patrick Ness for a very long time. Going back before even his Booktrust Teenage Prize-winning The Knife of Never Letting Go. Going back as far ashis 2005 short story collection, Topics About Which I Know Nothing, and his 2003 satire, The Crash of Hennington. There's a reason why we asked him to be our first ever online writer in residence. It's because we're huge fans of his work!

So, to the new book, The Crane Wife, a magical fable about longing, family, companionship and cranes. It's brilliant. As ever. One thing we love about Patrick is his consistency when it comes to being consistently brilliant.

We talked to him about writing for different age groups, music, Japanese folktales and Hollywood adaptations.

Hello Patrick, welcome back to the murky world of books for adults. How does it feel?

Not murky at all. I don't feel like I ever really left (or have left YA books either). They're all the same to me: just the next story that needs to be told to get it out of my head so I can have some peace.

I think about my ideas for a long, long time, letting them stew and attract other ideasBeing a multi-genre writer for multiple age ranges, do you have a plan for what you'll be working on and for whom or are you led by the ideas?

No plan, just totally led by what the story is telling me it needs to be. I think about my ideas for a long, long time, letting them stew and attract other ideas. Eventually they reveal themselves for what they need to be, and I just shrug my shoulders, go 'great!' and get on with it.

Speaking of which, tell us about The Crane Wife and the inspiration behind writing it?

The Crane Wife takes its starting point from a Japanese folktale I heard as a small boy. I've always thought about it and always felt drawn to it emotionally, and slowly, slowly, slowly, a modern-retelling of it (with lots of different avenues) started to form. I wish I DID know where ideas came from; it'd make the process a lot easier!

Is the song influenced by The Decemberists album?

In an important sense of feeling. I always have theme songs to my books - not for straight adaptation or plot or lyrics or anything - but how the song makes me feel. My goal is always to try to take that feeling and try to make the reader feel it. For The Knife of Never Letting Go, it was a Muse song that had propulsion and yearning, and for this one, The Decemberists songs (which are so beautiful) were kind of the last emotional ingredient to the story I'd been brewing. They're so gentle and lovely and sad, and I thought, boy I'd love to be able to try and make a reader feel these things I'm feeling. So a last ingredient, a kind of touchstone during writing to return to and remind myself how I wanted it to go.

...the question is always, what's right for the book. Everything else is secondary.For all its dreamy surreal nature, The Crane Wife is equal parts sad and funny. As a writer, how do you balance these opposing forces and keep them balanced to ensure the funny parts are funny and the sad bits sad?

I don't ever think of consciously balancing anything, really. It's all about what feels right for the story; you can sort of just tell, if you're paying attention to what it needs. Sorry if that's terribly woolly, but I get this question about the balance between magical and real, too. I just don't see it; the question is always, what's right for the book. Everything else is secondary.

Matt Haig in his tips for writers said you should 'Never kill the dog, whatever you do, never kill the dog...' *SPOILER ALERT* Do you feel any guilt about killing Manchee in the Chaos Walking trilogy? What would be the one tip you pay forward to writers?

Nope. It's how he would have wanted to go, and I knew it would happen before I even started writing. And the tip I'd pay forward is, 'Write a book you'd want to read yourself.' You'd be amazed at how many people don't.

The Crane Wife, as well as dealing with themes of family and friendship and memory and ageing, is also a book of extraordinary wonder. The prose really flies with George's sense of wonder around him. What do you hope the book says about the world now?

That's a big question. I don't know, I don't really think like that.  It's more about what I fear in the world and what I love in the world and what I hope and long for, too. Maybe we're all just repeating E M Forster: 'Only connect.'

How involved are you with the screenplay for The Knife of Never Letting Go and can you tell us anything about the adaptation?

It's being written by Charlie Kaufman, who's got an Oscar and is a genius, so I'm pretty happy it's in good hands. And nothing just yet on the adaptation (Hollywood moves slow) but fingers crossed.

Writing has no rules, only guidelines.When will we see more Patrick Ness short stories? To you, what makes the perfect short story?

There will be two new Chaos Walking short stories in the republished version of the trilogy out in May. Plus, I've got short stories all over the place. In the World Book Day app, in some upcoming anthologies, in a few secret places I can't say yet... As for perfect, no idea. And any writer who says otherwise is probably lying. Writing has no rules, only guidelines. Which you can ignore as much as you want.

What are you currently reading and what are you looking forward to reading most this year?

Currently rereading Peter Carey's first novel Bliss, which is amazing. And this year, finally digging into Murakami's 1Q84.

The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness (Canongate) is out now.

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Patrick Ness was Booktrust's first ever online writer in residence. Find out more about his residency