How I Write

As with most authors, I started writing because I had to – not for money, but from a feeling that I had things to say and that this was the way to say them. As I wrote, I found that it wasn’t just a matter of knowing what I had to say, and then writing it down. It was more like the old Andy Capp gag (at least, I think it was Andy Capp; if it wasn’t it should have been) where Andy’s wife Flo says “How do I know what I think till I hear what I say?”

I don’t really know what I think until I start writing it down. The process of writing for me is like an internal conversation. That conversation can lead to the sort of situation that Bertrand Russell experienced during a lecture, where he started presenting a point of view, only to change his mind half way through and switch to arguing for the opposite point of view!

My science often proceeded in the same way. I would start with an idea, and then watch evidence pile up which showed me that Nature and I were not on the same wavelength. That was fine, though. I might have started with a hypothesis, but this was just a way to ask a question of Nature. The important point was Nature's answer, not how I had phrased my question.

My job as a writer is also to ask questions, rather than starting with a fixed idea and amassing evidence to “prove” it. That is the approach of the Eric von Danikens and Dan Browns of this world. Their approach might sell books, but I could never make myself do it. I start with a question, and the resulting book shares my journey of exploration and discovery. The questions so far have been along the lines of “where did the science that I have used all my life actually come from?” In future books they are more likely to be along the lines of “what is the place of science in society and its relevance to our view of the world?” These are questions that are very important to me and my own world view, and my aim in writing is to share my journey of exploration, wherever that might lead.