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So what characters want and what

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characters need always drive every story

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and they always drive how the character

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behaves, what's going to happen, how

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they interact with other characters. Um,

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here's the graveyard book. Haven't

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talked about it before, so I just

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grabbed it.

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And we begin

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with uh there was a hand in the darkness

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and it held a knife. The knife had a

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handle of polished black bone and a

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blade finer and sharper than any razor.

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If it sliced you, you might not even

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know you'd been cut. Not immediately.

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The knife had done almost everything it

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was brought to that house to do and both

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the blade and the handle were wet.

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And we know very very quickly we are

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dealing with a man called the man Jack

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who is walking around this house

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with a knife.

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The hunt was almost over. He'd left the

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woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom

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floor, the older child in her brightly

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colored bedroom surrounded by toys and

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half-finish models, but only left the

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little one, a baby barely a toddler, to

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take care of. One more and his task

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would be done.

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And

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now we know exactly what the man Jack

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has done. He's killed a family and what

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he wants, which is to kill the baby.

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The problem is the baby isn't going to

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be there.

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Because when we meet the baby, what the

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baby wants is to get out of his crib.

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Ever since the child had learned to

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walk, he'd been his mother and father's

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despair and delight. For there never was

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such a boy for wandering, for climbing

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up things, for getting into and out of

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things. That night he'd been woken by

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the sound of something on the floor

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beneath him falling with a crash. Awake

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he soon became bored and had begun

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looking for a way out of his crib. It

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had high sides like the walls of his

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play pen downstairs, but he was

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convinced that he could scale it. All he

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needed was a step. And the baby gets out

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of the crib. The baby wants to get out.

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The baby is not trying to escape.

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The baby's just

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heads off, bumping down the stairs on

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his bottom,

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heads out of the open door that the man

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Jack had left open when he crept into

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the house. The baby heads up the hill,

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and then we meet some other characters

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in the graveyard.

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Owens called the pale woman in a voice

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that might have been the rustle of the

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wind through the long grass. Owens, come

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and look at this.

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She crouched down and peered at

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something on the ground as a patch of

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shadow moved into the moonlight,

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revealing itself to be a grizzled man in

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his mid-40s. He looked down at his wife

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and then looked at what she was looking

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at and he scratched his head. Mistress

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Owens, he said, for he came from a more

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formal age than our own. Is that what I

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think it is?

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And at that moment the thing he was

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inspecting seemed to catch sight of Mrs.

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Owens, for it opened its mouth, letting

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the rubber nipple it was sucking fall to

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the ground, and it reached out a small

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chubby fist as if it were trying for all

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the world to hold on to Mrs. Owen's pale

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finger. "Strike me silly," said Mr.

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Owens. "If that isn't a baby." "Of

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course it's a baby," said his wife. "And

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the question is, what is to be done with

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it?" "I dare say that is a question, Mr.

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Owen, said her husband. And yet it is

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not our question, for this here baby is

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unquestionably alive and as such is

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nothing to do with us and is no part of

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our world. Look at him smile, said Mrs.

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Owens. And now we have two ghosts

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in a graveyard and a baby. And we know

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that one of them wants to get involved

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and one of them doesn't.

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And then

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the man Jack turns up

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and the Owens family hesitate.

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Uh they're about to leave the baby

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when they see a ghost, which is pretty

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unusual. I mean, it's not that unusual

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given that they are in fact ghosts and

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live in a graveyard amongst ghosts. Um,

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but there was a difference between the

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folk at the graveyard and this. A raw,

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flickering, startling shape, the gray

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color of television static, all panic

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and naked emotion, which flooded the

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Owenses as if it were their own. Three

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figures, two large, one smaller, but

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only one of them was in focus, was more

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than an outline or a shimmer. And the

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figure said, "My baby, he is trying to

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harm my baby."

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A clattering. The man outside was

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hauling a heavy metal garbage can across

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the alley to the high brick wall that

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ran around that part of the graveyard.

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"Protect my son," said the ghost. And

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Mrs. Owens thought it was a woman, of

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course, the bab's mother.

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So now

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again, what do people want? Well, his

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dead mother wants her son to be

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protected. Mrs. Owens wants to protect

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the man Jack wants to kill.

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The baby is perfectly happy right now.

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We also know that the baby needs to be

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looked after even if it doesn't know

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that it wants to be looked after.

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And now we get to follow what happens.

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We get to follow as a mysterious

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stranger named Silas appears and

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deals with the stranger, seems to wipe

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his mind of what's happened in the

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graveyard and sends him off again.

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And we follow Mistress Owens and the

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baby as

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there is a convocation of the dead. All

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of the dead in the graveyard get

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together

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and debate what should be done with the

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baby. We know what Mistress Owens wants.

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She wants the baby. We know what the

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people in the graveyard want. They want

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not to have to deal with a live baby.

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You're a You're in a graveyard. Why

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would you want that?

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And then two things happen. One of which

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is death herself appears. The lady on

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the gray riding her pale horse arrives

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and she just says to them, "The dead

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should have charity."

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And the other is that Silas, the

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mysterious stranger who

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appears to be neither living nor dead,

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says that he will be the child's

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guardian. He will bring it food from the

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world of the living and he will help

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look after it. And at this we end the

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first chapter

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of the graveyard book. And it's all

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being driven by wants and it's all being

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driven by needs.

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A child has been adopted by the

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inhabitants of a graveyard.

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And now what we want to know is, okay,

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what's going to happen? Who is this

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child? What's he going to be when he

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grows up? And now we have our beginning.

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But everything is driven by want and

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everything is driven by need. And

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everything is driven by characters

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wanting different things and those

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different things colliding.

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And every moment that one character

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wants something and another character

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wants something mutually exclusive and

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they collide. Every time that happens,

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you have a story.