The closing keynote from @davidjalmond at @The

On ideas: 'Stories are everywhere, they are ordinary human things that happen to each one of us. Within the boringness are the most extraordinary tales.' Also, 'We are an imaginative species, even deciding what you are having for dinner is an act of imagination.'

On the writing mind: 'The terrifying thing about a book is that it doesn't look like a mind. They look at the book and think it's perfect but they don't see what comes before [the notebooks]. People think writers must have a special type of mind but we all have the same minds.'

On bringing writing out of the head: 'Stationery, notebooks and pencil cases make writing physical. Thinking through a problem in a story can make it harder. Doodling and playing [in a notebook] can help to release the imagination.'

'It's important to remember how close the written word is to the voice. If you can speak a sentence without stumbling it's probably okay, if you can sing it without stumbling it's probably really good. It accentuates that words are not just beautiful black marks, they are sounds'

On what makes children's writers children's writers: 'We don't go to children to say look what I've done and how clever I am, we go to them and say look what I've done, you could do it too.'

On children not needing to write in a 'literary voice' and on owning their authentic voices: 'The voice is in their bones, their blood, their experiences, their families, that is their language.'

On discovering your story and allowing unknowns: 'It's important to write with a sense of uncertainty. You have to work in the space between security and insecurity. Not knowing is really important. That's what the world is like, that's what we are like, mysteries.'

On not overthinking writing: 'For anybody to write anything, you have to get out of the way to let the language and story to do itself. Trust the language, trust the story, trust your imagination.'

On keeping up motivation when writing seems tough: 'When I get stuck, I put bigger spaces between the lines so I fill the pages faster and feel like the story is rolling along.'

On not hovering over children when writing: 'We demand of children that they show us everything and allow us to comment on it. It's important we allow children to be confidential and secretive about what they are writing.'

The closing keynote from @davidjalmond at @The_UKLA Writing for Pleasure conference was just so wonderful. I feel like i'm going to explode with inspiration and excitement. I was too hooked to tweet at the time but some key thoughts that stood out to me...

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