Interviews

The best way to find out how to make your mark on the arts world is to hear it from the artists themselves.  YoungScot spoke to world renowned author Ian Rankin about his experiences as a writer and how he developed his career.  They also interviewed two young playwrights after a performance of 'Playgrounds' to find out more about how to get into playwriting and how to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Read the highlights below then follow the links to YoungScot to read the whole interviews.

Ian Rankin: Where do you get inspiration from? Sometimes I disguise people I know as characters. I get inspiration from newspapers, the news basically.  Things that are happening on tv and radio, things that people seem to be asking about or talking about. Also, the original idea when writing the books was to show people an Edinburgh that they might not otherwise see, so I get a lot of inspiration from finding out hidden information about Edinburgh and then deciding that I must to put that across to the public. I see things in museums and I think oh, I bet nobody knows this story or I find out things about the new Scottish Parliament building and I decide that I’m going to write a novel so I can let everybody find out! Go to the YoungScot interview with Ian Rankin to read more about Ian Rankin's writing process and career.

Two young playwrights How did you get into playwriting? About three years ago, I began taking playwriting classes at Melbourne University while undertaking a degree in theatre studies. These classes were with a really interesting teacher who inspired me about playwriting, I put on a play with a friend and after that I decided I loved playwriting! I entered as many playwriting competitions as possible, had a bit of success and got encouraged. I also had a few development awards that allowed me to work with mentors and people in the industry. Go to the YoungScot interview with two young playwrights to find out how they got into playwriting and performing at the Edinburgh Fringe.