Where do we get our ideas?

Anne here. People sometimes ask us where do we get our ideas for the stories.
The truth is, they come from everywhere — from other people, from seeing something or hearing a snatch of conversation. Sometimes they come from a story a student tells us, sometimes they come from our own lives and sometimes we just make them up.

The Dentist came from my own experience. For instance, at the time when we were thinking up stories for series #4, I needed to go to the dentist.

I'd put it off, because I'd cracked a tooth, and the nerve was dead, so I was fairly sure the dentist would want to pull it out. And I didn't want that.

When I was a kid the dentist had taken out four teeth to make room for the others. It was awful. It really hurt and I felt bad for days.

So I put my visit to the dentist off. And off.
It was easy to put it off because my dentist had died, and I didn't have a new one yet.
But I knew the tooth was going to be a problem. Decay happens.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, after series #4 came out I made an appointment with a new dentist.
And last week I had the tooth out.  To my amazement, it didn't hurt a bit. I wondered why I'd taken so long to go. All the waiting and worrying was worse than the tooth extraction.

So now you know where at least one of the stories comes from.
And maybe now the story needs changing.
You can listen to The Dentist story here.