Over the past 30 years, my work has clearly been divided in two: as an author I have worked on texts for over a hundred different books both under my own name and under the pseudonym Enni Mustonen. As a scriptwriter and playwright I have been involved in various writing teams that have produced hundreds of hours of plays and television drama. Although both types of writing require dedication to the computer screen, a book and a script are completely different projects.

The words in a book only come alive once the reader picks up the book and breathes life into them through his or her imagination. That is why every time someone reads something it is different and unique. I have used a log cabin analogy to illustrate the relationship between a book and a reader. The writer has chosen the location of the cabin, lain the foundation, felled and chopped the trees, carved the logs so they fit together, acquired windows and a door, built a bench, a table and a bed, woven rugs and embroidered aphorisms on the wall. Every reader enters the cabin alone. Some of them, however, will not even bother to make it as far as the front stairs when they notice the owner is, for example, Enni Mustonen. Some of those who enter the cabin might turn on their heels if the décor is not to their liking. Others return to the cabin time after time and sit quietly on the bed, savouring the atmosphere.

As a scriptwriter, I am part of a team of architects that usually drafts blueprints for a grand and expensive public building being planned for a certain plot of land, in other words a television timeslot. It is important to agree with the client and the producer right from the start what kind of building they hope to construct and what the budget is for the project. It is pointless to plan marble columns for an air dome if they will simply be rejected when construction begins. To me, teamwork is the most fascinating aspect of scriptwriting. When dialogue is used to carry the story, it is both useful and fun if the team has as much variety as possible and represents different generations, backgrounds and life experiences.

The script, however, is only the blueprint. It only becomes three and four dimensional when the director, producer, actors, set and costume designers, make-up artists, musicians and special effects technicians and above all editors unite their efforts. A good script that has been written in collaboration with the director inspires everyone to do their best on the project. Then the resulting building will be more magnificent than we scriptwriters could have imagined in front of our computers. If the crew is unable to understand, accept or realise the script, the result will be a disappointment to everybody. The older I get, the more important it is to me that right from the start the entire production team works with the same direction and goal in mind.

Both the log cabin and ambitious blueprints require plenty of research and background work. An academic research education has provided excellent tools for that purpose. You have to be ready for both field work and solitary labour in an archive. Facts are always building blocks in fiction, even in fairy tales and science fiction. The most joyous aspect of writing historical fiction is developing the story from facts and then telling it within that framework. When a writer or team gets into the flow, work does not feel like work at all. Then you are in the cradle of the Gods. Everything is possible.