His children proved to be a bountiful source of inspiration. It was one of Norman's sons who suggested doing a script about a young William Shakespeare. That suggestion was the beginning of a ten-year journey that culminated in the widely acclaimed film Shakespeare in Love. Norman hit upon the notion of portraying Shakespeare as a frustrated screenwriter, based loosely upon his own life experience. People are not born geniuses.
People develop into geniuses.
There had to be a point in Shakespeare's life where he was just a guy trying to get a job, a guy trying to figure out who he was. There had to be a point where Shakespeare was in development hell. In many ways, the world of Elizabethan theater was a precursor to modern day Hollywood. This was the second part of Norman's three-prong attack for Shakespeare in Love. The final piece of the puzzle came from imagining that Shakespeare's love life was the inspiration for Romeo and Juliet.