Where Does Your Writing Inspiration Come From?

[Terrie]

I know everyone has their own muse that sparks ideas and their urge to write. The genre of writing you are most comfortable with also flavours those ideas so, for me, anything archaeological, mythical and magical always holds that allure.

And yes I have a note book in which I scribble ideas – actually I have a couple of notebooks. Alright… Alright, I have a whole pile of notebooks.

I like the satisfaction of pulling one out of my pocket, bag, or glove-compartment of the car, and jotting down a useful snippet of something special. An archaeological find, a scrap of something strange and undefinable, a snatched sentence or phrase will often click my creative thinking into gear. Here are three things that interested me and ended up in my trusty glove compartment notebook along with a few side notes –
1. The Red Lady – a term used for an archaeological skeleton discovery now found to be that of a young man.
2. A sword found in a stream with a metal detector. What’s its story .How did it get there?
3. Use nursery rhyme characters embroiled in a fairy-tale of murder mystery and intrigue to create something unexpected. (Sandra knows I’ve already tinkered with this one)

I may never use all of those – but you never know.
Although I’ve got several works in progress which are just a little more than basic ideas and notes, the story demanding my attention at the moment originates from a three-word prompt put forward on Sandra’s ‘The Prediction’ blog site where members practice their writing skills and techniques on a weekly basis by writing 100 words and incorporating the weekly prompt words within the piece.

I didn’t plan the first piece I created but after quite a few weeks one grubby little character kept cropping up, my list of protagonists and their counterpart antagonists had sort of swelled and I was imagining mini backstories for them. Surprisingly, three chapters were fairly swiftly created on the laptop and I was invested in the idea for a much bigger story. I scribbled some rough plans for a story arc on a sheet of paper and went from there.

I am now over 36,000 words in with eleven chapters complete and twelve and thirteen mid progress. There are eight more chapters planned and honestly, the whole thing was so unexpected and not what I intended to do. It simply settled itself firmly within my writing field of vision, reared its scaly beginnings and shouted ‘Write Me!’ so I’m dutifully doing as I’m directed.

[Athelstone]

I have tried for years to get into the habit of using notebooks. Success has been limited. Yes, I can write and I know how to write in a notebook. I also know how to carry things, especially in pockets. I certainly have thoughts that I think, ‘Ooh, that would be good in a story’. If only I could get, carrying the notebook and writing in the notebook, the notebook being available to write in, and having thoughts that might be noted down, all coordinated.

I don’t know about inspiration. I mean, I know what the general idea is, but for myself I think the nearest I can get to it is saying that sometimes I have the feeling that I’d like to tell somebody something. A bit like starting a conversation I suppose. And that can come way after I actually start writing. Or it may happen before I start writing and be there in the back of my mind and then emerge unexpectedly while I’m writing something else altogether.

 

[Libby]

Congratulations, Terrie, on your 36k words. And for being successful with notebooks.

Coordination: that’s exactly it. I can’t get coordinated with notebooks. I have one on my desk and it travels to my bedside table and back again. I admire people who make notes when they’re out – they seem more intuitive and open than I am. I think their minds flow more smoothly. They’re even Romantic with a capital R, with all the creativity that implies. A notebook when I’m out means retrieving (lower-case r) the thing from bag or glove compartment, scrawling messily in it, remembering to take it indoors for transfer of information. Doing my filing.

Memorising something brief on the spot and thinking about it later is much easier.

At my desk and in bed I read books and articles and in my notebook I write down other titles I want to read and words I need to look up and – edging towards inspiration – phrases that prompt images and ideas. I note phrases of my own that just might be good enough to turn into something.

I keep a list of books I’ve read.

[Sandra]

“Transfer of information” is where I stumble. I’ve several notebooks but rarely  there when I need them, so a handy piece of paper does the trick. I then blutack it to the shelf above my monitor from which, within days usually, it drop, onto the paper chaos that is my working space. then promptly disappears. Bigger problem is organising  those notes. As for inspiration, it’s most often when two characters talk to each other and I wonder what prompted the conversation, where it will lead to. (All fine and dandy until they fall silent)

I can certainly vouch for Terrie’s inventiveness. Who’d’ve thought such a vivid and engrossing story would arise from the the prompt word ‘armadillo’?

[Athelstone]

@sandradavies, yes indeed – transfer of information. The number of times I’ve come across a note I’ve scrawled down when all that’s left is an incomprehensible collection of words and a vague memory of myself thinking that I must find a way of using this brilliant insight. the very embodiment of having all the nuance but none of the original meaning.

So I stare at “that time that Foster was given a detention in French” and think, ‘Yes, I remember that. So what?’

So many of my “notes” are like that moment when you walk into a room and think, ‘Now why did I come in here?’

[Author]

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