Sunday 24 June 2012

Inspiration Point.

Some of you may know I've been on my travels this month through the great U S of A and although I'd planned to post more frequently I've found myself without internet access for much of the trip so that spoilt my plans somewhat.
Anyway, while I was being driven through Yellowstone National Park in our R.V we passed a place called Inspiration Point and it got me wondering...
How do we find our inspiration for the stories in our head?
Where does that first kernel of an idea spring from?
Indeed I'm not the only one to wonder as one of the most common questions authors are asked is "Where do you get your ideas from?" and it may be we can't remember specifically but something, somewhere sparked a neuron in our subconscious and there it will sit for a while in the digestive juices of our brains until it's ready for some more serious thought in the good old frontal lobe.
Personally I've found ideas in songs, in a line from a movie and once quite out of the blue while sitting in the bath! The important thing is to be open to inspiration, to find time to daydream and to let your mind wander away from the daily minutaie that consume us and enter the world of what if....?
Ideas have never been hard for me, if anything I think I have too many, they drag me away from the hard work of writing into the realm of possibility and freedom, which can seem much more alluring! As a consequence I have many first drafts and only one completed (I think!) novel and when I should be working on revising and editing an existing work I instead go off to gallivant in the palace of new ideas.
My trip has given me much room for inspiration and I am sure my subconscious is churning out some possible book ideas as I write but what I have learned is that it takes more then inspiration to be a writer and that an idea is very far away from a finished book and yet without them we are nothing at all...
Am off to give myself a strict talking to but if you want to share your tales of inspiration please do so in the comments!

1 comment:

  1. I SO go and gallivant in the place of New ideas too .Shiny New Idea Syndrome I call it!


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