The blank page can be a terrifying thing to a writer. Between 250 and 400 words fit on a single page, depending on formatting preferences. Stringing together that many words in a cohesive manner can be daunting, impossible even.
Sometimes, the inspiration doesn't come.
Writing can be pulled painfully, word by word, from the author's brain. It may not make a difference to the reader how it happens, it all reads the same, right?
Writers need to put the creativity back in, to refill the well, so to speak.
I find inspiration in unconnected events. I try to read on a variety of topics, to listen to a variety of types of music and podcasts. I watch both documentaries and popular series (Chuck anyone? I love how the writers are torturing him this season.) It usually takes stepping away from whatever I'm working on and giving my brain the chance to connect the dots between the facts.
For example, I listened to a podcast about Frenemies, watched Chuck, listened to a bit of classic U2 from the Joshua tree album and the husband paused on WWF.
Hmmm...a pair of lovers, one an ex-wrestler, run into a frenemy that lead them to a small town where the streets have no names.
Okay, that might be a little corny, but it could be a great freewrite, character sketch or short story.
Where does your inspiration come from? Pull together your story, Keyser Söze style, and leave it in the comments.
1 comment:
I'm in the middle of letting go of my last book and starting to write a new one. In fact, I just wrote a blog post about how difficult it's been, because I loved writing my last book. It just flowed.
In the meantime, I'm doing research for the next book and trying not to have anything to do with historical fiction, as that is my genre.
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