Looking at a blank screen or a crisp white piece of paper how do you feel? Excited, daunted, happy and full of ideas or completely blank? It can be all of these things and more, but first before anything else you need an idea.
So where do ideas for your writing come from? This is the most often asked question to all writers. I am lucky that I have never been short of ideas and have found they come from all around me. If you keep alert for them they will come from your daily life, an overhear conversation, a snippet on the news, or from your own experiences. They often make great short stories such as one I wrote recently about an experience I had on my last holiday in Malta. I got on the wrong bus and got lost which was quite frightening at the time but it makes an interesting short story or you could weave it into a longer one.
For my novels, ideas have come from many sources; an example of this is my latest novel A Skylark Sings. I got the idea for it while watching an episode of Downton Abbey when it was set in the Great War. I asked myself the question What if? Is a question that has given me many good ideas. Having a good idea is only the start of the process and now you have to develop it and in the case of Skylark, do a lot of research to get your facts straight. But that’s another story which I’ll expand on in my next blog.
So where do ideas for your writing come from? This is the most often asked question to all writers. I am lucky that I have never been short of ideas and have found they come from all around me. If you keep alert for them they will come from your daily life, an overhear conversation, a snippet on the news, or from your own experiences. They often make great short stories such as one I wrote recently about an experience I had on my last holiday in Malta. I got on the wrong bus and got lost which was quite frightening at the time but it makes an interesting short story or you could weave it into a longer one.
For my novels, ideas have come from many sources; an example of this is my latest novel A Skylark Sings. I got the idea for it while watching an episode of Downton Abbey when it was set in the Great War. I asked myself the question What if? Is a question that has given me many good ideas. Having a good idea is only the start of the process and now you have to develop it and in the case of Skylark, do a lot of research to get your facts straight. But that’s another story which I’ll expand on in my next blog.
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