Never throw anything away. That’s what I was taught. And as a writer, this has served me well. I’ve always been the type to scribble – in notebooks, on paper napkins, on scraps of paper – whenever and wherever the writing mood hits me.
Where do you get your ideas people ask me? I don’t get them, they come to me, I say. Then I give them life. I store them and when I need them, they are there.
Now I am mining the mountain of scribbles I have accumulated over the years. Working on a mystery series, you need to keep up the momentum, to invent more tales of mystery and mayhem, murder and malice, to build the readers engagement. And that’s when that pile of notes comes into play.
Have I at some point done a quick sketch about someone scared out of their wits by a supposed ghost sighting? Did I write a small scene about a couple arguing and escalating to the point where a crime is committed? Have I developed a character outline of someone who is very sweet and kind on the surface and a really nasty person on the inside? Have I seen something occur that caught my interest enough that I wrote it down?
Where do my ideas come from? My over-active inner muse who is always on the lookout for something that will help me craft a tale. Whenever these ideas turn up, she urges me to write them down and the mountain of memos to myself grows.
I have been writing since I was nine years old and, believe me, it is a miracle that many of these notes have survived. Some are good material for books; others are poetry written on the fly on napkins – and even on the corners of newspapers— because I wasn’t ready with pen and paper when my muse decided it was time to create.
I have always listened to my inner muse. She is a very smart, creative and funny person. She encourages me, observes my life and what is going on around me. She helps me weave this input into potential tales and poems, then urges me to write these creations down.
Now, since I have been writing mystery scenarios and scenes for years, I am able to go back and mine my notes for ideas and background for my series. Today I unearthed a novel outline which I will adapt into a Lamb’s Bay book. No hints about which one.
So my advice to any writers is to keep those notes you made over the years, be they hand-written or on electronic media. I have been lucky enough to save many precious bits of paper. I grew up before computers came on the scene and hand-written material was more common. So my inclination is to scribble. Nowadays everything has to be electronic and can be stored on a USB key or even in the cloud. No bulky notebooks or disks or even CDs or DVDs.
I am fortunate to have this treasure trove of material to work with. Sometimes it coughs up a great plot or character. At other times what I am looking for isn’t there, so my inner muse gets busy helping me to create more notes I can turn into novels and stories. I am grateful for her existence.
An inner muse – does she really exist? Do you have an inner muse to help you with your writing? Where do your ideas come from?
Great suggestion Anne. Fortunately, I too have kept a lot of my scribbles over the years. I think as writers, we are always observing life like any artist does, a moment to capture in words and I am always writing in my head if not sitting and doing it. Ideas come to me too because I am open to them and believe in my instincts. We are sensitive souls, always trying to make life multidimensional and meaningful. Writing makes the real inner me come out and say things I can’t actually voice. I am braver on paper. I also felt since I was little that I was not encouraged to express myself verbally so I wrote things down and everything seemed to have a life of its own. And somehow even though I wrote It I felt somewhat separated from it like it was an offering to the world or something. I felt that my writing might change my circumstances or better yet someone else’s. Thanks for sharing.