I remember reading one of Stephen R. Donaldson’s author’s notes many years ago, in which he talked about his writing methods and his ways of doing things. He spoke of how he’d often have a good idea here, and a good idea there–but they’d both just sit around, inert, doing little. But then, sometimes, he’d end up combining them–one discrete idea with another–and suddenly the pairing would come to life, start flowing and forming into a novel, or indeed, even a series (I vaguely remember that the actual word he used was “gusher”).
Over the years, I’ve realised that I’m actually the same way. I’ll have random ideas all the time, but any given idea will never quite come to life until it ends up being combined with some other idea of mine. Put’em together and voila! you have self-replicating cells. Life. A story–embryonic at first but rapidly growing, filling out, and developing, until it’s ready to be written.
Given that, I’m always looking for inspiration. Ideas, that I can try out in combination with other ideas, until something connects, and the magic happens. Over the past days, I’ve been searching for such inspirations and sources–and when I’ve found promising pieces, I’ve been tweeting them. I’ve decided to compile some of the tweeted links here each week (or so), as a kind of digest of writing prompts, ideas for composition, and images that might get your (or my) creative juices flowing. Continue reading »
