Writing Starts With Inspiration

This is National Write a Novel Month (NaNo) where writers from around the world take the challenge to write 50,000 words (minimum) in 30-days. As this is written there are some 400,000 participants from 200 countries pounding keyboards or scratching on paper. It is a daunting experience for some who unfortunately will not succeed. However, last year 310,000+ did, and in the process learned a great deal about themselves and writing.

When there are 400,000 writers, it is not unrealistic to expect about that many approaches to writing, and only by trial and error does a person find the method that fits them best. However, all approaches to writing the first chapter have one very important thing in common.

Several days into the current challenge an individual complained that he probably wasn't going to write this year because he couldn't think of anything. ? ? ? Perhaps this is harsh, but if a person is unable to get inspiration, they should pack their bags, and move on to something else because inspiration is the germ that spawns stories. If you don't have it or wait until the last minute, you are wasting your time.

After fifty years I can not explain how it happens. It just does. A comment, a song, a picture, even an assignment, but something triggers the creative synapses to start clicking away. What I have learned is to start recording some of those thoughts quickly, adding detail as soon as safely possible because ideas will flow like spring runoff and can dry up just as fast. It makes no difference how you record those ideas, whether they be short-phrased outlines, bullet points, incomplete sentences, or brief synopsis. When the ideas come, grab for the gold ring.

Can't think of anything to write? I have a box in the garage with ideas collected over these many years. Most are worthless because the thoughts are dead and the notes too meager for resurrection. By trial and error I learned to be more detailed and now write a synopsis including ideas about the protagonist, antagonist, how it can start, and where it can end. The twisted journey from start to conclusion falls into place.

The information (often only a page long) is placed in a file for those times when the idea stream seems dry. In the last year alone almost fifty synopsis were added to the file which is has so many it would take a long, second lifetime to develop them all. However, shopping for a story is greatly simplified.

Sometimes inspiration is so strong that the synopsis stretches into more than one page. During a siege of writer's block during work on a novel this past year, I turned to this file and wrote several short stories. Another idea occurred and the synopsis stretched into a finished story on the spot. That happens.

Once inspired and notes dutifully recorded, the writing process naturally turns to development – sketching out the plot, researching details, and giving thought to the kind of characters that will wade through it, never losing sight of the final goal. Never mind holes, disconnects, bridges, or any of those technical things. Begin transferring the story from your mind to a visible form. Writing is like creating a life-size figure out of clay. Once a supporting skeleton is in place, the artist applies layers of clay. It looks rough and crude, but with a blade, scraper, and hands, the features are refined until it can look to walk off the pedestal.

Can't think of anything to write? If you are a writer, that is the least of your concerns.

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