WRITERS AND IDEAS
People ask me where I get inspiration. People ask that question to every writer. Well, I have to say this: One is a writer because one has something to say.
If you want to be a writer but you have no idea what to write, a few things may be happening:
- You have blocked yourself, either because you believe you are not good enough, or for some other reason, and you will have to search within you and find it. Finding it is a first step but it’s a big first step. Then you can try to eliminate whatever it is that has caused the blockage.
- You are not ready yet. We are not robots, even though our age might want us to function like that. Every person goes through various phases in life and if you are meant to be a writer, these phases will serve you when you feel ready. However, this should not be an excuse for not writing anything. Keep a journal. It will prove extremely useful later when you will want to recall certain events and feelings that have been important to you. Your journal might be the way to open that blocked part of you. It might also become a springboard of ideas and inspiration for something larger.
- You are not a writer... but that’s not very likely. Ask yourself: Why do I want to write? Is it possible that I don’t want to write but just see my name on a book cover? There are such people, and they have no idea what it takes to get there. But if your desire to write is serious, you have it for a reason. Something from the depths of your soul is calling and you need to listen. A writer is born. You know you are one, even if you have never written anything. Of course, to just know it, doesn’t do you any good. An undeveloped gift is as worthless as a non-existent one.
- You don’t really believe you can do it. Intuitively you know you have the gift, but you see writing as a dream in the far away future, and probably one of those dreams you don’t believe they ever come true. I read once in a Greek newspaper (or magazine, I don’t remember), that a dream is something that can never come true. That is the most erroneous definition of it I’ve ever read anywhere. Yes, you need to get out of the dream stage! Attend a writers’ workshop. Believe me, it will make a difference; I know it from experience. But never believe that a dream is something that can never come true. A dream is something you want badly and you are willing to go through all the pain, the error, the effort, the risk and the sacrifices it will take to get there.
So, where do I get my ideas? Steven King has given a very good answer to that, and I quote: “Let’s get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”
You have to train your mind to think like a writer. Inspiration honors the one who works on the project. Let’s say, one day you ride the bus and from your window you see the street lined with blooming oleanders. You ask yourself, “If there was a planet or a dimension where the only sign of life were the oleanders, as far as your eyes could see in any direction, oleanders were the only thing that existed, what kind of story could I write? Is there a story? What if the flowers were not just flowers but living beings and what if they came off during the night and walked and danced on the ground? Of course, is not yet a story because you must introduce a danger, some enemy, otherwise there is no story. So, what if some of the oleanders, let’s say, the black ones (they don’t exist, but you can bring them into existence, you are an artist, you have the license to do that), so what if the black oleanders are carnivorous? And what is the defense system of the others?
You see what I mean. You can go on and on, asking questions and trying to answer them. You can make a story out of anything. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s silly and childish. You train your mind. Ideas are out there. You just have to recognize what is yours and grab it. It will be a bit of something that matches with something else you have in your soul. Something you want to express but you don’t know how; and the two will come together and they will make sense.
And a last advice: never copy ideas from other writers –remember; you are a writer because you have something to say; and never copy ideas from movies. What is said is said, and doesn’t need to be said again. You can be inspired, but the inspiration will have to lead you to write something which will come from your own soul and experience. Read a variety of books and articles. Read science, psychology, philosophy, go to an art gallery, walk on the beach, the forest, the city streets. Ask your mother, your grandfather, your neighbor, to tell you a story. They know something more; they have lived longer, and time is important in the accumulation of experience.
Live. Life itself is an idea source…
And start writing. Anything will do for a start. Later you can write something better.
Lena