Inspiration and Neighbourhood Authors!

My best time to write is usually when I'm meant to be doing something else - working or falling asleep or in the car and on the way to meet people. Have you ever stopped in the middle of a group of friends or family and said "excuse me, I just need to write for a moment?"

Perhaps that sort of thing is easier to pull off nowadays, as most people won't question you if you whip out your phone and start tapping away.

The other day, Jessica asked:

"You know those moments when you get a sudden wave of "Oh my God I need to write! Now!" and your skin goes all tingly? What triggers those for you?"

Reading does this to me every time. A snatch of lyricism, a deftly turned phrase, the sort of word you can roll on your tongue (like my favourite, wariangle); all of these can spark an idea.

Sometimes it's an image; Austin's story began when I had a vision of a boy walking the dusty road from Kusadasi to Ephesus, the sea following behind. What would make the sea rise like that? I wondered. I knew that the sea was much further inland many years ago. So if the boy was walking backward through time...

Which means that - work aside - during NaNo, I've got to keep reading as much as possible, to keep those exciting words swimming arond in my head.

What better way to do that than by discovering new authors, right in my own backyard?

The local chapter of CANSCAIP featured a meet-the-author event at their monthly meeting last night and we were fortunate to have not one but seven authors and illustrators there, including Jill Murray (featured in my postcards! post), Alan Silberberg and PJ Bracegirdle.

I picked up Bracegirdle's first book in The Joy of Spooking series and am already halfway through. Love the omniscient voice, the eerie atmosphere, and especially the word choices. Very Dahl-ish and evocative.

Just the sort of thing to spark my own creativity on the last weekend before NaNo! I've overhauled all the scenes in Out of the Water and realised exactly how much is missing, and not only the ones I listed in the previous post. The entire beginning needs a rewrite, though this morning I was too busy sending Rosa to see the Sultan...

Comments

Jessica Bell said…
haha! Good luck with NaNo! :o) I don't have the stimina for something like that :o/
I love meeting local authors. And it's great to know some famous ones are around Cambridge, MA, even if I haven't seen them in person.

Good luck with NaNaWriMo.

If you get a chance, I'm hosting a Halloween Haunting at my blog "Substitute Teacher's Saga" from 10/28-11/1 if you want to join in. There are prizes!
Zan Marie said…
Good luck with NaNo. My wrists would rebel if I even thought about it. But I do know those "gotta write!" moments. My husband just grins and lets me grap up the nearest scrap of paper. Others aren't so understanding. ; )
Talli Roland said…
Yay! Don't you love meeting new authors? It is so inspiring, isn't it?

Good luck with the start of NaNo!
Robyn Campbell said…
I love meeting local authors, though we don't have too many in our neck of the woods.

Good luck with NaNo.

(^_^)
Deniz Bevan said…
Thanks everyone for all your good wishes. Only two days left to NaNo...
Hi,

Picked up on your blog (romance hint)through Theresa's Haunting Jaunt, so am now following your blog!

Good luck with NaNo. It's fun - I did the first year of NaNo and met some great people.

best
F
Deniz Bevan said…
Thanks Francine!
I tried NaNo last year but failed about halfway through; I'm hoping for better things this year - I onlu need about 50,000 more words to finish the first draft of my novel!