Getting ideas

So, you've cleared your desk, opened your notebook and are ready to write. But suddenly your mind is devoid of inspiration and you begin to panic. What on earth are you going to write about? While there is more to being a writer than just a good idea, without an inspirational seed for your novel, screenplay or poem you are like a knight in armour with no monster to slay and no sweetheart to rescue. One of the biggest problems even experienced writers face is confronting a blank page with a blank mind. But ideas are everywhere, you just need to learn how to spot them.
For many of us, ideas are a lot like buses. You wait ages for one to come along and when it finally does it breaks down. Then, when you're walking seven miles home in the rain three more flash past you even though they're empty and drench you from the gutter. (Buses haven't been good to me.) Of course you may be one of the lucky ones, and already be nurturing the seed of an idea. But for the majority of writers, it's a difficult truth that it takes more than motivation alone to produce a masterpiece.

If you have been inspired, don't ignore it. A great many writers turn away the ideas that flit around in the back of their head because the idea may not fit in with the image they want to present, or because they would like to write something more 'literary'. If you do this you may be passing up a good thing. Don't ignore that persistent tug; go with it and see where it leads.

The ideas that flutter in the half-light of our conscious mind are those that make us think, that make us laugh, or cry, or scream. (Otherwise you would have forgotten them long ago.) These ideas may be nothing more than a scene, a single character, perhaps something as small as a phrase. Or they might be an entire plot line, an epic journey that you have been mentally planning for years. But whether large or small, these threads are important to you, and because of this you can weave them into a work of art.

Some writers we have worked with have passed up these faint cries for attention and then gone on to pen strained and sterile work because the ideas they eventually work with don't engage them. Chances are the ideas you already possess, even if they are barely visible, have a personal significance. If you give them a chance, you will be able to draw on a wealth of personal emotion and experience in order to produce a literary work that truly connects with its readers.

Here's a great tip if you're stuck for something to write about. Open your eyes and look around you. There is material everywhere. Read old diaries or browse through your notebooks. Read newspapers and magazines for fascinating stories. Sit in a café and gaze out of the window. Listen to conversations, invent stories for the people who walk past and write them down. It may take a while, but if you pay attention to the world around you, then inspiration will come. The trick is not to go looking for the idea of a lifetime. Sit back, relax, soak up your surroundings, listen to the scraps of thought that flutter through your brain and before you know it you'll be running round the block screaming 'Eureka!'. At least when they let you out of hospital you'll have something to write about.