J is for Juggling.

No, I'm not writing about throwing balls in the air and catching them. Yesterday I wrote about ideas.  Today I'm writing about juggling the ideas for novels, novellas, short stories and articles which are in my head.

I keep an ideas file, and when I am about to write something new I juggle the ideas and spend a lot of time tossing them up and down in my mind before choosing one.

At the moment I would like to enter a competition and in spare moments am juggling three ideas. At first, I thought of writing a ghost story and rejected it because I think a lot of competitors will write one, then I considered a love story with a happy ever after ending after many problems and rejected it for the same reason, and I also rejected a murder story. I like one of my new  shortlist of three ideas, but am not sure whether I can succeed in turning it into a credible, unusual story. While I'm going about my daily tasks I'll keep a notebook nearby and juggle my ideas for the first sentence, the characters, and the important questions, who? what? when? where? why? and how? At the thought of so much hard mental work my head is now spinning like the juggler's balls when he tosses them up into the air.

I is for Ideas

There are many triggers which provide ideas. Snatches of overheard conversation, snippets in newspapers, articles in magazines, non-fiction books, various situations in our daily lives and those of friends and acquaintances.

All of us have access to these triggers, but some people merely find them interesting other people use them to write fiction.  Sometimes ideas stay with us for a long time. Again and again we return to them and eventually write the first line of a short story or novel.  We have grasped the trigger and developed it by asking ourselves: What happened? Where did it happen? When did it happen. Why did it Happen? How did it Happen? Who did it happen to?

At a party hosted by another fiction writer, a gentleman followed me around telling me at length that he had many ideas and wanted to write a novel. Eventually, desperate to be rid of him, I said. "I'll tell you how to write one." He thought I had a magic formula but I told him. "Write the first word and continue until you reach the end." Good advice, although I say so myself, we never know where our ideas will take us.

Ideas for My Novels

I'm sure many novelists are asked where they get their ideas for their novels. I am not an exception. My novels are often inspired by historical research, reading non-fiction or visiting a place of historical interest, after which my imagination takes over.

While writing I draw inspiration from many things, including poetry. Yesterday, after reading the following verse, I went to sleep with the words in my mind.

Her gentle motion and her smiles,
Her wit, her voice my heart beguiles,
Beguiles my heart, I know not why,
And yet I love her till I die.

Anon (17th century)