Where does your inspiration come from? Do you write in the mornings or the evenings? How do you get the idea for a plot? How do you write such vivid characters?

All journeyman writers know these questions. If you have been to a reading or read an interview of a popular author, they abound. This question bubbles up within every student of the art at some point. What is often missing, and what even the talented author often cannot articulate to words, is the real question: Where, for you, do your inventions begin and how do you recognize them?

For each author, this is different. But essential to the process for every author is analysis. If you do not look, if you do not see, if you do not stop to polish an idea, then how can you recognize dusty gem from dusty rock? Thus, you must begin by finding a strategy that causes you to dig into everything you see, to be curious about every experience of your day.

I’m taking a course on creative writing, and ran across this passage about the importance of journals as an intimate, vital friend to the writer. Enjoy.

Keep the journal regularly, at least at first. It doesn’t matter what you write and it doesn’t matter very much how much, but it does matter that you make a steady habit of writing. A major advantage of keeping a journal regularly is that it will put you in the habit of observing in words. If you know at dawn that you are committed to writing so many words before dusk, you will half-consciously tell the story of your day to yourself as you live it, finding a phrase to catch whatever catches your eye. When that habit is established, you’ll begin to find that whatever invites your attention or sympathy, your anger or curiosity, may be the beginning of invention. Whoever catches your attention may be the beginning of a character.
Writing Fiction, by Janet Burroway

Yes, it’s that time of year again: The month when writers everywhere suddenly loose their mojo and forget how to type letters that accumulate into words.

I was over on Lylurn Enclave and found this lament about writer’s block:

So I’ve been stuck for three days, haven’t written a word. They just wouldn’t come out.

I’m sure none of these will be a paradigm shift for established writers, but I find that confirmation other writers are using a tool encourages me to try them too. Here are some of the ones I’ve employed to success against the November Beast of Writerly Agony:

• Surf the web for images that fit my story; get inspired about some character or locale and write on it for a bit;  flesh out some back story
• Write legends about their great uncles or long dead warriors or cultures they idolize or despise
• Rewrite the current chapter from an antagonist’s POV or a minor character’s ( I tend to neglect the villains most)
• Have a written conversation (because that way it’s not crazy) with one of my characters, if two of them are particularly caustic together, talk to them both at the same time; ask how the story is going and what they think I should do (then do the exact opposite of course)
• Pull out the mood music, get some music that really gets me brooding or pumped up; write whatever comes to mind–poetry, battle scenes, crap that won’t be in the book, who cares
• Start the next book. I know that can sound absurd, but often I write books in series out of order. It gives me great insight to where I want the characters to go in the future (and if they should even live this book).
• Pull out one of my favorite books and read the passages I love most; find some technique or characterization that just absolutely works, get inspired, and then make my current sucky scene work like that (maybe even insert a new scene to do it).

There you have it. The wulfish cure to Black November.

Wow, I realize this is a comic, but what an amazing idea for fleshing out stories.

You could use this for plot arcs, character interactions, themes, and just about anything within a novel.

It looks like a bit of work, but the end result is a wonderful map of the story line and characters, useful for analyzing even the worst sort of story problems.

I’ve wanted to talk about this for a while now, but haven’t had anything to say that isn’t brooding. I think The Rejectionist did a fine job of capturing my mood, and without making me seem like the whiny source.

Later, I’ll post a more objective study on the topic. For now, feel free to lament with me on the pitfalls of being carbon based life forms who require food, clothing, and DSL.

At the wee hour of two, on Wednesday, an unfavorable set of conditions caused a chain reaction that led to an 11pm victory dance. I want to tell you all about it because, as humans (my apologies to any popsicles reading this), you like stories; and, as a writer, I like telling them.

My writing has been in a horrible slump. My ideas slowed to a trickle and I’ve barely managed 100 words a week in my WIP’s. But invigorating the writer’s muse is like trying to subdue a gianormous Hun with a Mcdonalds drinking straw. 

Before we go on, let me start by saying this isn’t really about writing or martial arts—or huns; this is about a universal truth that applies to any art you may pursue.

At 2am, I woke with a migraine. It was my first one in several months. I gave up on sleep about 4am and started reading. I read other author’s stories and critiqued them. I read good and bad writing. I read weblogs and responded to them. I read news and tech papers and everything I could set my eyes on.

Then, when I couldn’t stay awake anymore, I slept. When I woke up again, I sat down at my computer, without any real thought of doing so, and started writing. When I stopped, it was eleven at night and I’d just finished the first serious, meaningful, good writing I’ve done in months.

And I did the victory dance.

 It wasn’t all Wednesday to be sure. I did several things that helped nudge myself back into the habit:

• I started journaling again; putting letters on paper, as amazing as it sounds, is an important step in writing
• I started talking with writers again, mostly about my lack of progress
• I started reading again; no doubt the single greatest renewal of writing energy

But these things didn’t bring the ideas or the inspiration to sit at my keyboard. It was the migraine.

Now, before you run off and try to figure out how to give yourself migraines, let me point out that they weren’t the source of my writing energy. They were just a catalyst that led to a very important event: time away.

You see, to write, you need several very important things:

• The ability to see the world around you
• The ability to capture and articulate what you see in exciting ways
• Sleep—i.e. energy to think (I’m constantly amazed at how much energy thinking consumes)
• Time away (from what? yes, that… and that too… and before you ask, yes)

There are endless books about journaling and carrying cameras everywhere you go, writers workshops, seminars, and college corses to teach the first two.

The latter two you have to give to yourself, and you have to do it over and over again.

I haven’t for months and the results are clear. And it is so easy. It is so simple. Just take some time to sleep, and take some time to escape, and your muse will come knocking before you know it.