Put the Radio on

There are days I can't start a story, or can't continue.

What is it that stops me?

Fear.

You might think that sounds silly... How can she be afraid of a few words on a page?

Stop sitting there, staring out the window and just get on with it! Come on! Write!

It sounds simple. Simple and silly.

Open the laptop, tap the keys, form words and make sentences.

Nothing to be afraid of, surely?

It's not so much the action of typing, or a lack of ideas, images, plot, characters etc.

It's more what all that says to me when I read it back.

If I start to think about where those words come from and how they make me feel, then I am lost. Lost in thoughts, memories, photographs all jumbled up with my imagination, like ingredients in a Magimix; kneaded together, ready to roll into a story.

What's wrong with that? Isn't that the point - how and where stories start?

Well, yes. I just didn't know it could make me feel like this: like I'm turning myself inside out and spreading my jam-guts on toast. They're not really my guts - Bryn's story is about Bryn, not me. But, like most writers I guess I cannibalize my life and experiences and regurgitate them (apologies if you're having your lunch).

I stare at what I've written and it looks good (despite the resemblance to guts... sorry, I'll stop now!) but it's as though I don't remember writing it. The images in my head made words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters all by themselves. I have no idea how they escaped from that secret locked-away space between my ears and rearranged themselves in black and white on the screen.

Did I do it in my sleep? Sleep-writing... is that a thing?

Is that where the fear comes from - the not knowing where it comes from in the first place?

Ironically, I think it's the fear that makes me want to write. The more scared I am of how this ability to form mental scribbles into stories happens, the more curious I get about what else I'll find in there - so I keep going. Splutter-start-stop-splutter-start... like an old Volkswagen Beetle lost and kangerooing down a bumpy country lane.

I'll get from A to Z in the end, it might just take me a while to find the right gear.

In Bloom

Consider these phrases:

Birds nesting

Buds opening

Blossom forming

Days lengthening

Nights warming

Now, close your eyes and try to form an image of what those things made you think of...

Did you collect them together, in one scene? Or did you see them as separate images?

Did you even see any images?

(Don't worry if you didn't - some people don't 'see' in pictures, we're all different)

How did those phrases make you feel? Why?

What did those things remind you of?

What else could you add?

Asking yourself questions and creating a mental picture (however you do it) is a great way to stir imagination - think of it like gathering the ingredients you need to make a cake.

I'm rubbish at making cakes, but very good at eating them!

Look out the window from your desk, or better still get out there for a walk and see the world around you. It might be just what you need to get a story started...

Better the Devil you know

Don't fear the dead, they have left only words. The living are with you indeed.

I've a feeling that might be a famous quote - or I may have just made it up. Either way, fact or fiction, it makes an intriguing chapter opening or character introduction.

I like choosing names. It's something I'm rarely stuck on. If anything, I have the opposite problem - too many to choose from. For me, the question is not what to select, but how to pick.

Something unusual? A name that's special to you as the writer? A name that defines your character? Or something completely and totally random- there are name generator tools for that if you really can't decide. And let's face it, the choice is unlimited (within reason).

If your protagonist is a blond archeologist for example, how would Red Bracie, or Dug Ticker sound? How do you choose? How do you know what's right? Does it matter?

First impressions count. Many books, especially children's ones, echo similar names inside and out - ever noticed there are many stories with Sams and Daves or The Boy Who... on the cover. Ask yourself this: do you want your character to join this curious melee, or stand out and make your reader curious. Think about that.

Of course, you could end up causing reader distraction, with an unusual spelling. Say, an unpronounceable heroine like:

Niamh Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch*

Certainly unforgettable, but with something this far out, you run the risk of halting the flow - your reader will either skip over the complicated that they can't get their tongue round, or spend so long trying every possible permutation that they give up and swap your story for something that doesn't need a DIY glossary.

My favourite place for character inspiration is the local churchyard. That might seem a dark place to start, until you discover headstones create flash fiction all of their own.

Try it - study the names, dates, inscriptions, monumental carvings and statuettes. Just watch out for weeping Angels... don't blink!

Graveyards offer peaceful anthologies of family and social history, if you look hard enough and learn how to read them. Question whether they say more about the person under the ground, or the person who laid the stone? Afterall, unless extremely well organised in forward planning, who designs and orders their own epitaph? And if so, how would you want to be remembered? What would you include or leave out? Perish the thought of being asked to write your own obituary.

Brrr... this is getting a little morbid now, but don't let that put you off exploring. Tread carefully and be respectful of your elders. Their ancestry might leave you with more to query than resolve, but surely all good stories start with curiosity?

*(I haven't made that up, honest! It's the name of a place in Wales. Google it! I suggest you copy and paste though).