Sometimes it’s easier to find Nemo than it is inspiration. You sit down to write and then mindlessly stare at the silent keyboard and blank screen. The closer you are to a deadline, the more difficult it is to find the words. Authors refer to this as writer’s block. As a pun, Writer’s Block is also the title to my next murder mystery, which happened to be one of the easiest novels to write. Since my characters led me through this story, I never had to search for words and it was fun learning from them. Now they are leading me through its sequel.
People often ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” Honestly, most have been fermenting for some time, and when some event triggers my brain, suddenly I’m delving into the new story. But sometimes my ideas come out of the blue, perhaps in a dream. This was the case for the sequel to Writer’s Block while I was well into a different one. I ended up postponing that story to write the new sequel based on a true haunting in Fort Worth. Both stories are fun.
The problem with subconscious thoughts is they are so transient they may be lost if not immediately written down. Later, I’ll create a Word document to keep these ideas for future use. Thankfully a few key words mind can usually take me back to the story behind the thought. Assuming I don’t lose that document, I probably have enough ideas to last decades.
