I suppose
I’m a little perverse; I have the opposite problem most writers suffer. I don’t get writers block. Instead, I don’t have enough time or keyboard
speed to write up all the ideas I have.
A good problem to have, I admit, in many ways.
What
prevents writers block for me? I’m
always open to inspiration. The whole world becomes my notebook. For instance, my morning commute is about 25
minutes.
I use that time to think about writing projects, and to
observe as I drive. Last winter, while I
waited to get on the bridge, I was treated to a sight I’d never seen. On a cold, bitter January day, 4 coyotes
crossed in front of my car. They walked
to the riverbank and crossed the frozen river, disappearing into the little
island that dot the Mississippi in our stretch
of the Midwest .
I got a
pretty good blog post for my blog on Green Living out of that one.
I also like
to listen to the radio. I love all types
of music, but I also like talk radio, NPR, old radio dramas, you name it. For awhile, I had Sirius and luxuriated in
the sounds of Marta Stewart Radio, Book Radio, The Halloween and Christmas
Channels, and Neil Diamond Radio. My girlfriend
and I liked cruising down 23d
Avenue
Probably
books and reading are my greatest inspirational tools. I think I read ten books at once, and belong
to two writers groups and one book group.
I never get tired of reading, and still like to go through the newspaper
and magazines, even catalogs of all sorts.
History
books and historical novels get me to think, too. I always second guess what I might have done
if I were in that era. Pretty soon, what
I think turns into a poem, or comes out
of the mouths of my characters.
By the same
token, artists’ monographs are great places to get ideas. Style, color, subject, all of them jar
something in my writer’s brain.
So, while
I’d love to be The Madwoman in the Attic, tapping away, uninterrupted in my
literary solitude, I know it isn’t possible.
My best ideas come from world interaction, and sometimes, I have to quit
my books, to write my books.
