It's funny how stories emerge.

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I don't believe in muses, writing is a cerebral thing and it's something I've always done. I've written Bike most days for the past six years to prove to myself it can be done without loads of drama, or special conditions - I just sit there for an hour/ ninety minutes and out pops the next episode. In some ways it's easier than writing from scratch because my characters are well established and I have plot lines I can continue or even pick up from a while back.

I suddenly realised I hadn't done a short story for a couple of months - I have been very busy and tired, and at times finding the time to do Bike was difficult - and finding the energy on occasion, I have been known to fall asleep while writing. Don't worry, I usually delete those bits.

Yesterday, Dorset became very grey and wet and I was quite tired from the last week which had been particularly heavy and demanding - I worked well over 50 hours - though I don't get paid any extra. So I was tired physically and mentally. I slobbed about until lunch time, read bits and pieces on the internet, did the crossword and so on. Then I had a browse of BBC Iplayer and found a documentary from 2010 by Simon Armitage tracing the origins of the Arthurian legends from the literature. He's a poet so I thought it would be quite interesting. It was and the combination of mulling over the content of his film and a long walk in the rain, became a short story, which I wrote in a single draft and posted - all done in two hours.

Sometimes ideas swim about in my head for weeks or even months, then I sit down and write them, usually with no plan - they just fall out on the page. This one from watching the film to posting was a few hours, including making my tea and a two hour walk in the rain. No muse, just a mental exercise.

Comments

Mental Exercise!

We greatly appreciate the products of your mental exercises! Today's effort, containing the grail, could rival Bike if you wished for more mental exercise.

Best,

DJ

Inspiration

as you say comes from all directions often when you least expect it.

I've been inspired by location many times. Only yesterday I was at Didcot Railway Centre specifically to look at the Steam Railcars No 93 & 92. They have been restored to a fantastically high standard.

The rain the you experienced in Dorset hit Oxfordshire as well. I sheltered in the Loco shed an was looking at one of the GWR 0-6-0 Pannier Tank, an idea for a story came to mind. Now the problem is to take it somewhere.

My hard drive is littered with ideas that have no endings. For me, it is the exception rather than the rule to have the ending already in my mind before I start to pen the text.
I've spent the last week going through some of these and whilst many have hit the trashcan there are few that have been filed in my W.I.P folder. It remains to be seen in any of these get published.

Oh Yes.

And a wonderful story it is.

Joani

How do you do it?

Ragtime Rachel's picture

Being able to just "pop out a story," as you say, is amazing. I don't think I'd be able to do it without a ton of planning and researching every little thing, so I don't get a collective eye roll from the readers. Not to mention revising and re-revising so the characters aren't cardboard and speak the way real people speak. In other words, trying to anticipate every little criticism and correcting it before someone says anything.

Livin' A Ragtime Life,
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Rachel

I had a moment like that

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

One day at work, I was talking with coworker who mentioned that she had grown up with four brothers and lived on a farm which made finding playmates a bit problematical and so she dressed her younger brother in her old clothes and pretended he was a girl. Mind you this only happened a few times as her mother was worried it would make him gay... as if. She says it didn't.

As a result of that conversation, I went home and wrote "I Should Have Seen It Coming" in one sitting. Thinking of that I'll post it here today.

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann

Opening to self.

Angharad it would appear you have a very direct link into your self. That has allowed You have become very fluent in a specialized discipline that balances your intellect and creativity seamlessly. I am impressed with your skill and the depth of your intellectual understandings.

Than you for sharing
Misha Nova

With those with open eyes the world reads like a book

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