Finding Ideas

What is it about coffee shops that kick start a writer’s muse? I first tried hauling my laptop to my local java hut after reading Natalie Goldberg’s books. Natalie, author of Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, suggests writing in coffee shops and I was at the point where if someone had advised painting my face blue and chanting to the moon in order to get some writing done, I’d have tried that too. Usually, I need absolute quiet to write, but oddly, I’ve discovered I love to write in coffee shops. I think the reason is that there is always a drama taking place. Not just one drama, but many tiny scenes from many different lives.

Where do you get your ideas? If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked this wrong-headed question. . . .

Ah, well.

When a non-writer asks me this question, basically, I just smile and lie, because the truth is more complicated, less magical, indeed, a good deal grubbier than most people who are just making conversation really care to hear. If you tell them that it’s work -- hard work -- they look at you like they suspect that you must be doing it wrong.

There seems to be a myth floating around out there that story ideas pop full-blown into our imaginations like Athena out of the head of Zeus. Sheee-yah.

There's nothing quite so satisfying for a writer as when the creative well overflows, when your characters pull you out of bed every day, begging you to tell their story and give them life. For most writers, these creative bursts are rare, fine moments. Treasure them while you can! In between these deeply imaginative times, you can accomplish solid work, but the process feels a bit more like "work." There is less a sense of divine flow to our typing fingers, and more of a struggle to figure out what Ted will say to Jane next. A much higher percentage of our pages are produced in this fashion.

But what do you do when your typing fingers stall completely? When the creative well dries like your heroine's mouth after she first sees the hero? Time to woo your Muse and indulge in a little creative regeneration. Having stared at my own office walls for one too many hours, I've devised a plan of action to court the Muse and put her back to work.

I've heard successful writers proclaim they don't get writer's block because they won't allow themselves to get writer's block. Others have said that writer's block is related to motivation, or lack of. All I know are my own painful experiences of starting a new book and eventually drawing a blank. I've learned some techniques to help me work through my own writer's block and maybe they'll work for you:

 I write contemporary category romances. They're short. They're intense. And they're sexy. But each new book needs new plot and I'm always looking for suggestions as well as inspiration. Some of my best research and freshest ideas have come from...

 I write contemporary category romances. They're short. They're intense. And they're sexy. But each new book needs new plot and I'm always looking for suggestions as well as inspiration. Some of my best research and freshest ideas have come from...

Read about how to put pizzazz into a tried and true plot.