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East West Street: genocide? Or crimes against humanity?
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How to write great Nut-grafs & Cosmic Kickers: part 3
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Much Obliged, Jeeves – 24 quotations
For all you ardent Wodehouse fans, I have fine news. Much Obliged, Jeeves is one of the funniest Wodehouse books I have read. The cover of…
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The health benefits of Martinis
At the roof bar of the top hotel in Istanbul, I don’t notice a thing. Below us, the Bosphorus sparkles in the setting sun. I…
#howtowrite: #ViennaWritingInspiration
17/11/2018 11:16 / 2 Comments on #howtowrite: #ViennaWritingInspiration
You are an author. You are about to sit down and begin to write a story.
How do you get started? What will it be about? Where do you get your ideas from?
As the author of eight novels and eight short stories*, I work hard to find ideas. Here are my four sources of inspiration, and one non-source:
(i) my best source of inspiration is random ideas which pop into my head – when I am reading, walking down the street, in the shower, whatever. These ideas have one thing in common. I write them down. Everyone has great ideas, all the time. What makes a difference is keeping a note of them. Maybe you are a genius and can remember good ideas indefinitely. I can’t. As soon as my mind wanders off – as it will – I forget my good idea. Action point for writers: make a note when an idea strikes you and ensure you can find that note later. Keep a notebook or web page where you store your ideas;
Some things are obviously inspirational. This deserted children’s bumper car ride near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is crying out for a story
(ii) my second big source of ideas is external inputs. If you read the piece about my hotel stories at the link above, (more…)