So what to write next? What to write next is a question that is never far from a writer’s mind. Are you feeling the throb of a new idea?
I know from past experience that the important thing is to START. Anything. A scene, a thought, a person, dialogue – any of these, and then extrapolate and explore. The vital, essential, and crucial part of being a writer is to start writing. To write anything and then everything flows from that, even if (and you will) slash it to bits, you have a start.
What to write? The answer to that question is all around us. In your home, your communities, your family, your offices, etc. Somehow true stories, like The Promise and Death in the Mountains always resonate deeply with me. I have mucked around with fiction for years but always find myself leaning towards the real. It’s the true, the non-fiction that keeps me going towards completion and 80,000 words.
What inspiration or ideas can you draw on from your world for your characters or sense of place that will help you to get writing? In my home and within my family, interesting events happen all the time. Such as the re-marriage of my Italian mother-in-law in a world where few widows remarry, let alone tie the knot at seventy-three. The digging up of my father-in-law’s body, fifteen years after his death. Outside my home and within my social circle some friend’s struggle with raising bilingual children. Not every child can master two languages at the same time. My friends are given conflicting advice and it can be hell on their bi-cultural marriage.
Also, within my expatriate friend’s circle, I come across many, many fascinating people. Some of them have been here for decades yet they don’t speak Italian. Why are they here in Florence? Why raise their kids in an English expatriate bubble in Italy? How can they relate to the every day, normal Italian life when they don’t speak and make no effort to learn Italian?
I find these events and issues fascinating. So how to knit it all together into a book? That’s the hard part! Writing a book is like a great big puzzle, with hundreds of pieces that you have to put together. You have to find the right piece to fit the next piece and the next and so on. Once you have the core idea, you have to fit all the other ideas around it.
In any case, it’s the main idea that is the important part. Writers say ‘you have to feel the throb of an idea’ and I hope you do. Now, I wish you luck as you embark on yet another odyssey into the mysterious world of book writing.
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If you’d like to share any comments or thoughts, I’d be happy to hear from you. Email me directly at lisacliffordwriter@gmail.com.