As part of my Over To You theme, I was asked to write this post by Luke from Musings For The Potting Shed.
Luke asked me what my inspiration was for the stories I wrote for the April A to Z Challenge (he also asked for a story about the numbers 1 to 10. As next month’s theme is writing related, I am saving that for next month).
The first thing I considered when I signed up for the challenge again was whether or not to have a theme. I knew pretty quickly I wanted a theme this year. Typically, short posts do well on the challenge, so I had a think and decided that flash fiction is a good way to write a short post that still has some body if that makes sense. Of course, it had to have a dark twist.
Generally, when writing fiction, I find inspiration in the weirdest things – a conversation about something totally different might trigger a thought, or just something pops into my head when my mind is wandering.
For the A to Z Challenge, the thought process was slightly different. Often, I just start writing and worry about the title when I’m done. With the challenge, the titles have to correspond to a letter of the alphabet (from A-Z) so I had to sort of work backwards.
I started with a list of the alphabet and randomly wrote down whatever words came to me first. I then attempted to think up how I could use that word in relation to a short, dark story. Many of the words did actually inspire me, but a few got changed.
The few that got changed where the ones where the story came to me, and I then had to think of a title that worked and fit with the letter.
I hope that sort of explains it. It’s much harder than I imagined to say what inspires me to write when it comes to fiction. Often, I find the thing which works for me is the thing everyone says is the worst thing you can do. I open a blank Word document and just stare at it until something comes to me.
Thanks for the question Luke 🙂
What inspires you to write? Let me know in the comments 🙂
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Well, whatever works, right?
Exactly!
Great answer!
Thank you 🙂
I’ve found shorter posts work well for the challenge too. How you went about coming up with your posts are similar to mine when I was creating my posts.
It’s such a different process to coming up with stories in the usual way isn’t it!
That’s how I do it too when I write. For me, the characters usually come from a dream I had. I will wake up, write down what I dreamt and go from there. The title is always the last thing I think of and when I do think of it, it takes me longer than writing the story, LOL! Thanks for sharing this Debbie! It’s nice to get in the minds of fellow writers! Glad to be back at #anythinggoes
Oh, I love the idea of characters coming to you in a dream. For the challenge, the titles sort of had to come first, but generally, I’m the same. I always have trouble thinking of a title! Great to have you back 🙂
So many challenges out there in the blogging world! Good luck with it. i am sure you will enjoy completing it #AnythingGoes
There’s always something going on that’s for sure 🙂 I love this one!
My inspiration mainly comes from everyday life, I am naturally reflective and love inspiration and decorating so I tend to just go with the flow of the day. When I work on my novel it is purely imagination and what pops into me head. I am not a planner at all. #anythinggoes
I love writing without a plan. When I write fiction, I usually have an idea how the plot will go, but a lot of the time it ends up somewhere completely different. It was a bit different with the challenge though because I had to stay on topic to keep each story relevant to the day’s letter.
I loved your A-z challenge, nice to hear a bit about your thought process behind it all. Just wondering, why did it have to be a dark theme..is that the genre you enjoying reading?xx #anythinggoes
Thanks Wendy, I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Yes, I enjoy reading and writing within that genre the most x
What is the A-Z challange? , is it only running in April?
Yes. It runs in April. Basically every day in April (except Sundays) you post something starting with A day 1, B day 2 etc. There were almost 2000 bloggers took part last year and we all visit other bloggers and exchange comments. It’s really fun and a fab way to grow your traffic.
It’s interesting to read where people’s inspiration comes from. I too find inspiration comes at the strangest of moments, perhaps I’ll be on the cusp of falling asleep or just be quietly baking, but I have to say if my mind is blank whilst sat at the PC I simply have to walk away from it and return an hour or so later. #anythinggoes
Angela x
Yes, and then you end up scrambling around for something to write it down on before it disappears again lol 🙂 x
One of my favourite writing exercise is to pick three words (using either a random word generator or flicking through a book with my eyes closed and putting my finger down at random), put them at the top of page, set a timer for ten minutes and then just write whatever comes into my head. Sometimes it has nothing at all to do with the words but whatever gets the words out of my subconscious is a win win situation. I guess if you used a dictionary you could make sure all the words started with the right letter for each day.
#AnythingGoes
That sounds like a great exercise Alana. Next time I’m stumped for an idea, I will definitely be giving that a go 🙂
What a great challenge to take part in! Its hard to answer your inspiration question really, I feel that different things at different time inspire me to write, I find it difficult to pin it down! I suppose I just write what the mood takes, when it takes it!
#anythinggoes
I really enjoyed it. It is really hard to put into words what inspires us isn’t it!
Ah I’m the same way, I’m inspired by the most random of things – It usually starts off with an overhead comment or a headline, something like that and I create an entire story around it in my head 🙂 Great post! #AnythingGoes
I love writing in my head! Its kind of annoying though if you haven’t got anything to hand to write it down and when you do, its all gone! Thank you 🙂
For me everyday life inspires me. Thanks for hosting #AnythingGoes
That’s great, there’s always something going on!
My inspiration to write comes from my life and my daughter. This sounds like a great challenge there are just so many challenges in the blogging community!!! #AnythingGoes
That’s fab, you’ll never run out of ideas! I really enjoy this challenge
I find that my best stuff comes when I’m not expecting it. I’ll get an idea and the words start spitting out. If I don’t catch them right that moment, its near impossible to go back and capture that same spirit #anythinggoes
That’s so true – if you don’t write them down there and then, when you try to think of them later, it’s just not the same!
Oh I love hearing how you were inspired for this series! I love it when inspiration just hits, they tend to be the best posts 🙂 xx #AnythingGoes
Thank you 🙂 I agree – when you over think posts, they can end up ruined, where when they just flow, they are usually best x
Love the A to Z challenge idea, great way to get the creative juices flowing. I like to go wroth the flow and see what happens #anythinggoes
It’s so much fun, you should think of joining in next April 🙂 You don’t have to have a theme, the first time I took part I just winging it on the day lol
Very interesting finding out about fiction writing and how you go about it – I would love to try one day. Sounds like a sensible process! #AnythingGoes
Thank you 🙂 Give it a go, its so much fun! I’ll be sharing lots of writing tips this month too!
I love you fiction posts, the A-Z challenge was such a great read! I get my inspiration from every day life I think 🙂 thank you for hosting #anythinggoes xx
Thank you, I’m really glad you enjoyed them 🙂 x
It’s one of my dreams to write a fiction novel but I honestly have no idea where to start! Have you ever written a post about that by chance? I’d be interested to know your tips! #AnythingGoes
Go for it 🙂 I haven’t yet, but this month’s theme is all about writing so there’ll be a few tips posts for writing and publishing a novel 🙂
That’s really interesting. I haven’t tried flash fiction (or any fiction, in fact, for a really long time) ever – I think I would find it really hard. I always find keeping things short hardest! #AnythingGoes
I’m generally pretty wordy (as you’ll have noticed with my blog posts lol) and I found the flash fiction really helped me to write in a more focussed way for fiction. It was a lot of fun, give it a try, I bet you’d enjoy it 🙂
It’s good to hear your thoughts and reasonings for creating the theme. I’m in awe of how often you write!
I’ll never be a fictional writer, but my inspiration for writing is about spreading a positive message about disability, along with sharing other peoples stories 🙂 #AnythingGoes xxx
I love writing so writing every day doesn’t feel like a chore. I think your reason for writing is a brilliant one and it can really help to make a difference to people’s lives x