Monday, December 12, 2016

Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?

No, this isn't another post about the impossibility of finding an easy answer to this most frequently-asked question.  This is about sitting down once a week or once a fortnight to write a post for Type M.

Usually when I have one to write soon I see something that strikes a chord - a topic chosen by one of my fellow-bloggers, a news item, a problem or a particular joy I've found in my writing life, an observation about technique, even ( a rarity, this) an original thought.

This week, nothing seems to have come my way.  I know why.  Apart from writing time, my mind has been taken up with the preparations for Christmas.  With the whole family, grandchildren and all, coming here this year, my mind has been taken up with all the usual preparations - presents, cards, house-cleaning, decorating, cooking.

So when I started to think about writing this, nothing obligingly sprang to mind.  I did have a casual thought as I made marzipan cookies and amaretto chocolate truffles how strange it is that when cooking is absolutely my favourite hobby, my main character, DI Marjory Fleming, is famously an appalling cook - a reflection of mild interest to me but not really to anyone else, and certainly not material for a blog.

However, I bet I'm not the only person who has clutched their head in despair wailing, 'What am I going to write in my post?'  (My husband is fortunately very tolerant.) So what do you do, when inspiration doesn't strike?  All suggestions gratefully received.

Since my next post won't be until Boxing Day - sudden thought, do you call it that on the other side of the Atlantic? The 26th, anyway - so I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a wonderfully successful 2017.

4 comments:

Vicki Delany said...

Boxing Day is definitely a thing in Canada, although I believe not so much in the US. In Canada it is a public holiday.

Sybil Johnson said...

No Boxing Day here in the US, no public holiday, though we've certainly heard of it. More like the first day of the after Christmas sales. And when I can't think of something, I usually write about books I've read recently that I've enjoyed.

Aline Templeton said...

Thanks for that, Sybil - I'll remember that idea next time.

Susan D said...

Yes, Boxing Day in Canada. Sadly, it's also the most frenzied shopping day of the year, follow by the revoltingly-named (by retailers) "Boxing Week."