Eventful Night and Overactive Imagination

Well, I was on my way to work (didn't actually get there though) when I blew a tyre out on the motorway and the nearest place I could pull over was on an little section between the motorway and where people entered it.

You don't know how creative you get until you're stranded somewhere, feeling the car vibrate as cars (on both sides) rocket past at 110+ Km (68miles). Waiting the hour for a tow truck - and that's how long it takes for them to get to an emergency situation - my mind liked to wander, and not to pretty places either...

What if a car didn't see me and hits me at full on speed? What if the tow truck driver was some demented maniac (wouldn't you trust someone who's supposed to help you)? Like I said, not a pretty place I needed to be at the time, but has started to give me ideas for future stories/characters.

Needn't fear, I'm now safe at home (of course I didn't make it to work). After all the string of bad luck, I still managed to get that to turn around. The tow truck driver dropped me off at a petrol station, and after attempting to change the tyre one-handed (hey, I was on the phone with my parents at the time, trying to figure out where my car was hiding the jak) two nice cops pulled up and started to change it for me. So a little scare, a lot of grease (and I mean a lot, for some reason my face was covered in it) and a chance encounter gave me a lot of ideas to write about.

So, here's a question. Are there any situations that at the time seemed like a bad thing, but gave you some kind of inspiration? Do you find story ideas from real life and people you meet?

Finding Inspiration

Finding time to write is one thing, but finding what to write about is another matter entirely. Sometimes when I hit a brick wall and have absolutely no idea where to go next, I look to other sources for inspiration.

Maybe my next spark will come from music (at the moment I've got Evenescence, Nightwish and Disturbed on my playlist to get me in the right mood for my story), or if tunes won't do, I go out to the movies or browse some image galleries (images are great to get some ideas).

So, where do you find inspiration? Is there times where it's impossible to write, what do you do to get in the write mood to continue?

Rewriting or Creating?

Well, at the moment I'm off to a tremendously terrible start to Nano, what with work and health issues I haven't really been able to do much. Now I'm caught at a crossroads. Should I continue my Nano path or go back to tweaking my WIP.

There's a reason why I'm contemplating revisiting my other novel. Haven is a completed novel that just needs a little work and QueryTracker.net has announced a Young Adult contest.

So, my dillema is, when do you choose to work on something old rather than starting a new piece? Is it as simple as flipping a coin to decide what to do? Or, is it more in the mindset you're in when you sit down?

All this decision-making is giving me a headache.

Flying Blind

Is it easier to write from an outline or off the top of your head? Well, for me, I usually have some sort of outline done up, even though I hardly ever stick to the outline. Just having something to help give me some sort of clue as to where the story's going to end up really helps me out.

But, stupid me. When it came to Nano I didn't even have much of an idea on November 1st that I didn't have enough time to create any outline. Now, I haven't a clue where I'm going to go. 2,000 words in and already I'm starting to doubt whether I can create any decent novel. I'm really biting my tongue at the moment because I feel like ditching my efforts for the second time (I can't do that or I'll end up with nothing at the end of the month).

When it comes to serious hit-the-wall writers block, what is the best way to get out of it? And that doesn't include ditching the little bit I've got, because I need something to work from.

After day one...

After getting off to a very, very, very, very, very... okay, one more very... bad start, I've managed to crawl up and get 1,711 words. And, the thing that amazes me the most is I think the story actually makes sense. I know, in-cred-i-ble.

Well, now I thinik I've deserved a good night sleep, mainly so I can get up bright and early in the morning and get a jump on tomorrows word count. The good thing about tomorrow is that I've got the entire day off (well, except for the bit where I promised that I'd do a bit of the house work... I know stupid me).

Yay for the start of Nano, and let's hope tomorrow is just as productive (but less riddled with despair). Well, nighty night out there in blog land, I think I've deserved a good rest after today.

How to Turn that Inner Editor Off?

How should I know, I was hoping you could tell me.

The hardest part of NanoWriMo (except for the reaching 50,000 words thing) is tuning out the inner editor. I had written about 500 words before I told myself that was utter garbage and scrapped it.

The only way I can see myself doing well this year is to only care about the story being told, the sentence structure and grammar (and dare I say it, even spelling) can wait until revisions start in December.

Now, after chilling a bit (before I bite the head off my brother) and watching the Covenant for inspiration, I'm going to take a deep breath and try to get at least 1,000 words out before the day's through. Yes, I know I'll be behind, but I'll definitely be able to catch up tomorrow (I hope).

And let it begin...

Oh crap, it's now November 1st and I still don't have much of an idea where to go, I'm hoping that a lightning bolt will strike me at work and I'll be able to jump into it straight after.

I know I really should have been plotting and planning yesterday, but I didn't. I attended the Nano Kick off party for Brisbane (Australia) - yeah, that was fun, but didn't do much for giving me inspiration. Then, I went to Movie World's Halloween party, and after pushing through wall to wall crowds with limited visibility due to an overuse of the smoke machine I have bubkiss... I was really hoping that some of the mazes they had set up would spark an idea, but the closest thing I got was inserting evil clowns into the story, which my brother thought was a horrendous idea...

P.s. I must not scare easy because with all the screams pouring out of the mazes I expected to find something at least a little bit frightening (not that evil clowns aren't frightening when they're jumping around corners to scare you. Let's face it, clowns are just scary).

Now, I so hope I can come up with an idea so I have at least one word written before the day's out.