The Building Blocks

Creativity, be it for a writer, musician, artist, or anyone who takes something from scratch and completes a work that will be seen or heard by the masses, is something special for the one giving birth to their idea. This creates two separate points of view – the producer’s and then the reader’s, listener’s and viewer’s. King, Beethoven and Van Gogh all started from scratch, somewhere.
This being an author’s blog, it’s only appropriate that we talk about how we create our stories. I get a lot of inspiration visually, from things I see out in the world – most by chance or from stumbling across something unusual. I have found that looking at pictures, or still images, as a photographer would call them, can find its own place in my imagination.
Many of the places in my stories are real places that I have visited or grew up around and each have their own story waiting to be written. Of course, our minds are the most creative thing we have, so if we don’t use visuals or places to build our stories, we always can start from scratch and still make our masterpiece.

Filling in the Blanks

Now that we have our ideas ready to go, it’s time to put them down on paper (an old saying that’s hard to break) and complete that story. We have the building-blocks and foundation, but now we must fill in the in-betweens. This is where our creativity and imagination must run wild in that first draft. We must be relentless in our process of storytelling and pound away at that keyboard. We must not stymie our mind’s creative process with editing while in the heat of the battle – just let it flow and fill in the blanks. I don’t mean this in a reckless fashion, but we all know that great feeling when all the neurons are firing and the writing comes almost effortlessly. The blanks are filled and original inspiration starts to become a complete story.

The Rest of the Story

And yes, of course, the editing will come, and many of the words we have pounded out will be rearranged, reworded, or even disappear altogether. But this short entry is about how we create our stories and start to build them into the next Bestseller! This is only the start of the complete process that takes hard work, determination, and sometimes sheer will, but every story must start somewhere with some idea, no matter where it was conceived and born.

You have to absolutely love it to write it, and then finish the entire process. Sometimes getting started is the hardest part, but I promise you that once you get there, you will have half of the battle won.

Where do you find your inspiration for creating your masterpiece?

Happy creative writing,

~ALJ~

(image via empowernetwork.com)