Valentine’s Day – half a dozen ideas

How did you do? Did ideas flood into your writer’s mind, or did you get stuck?

Cake on Valentine's Day
Romantic cake – too tempting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ll time myself and see how I do in 60 seconds – I have no idea…

1. er… blank brain.

1. 20 secs gone…

1. 35 secs…

1. 45 secs…

1. Next door neighbours, boy and girl both called Valentine

2. too late…

It’s not easy. I’m usually full of them, but under pressure, when you’re challenged to think of ideas then and there, the mind goes blank. My mind goes blank.

The only idea I produced was a true fact – a couple who lived in our village were both called Valentine. They were married for ever, so something worked. But as an idea for a novel, it’s weaker than my will in the face of cheesecake.

Ideas don’t usually come to order, at least when the thinking brain is in control. When the left (thinking) brain is distracted or ignored, the right (creative) brain lets loose. I’ll see what pops up as the day goes on, when I’m cooking lunch or booking my flight home.

I need someone to do my thinking for me, so my imagination can run away with itself.

Is this you, too? Or do you create by logic?

 

Dates for February and March

Here are the confirmed dates for full-day workshops in February and March.

[Click on any date for booking details.]

February

Saturday 16th February  in Brasov, Romania.

March – UK

Friday 1st in Bath (alongside the Bath Literary Festival)

Tuesday 5th in Liverpool

Friday 8th in Manchester

Sunday 10th in Oxford (a week before the Oxford Literary Festival)

Tuesday 12th in Saffron Walden, Essex

Thursday 14th in Rye, East Sussex.

photo credit: Abbs Pepper
Where DO they get their ideas?

Autumn in Transylvania

From Thursday 26 September to Thursday 3rd October, I’m running a week-long intensive writers’ workshop in Magura, Transylvania. Read more…