Do you agree?

Advertisement

… and all that jazz, from Senny Dreadful

Jennifer Williams, on her blog Senny Dreadful, describes her experience of generating ideas:

“Supposedly one of the most exasperating questions a writer can get is “Where do you get your ideas?” Presumably this is because we’re not allowed to answer with: “My grandfather bequeathed to me an ancient and magical book, and within these goblin-encrusted pages new ideas breed like rutting succubae…” or “I stole them off my mate”. I have to admit I can’t recall ever having been asked (although I do occasionally get: “You enjoy that, do you?” and “Why, Jennifer, why?”)

I think it’s a largely impossible question to answer, because most of the time we just don’t know. I was considering this yesterday when I started writing a short story out of the blue. I haven’t written a short for yonks, and when the initial flurry of activity had died down, I did stop and think: “Where on earth did that come from?”

You’d think there would be something. Was I looking at a particular word at the time, or was it the tinny beat of someone’s MP3 player that triggered it? I don’t know. The thing is, short story writing is like hunting an animal, something lithe and speedy with a twitching nose and twisty little horns. Once you get the scent of this shy creature, you’re off, streaking through the forest after it; you follow it wherever it twists and hops and leaps, and you can’t stop until…”  Read the rest here

Hysterical writers competition

First, punctuate the headline.

Then… a short story and/or poetry competition for women writing in English, but of any nationality. Closing date is 31st August, but submission is by email.

Details here…

Related articles

• Short Stories And Stuff (blogaboutwriting.wordpress.com)
• Hysteria is the Weekly Word: Hysterical or His Tears in Ria? (womanontheedgeofreality.com)
• Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story (gabriellegantz.wordpress.com)
• Size Matters (suehealy.org)