Goodreads asked Penny Grubb:

How do you get inspired to write?

Penny Grubb The struggle can sometimes the other way when what I really want is NOT to be inspired to write. Like in the middle of the night when I want to sleep. Received wisdom is that a writer always keeps a pen and paper by the bed to scribble down ideas that strike in the small hours. It’s a good idea in theory and probably works really well for tidy writers with well-ordered bedside cabinets. My pen and paper are never there when I need them, so if the idea is really compelling I have to get up to write it down. Everything and nothing can become inspiration. Getting words on the page is a skill that can be learnt. The more you write, the more you see all around you just asking to be written about.

That said, I’m a great believer in using the subconscious to make the writing flow. I used to worry when I looked ahead and saw a bumpy plotline on the horizon, thinking I’d never make the leap from A to B seem credible. And each time as I approached the problem area, the solution would present itself. I put it down to my subconscious beavering away in the background. These days I identify the iffy areas in my ideas well in advance and hand them over to my brain to work on while I’m doing other stuff. I think it makes me absent-minded sometimes, but it’s never let me down.

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