Goodreads asked Nancy Ellen Brook:

How do you get inspired to write?

Nancy Ellen Brook I don't write until it becomes too painful not to write. This is how it works for me.

I come up with a little idea. I think about it for a short time and then I decide to encourage or not to encourage the idea. If I don't encourage the idea, I write it in my little idea book, and let it go. If I encourage it then I start thinking about it from time to time. I water it and nourish it (figuratively speaking). If it survives then it starts to take up more space in my thoughts, and starts nibbling at the corners of my mind. That's when I finally jot it down in a paragraph noting the beginning, the middle, and the end.

Once the characters become more and more real and they start talking with each other, that's when I'm inspired to write. More correctly, I have to write. I have to get the story onto the page. The story has now become a creature that has to be dealt with... the story must escape onto the page.

In a way it's not inspiration... it's an unyielding desire to write the story... in other words, it's too painful to keep it bottled up any longer... I have to write or the idea will give me no peace and quiet.

flag