Robin Tompkins's Blog: Rob the Writer - Posts Tagged "ideas"
My ‘Writer Brain.’ Or, ‘here kitty,kitty…’
So, when I did the initial Goodreads Q&A, the question of inspiration came up. I said, that the short answer was, that for the most part, ideas just arrive out of nowhere. I also said, that the long answer was more interesting and might make a blog piece. So, here we go…
I have read elsewhere, that it feels as if the stories are already there, just waiting to be found. It’s like archaeology, you see just one small corner of something sticking out of the ground, then after a lot of patient work with a trowel and a paintbrush… there it is. That does ring true, it feels right.
What about that bit that you see first though? That little glint in the corner of your eye? Where does that come from?
Let me introduce you to my ‘Writer Brain.’ Yes, I know, it’s a rubbish name for it. There must be a proper technical term but I have no idea what it is, so it’s my ‘Writer Brain.’
Most people have done a crossword at some time or another in their lives. If you have, then, you have probably had that ‘five across, six letters experience.’ You have the crossword finished, except for, ‘five across, six letters,’ and it just won’t come to you. You throw the magazine down and go on with your day. Seven hours later, you have your head in a supermarket fridge, deciding which bag of peas is the best buy, when a single word just drops into your head. It has nothing to do with frozen food, you don’t know what it’s doing in there. Then slowly, you realise that it’s the answer to ‘five across, six letters.’ The answer to a crossword clue, in a crossword that you gave up on seven hours ago and didn’t give a conscious thought to thereafter.
That’s what my ‘Writer Brain’ is like…
It exists somewhere in the back of my head, separate from my everyday brain, and it obeys its own set of rules. Somewhat like a cat, it won’t come when you call it, unless it feels like it. At other times, it just turns up unexpectedly, demanding attention. It’s a feline ‘Writer Brain,’ for sure.
It’s a greedy thing. It hoovers up everything, like a little black hole. Books, movies, TV, news, everyday conversation, overheard conversation, jokes, music, body language… anything, everything. Then it minces it, it slices it, dices it and rearranges it into something else.
It does this with little or no conscious input from me, just like, ‘five across, six letters.’
So, I am walking over to the supermarket one dark evening, (possibly it’s for those peas, I don’t remember). Into my head and apropos to nothing, comes a little snippet of dialogue. Two people are talking on a balcony, in the dark, looking out over city lights. One is explaining how dark air is different to light air, how dark air conducts magic so much better than light air, just as water conducts electricity better than air.
Shiny, shiny, it’s the corner of a story sticking out of the ground… where is my trowel?
I have read elsewhere, that it feels as if the stories are already there, just waiting to be found. It’s like archaeology, you see just one small corner of something sticking out of the ground, then after a lot of patient work with a trowel and a paintbrush… there it is. That does ring true, it feels right.
What about that bit that you see first though? That little glint in the corner of your eye? Where does that come from?
Let me introduce you to my ‘Writer Brain.’ Yes, I know, it’s a rubbish name for it. There must be a proper technical term but I have no idea what it is, so it’s my ‘Writer Brain.’
Most people have done a crossword at some time or another in their lives. If you have, then, you have probably had that ‘five across, six letters experience.’ You have the crossword finished, except for, ‘five across, six letters,’ and it just won’t come to you. You throw the magazine down and go on with your day. Seven hours later, you have your head in a supermarket fridge, deciding which bag of peas is the best buy, when a single word just drops into your head. It has nothing to do with frozen food, you don’t know what it’s doing in there. Then slowly, you realise that it’s the answer to ‘five across, six letters.’ The answer to a crossword clue, in a crossword that you gave up on seven hours ago and didn’t give a conscious thought to thereafter.
That’s what my ‘Writer Brain’ is like…
It exists somewhere in the back of my head, separate from my everyday brain, and it obeys its own set of rules. Somewhat like a cat, it won’t come when you call it, unless it feels like it. At other times, it just turns up unexpectedly, demanding attention. It’s a feline ‘Writer Brain,’ for sure.
It’s a greedy thing. It hoovers up everything, like a little black hole. Books, movies, TV, news, everyday conversation, overheard conversation, jokes, music, body language… anything, everything. Then it minces it, it slices it, dices it and rearranges it into something else.
It does this with little or no conscious input from me, just like, ‘five across, six letters.’
So, I am walking over to the supermarket one dark evening, (possibly it’s for those peas, I don’t remember). Into my head and apropos to nothing, comes a little snippet of dialogue. Two people are talking on a balcony, in the dark, looking out over city lights. One is explaining how dark air is different to light air, how dark air conducts magic so much better than light air, just as water conducts electricity better than air.
Shiny, shiny, it’s the corner of a story sticking out of the ground… where is my trowel?
Sad Fishes and Other Animals…
So, I have been thinking about what I wrote in my previous post. ‘My Writer Brain, or, ‘Here Kitty, Kitty…’ To save you going back to check it out, it was about the idea that stories feel like they are in some way, already there, like an artifact waiting to be dug out of the ground.
I decided that that was something I related to, that it felt right. Adding to that, I said that if it was like archaeology, then there was that moment when you just catch site of the corner of the artifact sticking out of the ground, when you say to yourself, ‘it’s worth digging here.’
I then asked, ‘where does that first inkling come from?’ Answer, my ‘Writer Brain. This whimsical, capricious and somewhat feline part of my consciousness, that is not really under my control. It sucks in real life and spits out fiction. You know, in its own time, when it thinks it will, if it can be bothered. Unless you try to ignore it, at which point it needs you to know what it needs you to know, now, right now!
So, where do the, ‘Sad Fishes,’ come in?
I was thinking that sometimes I do get an idea of what ‘Writer Brain,’ has been getting up to while I’m not looking. I wrote a story called ‘Sad Fishes.’ Haven’t read it? No, no, I would have been more surprised if you had. That’s OK, I’m used to it. 😊
Anyway, one day, out of nowhere, part of a song arrives in my head. Not an earworm from the radio, a new song, one I had somehow managed to write, without actively trying to. Now, I love music, I have wide musical tastes but I am not musical… My singing would clear a good-sized room faster than a fire alarm. I don’t write songs.
But here in my head was…
Sad fishes, sad fishes, they’re eating from dishes,
Sad fishes, sad fishes, they’re dining at sea.
The next day I had…
They eat off fine china, from a sunken cruise liner,
Sad fishes, sad fishes, they’re dining at sea.
Now the good Captain’s table, is for all that are able,
Sad fishes, sad fishes, they’re dining at sea.
I then realised, that I had to set to and work out what the song meant. Finish the song with my conscious mind, not, ‘Writer Brain.’ Once I did, I would know what the story was about and I could write it.
Well, I did and the story is in the ‘Omar,’ collection if you are curious about how it turned out.
Not the point of this blog piece though.
Where did ‘Writer Brain,’ find the ingredients for the song that led to me unearthing the story? That’s the point.
Well, I think I know… most of the time I don’t but this time, I think I do.
I had been listening quite a lot, in that way you do sometimes, to a particular album. It had become a temporary obsession.
The album was ‘Keep it Unreal,’ (the 10th anniversary re-issue) by famously fish obsessed DJ and Musician Mr Scruff. In particular, I now see three tracks in a new light… ‘Get a Move On,’ ‘Shanty Town,’ and ‘Fish.’
I do not pretend to understand the exact process, ‘Writer Brain,’ used to arrive at ‘Sad Fishes,’ but I am totally convinced that this is where it started from…
I decided that that was something I related to, that it felt right. Adding to that, I said that if it was like archaeology, then there was that moment when you just catch site of the corner of the artifact sticking out of the ground, when you say to yourself, ‘it’s worth digging here.’
I then asked, ‘where does that first inkling come from?’ Answer, my ‘Writer Brain. This whimsical, capricious and somewhat feline part of my consciousness, that is not really under my control. It sucks in real life and spits out fiction. You know, in its own time, when it thinks it will, if it can be bothered. Unless you try to ignore it, at which point it needs you to know what it needs you to know, now, right now!
So, where do the, ‘Sad Fishes,’ come in?
I was thinking that sometimes I do get an idea of what ‘Writer Brain,’ has been getting up to while I’m not looking. I wrote a story called ‘Sad Fishes.’ Haven’t read it? No, no, I would have been more surprised if you had. That’s OK, I’m used to it. 😊
Anyway, one day, out of nowhere, part of a song arrives in my head. Not an earworm from the radio, a new song, one I had somehow managed to write, without actively trying to. Now, I love music, I have wide musical tastes but I am not musical… My singing would clear a good-sized room faster than a fire alarm. I don’t write songs.
But here in my head was…
Sad fishes, sad fishes, they’re eating from dishes,
Sad fishes, sad fishes, they’re dining at sea.
The next day I had…
They eat off fine china, from a sunken cruise liner,
Sad fishes, sad fishes, they’re dining at sea.
Now the good Captain’s table, is for all that are able,
Sad fishes, sad fishes, they’re dining at sea.
I then realised, that I had to set to and work out what the song meant. Finish the song with my conscious mind, not, ‘Writer Brain.’ Once I did, I would know what the story was about and I could write it.
Well, I did and the story is in the ‘Omar,’ collection if you are curious about how it turned out.
Not the point of this blog piece though.
Where did ‘Writer Brain,’ find the ingredients for the song that led to me unearthing the story? That’s the point.
Well, I think I know… most of the time I don’t but this time, I think I do.
I had been listening quite a lot, in that way you do sometimes, to a particular album. It had become a temporary obsession.
The album was ‘Keep it Unreal,’ (the 10th anniversary re-issue) by famously fish obsessed DJ and Musician Mr Scruff. In particular, I now see three tracks in a new light… ‘Get a Move On,’ ‘Shanty Town,’ and ‘Fish.’
I do not pretend to understand the exact process, ‘Writer Brain,’ used to arrive at ‘Sad Fishes,’ but I am totally convinced that this is where it started from…
