How To Keep The Creative Juices Flowing.

I think one of the most common questions most writers get asked is, “Where do you get your ideas?” The honest answer is, I don’t go out and get them, they come to get me. The best stories are like acorns. All you need is one tiny seed to be able to sit back and watch a great oak grow. So how do I get the acorns to come to me? Plenty of sleep, or to be more precise, dreams. I keep a dream journal, and no matter how surreal the dream, I often find there is the start of a story there, especially for a writer of horror and the supernatural. After all, this is how Where the Darkness Hides (the following up to my debut novella, Within the Dark Places) came to fruition. 

I listen to a lot of music – mostly through headphones to block everything else out. Not only does this help me write productively, but also daydreaming to the music gives me a creative boost, especially when it comes to kicking down the wall of writer’s block.  

Exercising regularly and eating right may sound like I’m being patronising, but a healthy body really does equal a healthy mind.  After all, the mind is the writer’s most important tool. 

I make the time to play with my kids. Seeing the world through a child’s eyes opens up the imagination in ways you couldn’t… imagine. It also helps you to remember your own childhood and the fantasies you played and the fears experienced. For a horror writer, there is nothing quite as scary as childhood fears; the things that goes bump in the night and the monsters under the bed.

And finally, I simply write. Even if I don’t have a story in mind I write lots and lots of waffle, because it’s better than not writing at all. Writing, like all other skills, is a simple case of use it or lose it. Keep writing no matter how trivial, you may just surprise yourself.