Random Inspiration: Listen to Your Gut

For those who actively follow me or Anxiety, you’ll have noticed talk of a fun little project in the works called Mobbing Midnight. It’s not my day to chat it up, so I’ll stop there, but as I was working on my contribution, I thought of a blog post.

I was also reading this great article by Jeff VanderMeer that’s going to show up on the Facebook and Twitter feeds in the next week or so that sparked some ideas.

Anyway, back to my story. I was going over my story notes because I’ve had the flu since writing them all down (lucky me!) and was in desperate need of a refresher. I’d come up with my fastest character-name list ever because I had a feeling one or some or all of the names might change in the future, so I didn’t want to devote too much time to it.

But of course, one of the names didn’t work. I couldn’t write my story with the name in it. In the interest of saving time and getting to the actual writing deed –it was my first day feeling almost like myself and I knew I needed to get some words down while the good wave lasted– I turned to the internet.

I didn’t go to my regular name source, , as I have a slight tendency to get a little carried away in the etymology. In the interest of containing spoilers, I won’t share what I typed into my search engine that led me to this amusing doodad: .

My second random search on the generator I chose gave me a name that had a lovely, eerie ring to it. Did I mention mine is a horror story? I’d never heard the name before so I popped it into Google, as one does with everything these days. The plethora of historical and cultural details connected to this name so perfectly matched my story that it defies logic. Good thing that I don’t rely on logic in my process.

Silly things like this that seem guided by fate make my day as a writer. That and actually getting some good words down on the page. Both made Sunday a double whammy of delight for me –one I really needed.

The moral of my story is basically go with your gut. Does that name feel wrong? Look for another. Does that name seem great? Look into it. Does that name so perfectly fit that you’re waiting for lightning to strike you at your desk? Bingo.

The creative process is a dark beast of mystery who occasionally sheds bits of inspiration but usually leads most of us blindly by the fingertips. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

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