Inspiration
Inspiration is a magical thing and it really is the driving force behind most creatives.
Inspiration is always there for my illustrative work and when I write but where does it some from? You’d be surprised.
I used to work in public libraries with children and co-ran a Chatter Books Reading group for 8 to 11 year olds. We had to come up with crazy, fun activities to do. These always depended on whatever the theme was that month. And trust me, myself and a colleague came up with some seriously bonkers stuff! On one occasion I was even arrested by real police officers. I had murdered Mrs Mop with a quiche (thank you M. C. Beaton) but that’s another story.
Word games
One thing I loved to create for the children was a word game or a game centred around a story at the very least. On one occasion I started a story (satisfyingly odd of course) and then each child added to it whatever they liked. Well, because they were children with the most amazing capacity for invention, the stories became more fantastical by the second and very Roald Dahl! Another time I created a set of the funniest words I could think of and placed them on images that related. So, pink, frilly knickers with the word knickers. These were then put in a basket (I wanted a swanky top hat for theatrical effect but alas none could be found) and each child had to pick out a word and come up with a story that used that word. However, I couldn’t have anticipated for one minute how popular that game turned out to be.
I find inspiration for my stories in many places. Being near nature helps me develop stories, which I’ve never been able to fathom. But what often triggers an idea for a story is horribleness! Yes, ghastly, yucky horribleness in all its wondrous shapes. Sometimes it’s nasty people (we all encounter them, don’t we), terrible situations and just rotten, bad luck. Maybe it’s what being creative is. You take an unpleasant situation and create something fabulous from it. So, take inspiration and be fabulous!
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