On writing: ideas, identity and the inner critic

A couple of friends recently asked me, where do you get your ideas from to write stories? At first glimpse, it seems such an easy straightforward question. But the best I could come up with was… uh I’m not sure, everywhere I guess.

I suppose I still experience a wave of anxiety when I refer to myself as a writer, because there is part of me that feels like a fraud. Can I really call myself a writer? Today I was reading snippets of The Writer’s Idea Book by Jack Heffron and realised I’m not the only one who feels this way. I think the term ‘writer’ is quite ambiguous in a sense and it can be difficult to define to those outside the literary scene. But essentially, a writer is someone who writes… and that is exactly what I do.

This year, I have dropped down to four days a week at work so I can focus on my writing for one day every week without the pressures of housework, cooking or social engagements. Fridays are now ‘me’ time. I’m working on a romantic suspense novel in conjunction with the Year of the Novel course held by the Australian Writer’s Marketplace and I feel privileged to have Australian author, Helene Young as our group facilitator. I’ve decided that I would really like to extend and deepen my writing experience and intend to journal, freewrite and create short stories because these are fantastic ways to incite creativity and develop my many ideas.

Back to my friends’ question on ideas and their origins. On reflection, my answer was remarkably spot on. My ideas for stories, characters and plots do come from everywhere. Sometimes they come from a conversation I overhear in a café, my own personal experiences, newspaper articles, my work, my dog (!), and even my dreams. For me, getting ideas has never been the problem. It’s putting them down on paper and doing something with them that I evade. Perhaps it makes the ideas a reality, and maybe the ideas aren’t really that great after-all. It’s the inner critic that stops the writer from writing.

Freewriting and journaling are excellent ways to beat the inner critic and get the creative juices flowing and recorded in writing. It’s such a pleasant surprise to read back over journals or writing ideas notebooks I have kept over the years and read about conversations I have eavesdropped on or random dreams I have had that could spinoff to fascinating story ideas.

Once I get into the swing of things, I hope to post some snippets on my blog and keep this forum more updated in the future. I tend to focus on writing posts for my book review blog, because I sometimes I feel like I don’t have much to say on writing. Today, reading a writing book sparked an idea about ideas and here it is in a post! So this week I can safely say I achieved my goal of writing something outside of my manuscript.

I encourage other writers to share their thoughts on ideas, inspirations and your inner critic.