Inspiration and voice
At Winchester Writers' Festival, my new hero Meg Rosoff compared our minds to colanders. Stuff gets stuck in them.
My mind is more like an antiquarian bookshop - I'm not sure what I'll find in there, can't resist sidling between the stacks, and usually find something odd.
Camilla's Bookshop, Eastbourne
Added to the stacks at Winchester:
Inspire your readers by becoming inspired. Hunt for inspiration, in well-loved grounds and unlikely places, hoard it. (Jasper Fforde ).
Be intuitive. The best writing comes out without hitting the sides. Just start writing and the things that inspire you will do the rest. (Jasper Fforde).
“The questions I asked myself when I was 6, I am still asking myself.” (Meg Rosoff)
Writing is like dreaming – it lets the unconscious work. Open up a free flow from your unconscious to your conscious mind. How? Study the turning point in your life, look hard at the thing that frightens you – they are who you are. (Meg Rosoff)
The artist conceals the art. The writing on the page should seem to be heard, as if straight from your mouth, or a dream. (Linda Bennett - who writes as Christina James)
So I shall obey: explore, remember, dream and write.