Fresh Ideas

Here’s the wonderful, miraculous thing about new ideas and angles: They can come from anywhere and anyone at anytime. Just the other day, I was feeling stumped some feedback I’ve been getting about my YA novel and pondering what to do next. My super-creative husband David and I went out for some breakfast and I laid my situation out for him. While he knows a lot about my story, he isn’t immersed in it the way I am, so it seemed to me he might have a fresh angle about it. Did he ever!

We chatted for a bit and suddenly, he threw a question out that I hadn’t thought about before. As we batted it back and forth, I began to see that he’d hit on something in my story that was missing. Then he came up with a new idea that really intrigued me. The more I thought about it, the more it became clear that David’s concept might help readers connect more deeply with my little heroine.

Rather than rushing off and writing something, I decided to give this new idea some time to percolate. Since it was the weekend, I just relaxed and read and took a walk to enjoy the sunshine. And all the time, somewhere in the back of my mind, I was playing with David’s idea, knocking it around. By the end of the day, without even trying, I’d come up with a way to introduce a new character into my story who will add a lot of spice and snap. It’s all very exciting!

Even now, I’m not running off and writing scenes. I’m going to just sit with this new angle for a while. Sometimes I like to let the pressure to write build up inside until I just have to respond to it. When this happens, I get really energized and excited about finally sitting down and translating my thoughts into words. So, even though I feel this new idea is going to be fruitful, I’m not going to rush into fleshing it out.

Have you ever tried the pressure-cooker approach? I’ve found it to be very effective. When you let inner tension build, finally sitting down and writing gives you a tremendous sense of release and the words just come pouring out. It can be very satisfying and soul-nourishing, especially if you’ve been stuck for a while. Write on.

About karinwritesdangerously

I am a writer and this is a motivational blog designed to help both writers and aspiring writers to push to the next level. Key themes are peak performance, passion, overcoming writing roadblocks, juicing up your creativity, and the joys of writing.
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