Since several people have asked me,I thought I’d write a little on this.Before I began writing I kept o notebook writing about things which I saw,heard etc which had affected me emotionally… like seeing a neghbour who’d been deserted and looking very low walked past with two very fierce dogs on a lead…I still make notes or mull over experiences.
But often I have no idea until i start.Sometimes if I am stuck I write limericks.The writing act itself brings up latent ideas relating to issues which I care about,what life is,people who have affected me.If I can’t understand someone’s behaviour i might write around a topic but often it takes me elsewhere.
If I write a sonnet it seems to take me elsewhere than if I write free verse… it has a framework which gives less choice about where to go.
After writing,I do reading.I pick up ideas from what others have done or even games like playing with cliches.although these may be rubbish often some ideas are thrown up, a phrase, a sentence,which I can use.
The main thing is I don’t plan ahead very much.. as in the stories exceot when I got stuck with Satan in Sheringham!I began writing those stories to show the silly reasons why some of us send for the emergency services.. but then they got their own life and continued int other themes.
Sometimes I have been going to write how I will do something bad because I am hurt,but my mind won’t let me and I see that after being hurt “living well is the best revenge”.
Recall WW1 began because Austria wanted revenge on Serbia and ended up destroying itself.”Do good to those that hurt you”
So maybe my early religious training and life experiences of suffering have goven me ideas I’m not fully aware of till I start writing
Read a lot and increase your vocabaulary… listen to people talking…keep a diary of surprising or lovely things that happen.. the bad things you will remember for we are made to react more strongly to negative events by our animal inheritance
so I read… it’s why anxiety is so common, it’s protective… but don’t forget the happy and good things and the flowers blooming,,,
Someone said to me he gets up late as there is nothing to do…
well, in that case,go for a walk,write a limerick or play with the cat… or slowly and patiently tidy up some junk,visit an old person who can’t get out and tell them some interesting tales of how you fell off the bus or how a man tried to pick you up in a coffee shop even though your hair needed washing and you were wearing old clothes!
Activity itself brings purpose.. start and follow your nose..
Well, if you hate my writing just do the opposite of all these things I have told you about….try to do it your own way.
How my heart sings 
Thank you so much for this. I do much the same with my little sketch books….quick notes both in line and words, and I find that even when I go back to one ten years later, as soon as I look at the page, I am taken back to that specific moment. :)xx
Thank you for that,Janet.I am amazed how much can be evoked by an image.I like to know how other people create xxx