The next extract from Life-Writes: Where do writers get their ideas from?

On Your Own Patch

To become a truly creative writer we have to start to notice and register the world around us from different angles and perspectives. It may be that our own particular patch has become so familiar that we no longer register what is going on there on a day-to-day basis. Make time to walk a familiar route and take notice of:

• what is growing in front gardens;

• new building developments;

• people standing at the bus stop;

• trees in the park;

• changes in shop window displays

Make a conscious effort to register these gradual changes as flowers begin to bloom; the buildings near completion; different people stand at the bus stop at certain times of the day; the trees in the

park altering their appearance through the seasons; and window displays rarely remain the same for very long.

Think about where you live now. Is it the same place where you grew up? If so, how has it changed?  For better or worse? Did you move away from your childhood or teenage stomping ground? Try to define the differences. What we need to remember, of course, is that memory is deceitful and illusionary, so what we think we can recall, may be almost as fictional as the novel we’re trying to write. How many times have you argued with an old friend or sibling over the way you both remember things from the past.

Train yourself to become more observant about the common everyday things that go on around you. Recall to mind the words of William Henry Davies’s Leisure:

“What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?”

As writers, we owe it to ourselves to make time to stand and stare; even if it’s only to study the dress code, mannerisms and body language of fellow travellers on the subway, train or bus to work.

REMEMBER:  Always be on the look-out for useable ideas

Handy Hint:

Always keep a small notepad handy for jotting ‘things’

down. Ideally have a couple on the go that fit easily into a

bag or pocket. Don’t delay in making a note of snippets of

conversation, ideas for future investigation or character

sketches – we think we can recall them later but we lose

that spontaneous reaction and the ‘thing’ becomes stale.