Inspiration?

 Dictionary definitions of 'Inspiration'  vary, but run on the lines of a feeling of enthusiasm which stimulates new and creative ideas. 

It is a word almost inevitably applied to any kind of creative activity from art to literature. It's the necessary spark that sets the thing in motion and keeps it going. Writers - many of my acquaintance anyway - tend to get a bit sniffy though at the idea that it is a constant process. Authors do not in general sit around waiting for inspiration to strike, unable to work without it. You don't have to be in the mood - you just have to get on with it. 

That said, you do have to have a direction in which to travel. I've been bemoaning the fact that while I had an opening for Riviera 5 and have had it for some time, the book was refusing to go any further.  It didn't matter what I did with it - threats, promises, bribes, it was not having it. 

Then I had another idea - a stand alone, nothing to do with the Riviera, something set in  Wales and exploring a couple of threads that I'd had in mind for some time. Right then - probably time for something new, just for a change of pace. I've been researching, making notes, sorting out characters and timelines and generally doing the fun stuff that doesn't actually involve any writing. 

I was all set to make that my summer project. 

You can guess what happened next. Riviera 5 suddenly elbowed it's way back into the picture, jumping up and down and shouting  'Look at me! Look at me!' 

So now I am writing Rivera 5. Actually writing. It is a Christmas book - but it can't be for this Christmas as it should be with the publisher by now, but it is moving, so that's fine. The other book isn't going anywhere - I'll get to it, but I strongly suspect that it's existence was what took me back to the Riviera. 

I've said it before and I'll undoubtedly say it again - the human mind is a strange and complicated place.