Natural born writers catalog sensory data. They store emotional reactions and poignant bits of dialogue as events unfold around them. This happens out of no conscious effort on the writer’s part. It just happens. No matter how nightmarish the experience, no matter how spiritually elevating, how tender, or loving, or awe-inspiring, no matter how devastating or painful – writers record story details.
I enjoyed speaking in Tucson to the Saguaro Romance Authors. Eve Crook sent me a fun limerick for Pantsers.
Jules Verne paid a price to be a writer. What might he have accomplished had he turned his inventive genius to science instead of writing? I’ll bet you he would’ve been just as great.
We’ll never know.
We do know this — he inspired young people to become scientists, explorers, inventors and engineers. He dreamed possibilities, wrote them into fascinating stories, and others turned his visions into realities. Still, Jules Verne paid a price – the same price all great writers must pay. He gave his time and his heart to it.
Writers are often asked, “Where do your ideas come from?” Having studied the psychology of creativity in college, participated in research, taught creative theories in workshops and classrooms, etc, I could give you a list of technical answers that would include explanations about brainwaves, neural pathways, and early childhood development. But today, I decided to […]
