Words can take us to any place and any time. I was delighted to discover words I wrote in my notebook during a summer holiday in Devon. My thoughts were scattered on the page, so I picked them up, revisited my photo album and returned to a time when I suffered a creative drought.
The heat stifled ideas and frazzled my creativity. I complained the holiday cottage was too dark for me to write. After a few days, I worried my ideas had taken leave. I blamed the environment because small windows trapped the darkness in the room, and I seemed to have reached a dead end with the story.
Entering A la Ronde, created by Jane and Mary Parminter, confirmed that the correct environment is essential. My creativity opened again as soon as I wandered around the eighteenth century house. I found the ideal house for an author. Imagine a sixteen-sided house that allows you to follow the light around the house. Perfect!
In this house, I would be able to chase my ideas around and around in circles until I found the correct room to write. Ideas travel around like the wheels of a windmill until I get them on paper and stop them circling. Sometimes, I release ideas too early and they must be abandoned. For me, the thrill of chasing ideas is the most exciting element of the writing process.
At Greenway House, Agatha Christie’s holiday home, I found out that she also enjoyed chasing ideas for her stories. She spent time listening to conversations in hotels, researching and plotting. She delighted in the process of developing her narratives but didn’t look forward to ‘sitting down and writing the darn thing’. Exploration of the garden of Greenway House did give my ideas more room to develop. Sitting in Agatha Christie’s room, I met the anti-hero in my novel.
Since confessing my frustrations to my notebook, I have completed my second novel, Loving You (working title). I am using feedback from the RNA New Writers’ Scheme to control the ideas I chased across the page during a heatwave in Devon. My RNA reader is currently sitting on my shoulder, shaking her head occasionally and pushing me to challenge my characters.
I have learned to move around the house in search of inspiration because working in one room inhibited my ideas. Moreover, I just need to get on and ‘write the darn thing’ and accept there will be times of frustration and many, many drafts of the novel.
Please see all my Handbag Adventures and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.
A copy of my novel is available here.