Invaluable Writing Tips: Writer’s Puzzle Board

As a writer, I’m frequently asked a particular series of questions which include things such as when I first fell in love with writing, which famous authors I most admire, and, most often, where I find inspiration for my stories. The answer to all these questions and many more like them is, quite simply, “I dunno”. At least, that’s how I escape taking the time to really think about it. Quite a few of us writers are experts at avoidance and procrastination, you know. It’s good to have skills, right?

However, for those wondering where I and other writers like me really find our inspiration, the actual answer is far more complicated than my avoidance tactic might make it seem. In fact, it is difficult to answer that I have used the “I dunno” cop-out more often than not when posed this question. It’s just easier than describing how I pluck ideas from the ether or squeeze them from fairies or-

Or I could simply take the time to think about it and give you, dear reader, the answer you deserve.

Let’s pretend you are a writer. Heck, you might actually be a writer! Either way, imagine a giant empty puzzle board floating above your head. This is representative of your story. As a writer, you have an innate desire to fill that board with all the right pieces. Unfortunately, the pieces aren’t right in front of you. Well, not all of them, at least. You have a few and, wow, aren’t they pretty? Such vibrant colours that promise to connect to other equally beautiful pieces to form a picture; the perfect picture. The picture that is tugging at your mind, desperate to be put on display. But where are those silly pieces?

You go about your day, dear reader come writer, anxiously searching high and low for puzzle pieces to satiate your puzzle connecting needs. You look everywhere, the need to click piece to piece to piece all but consuming your attention. Your friends notice. Your family kvetches. They want to know where your head is. They want to know what’s caught your attention. It’s that dratted empty puzzle board, you tell them, and those few pieces that look similar, but don’t fit together. You can’t stop thinking of those pieces! You have to fill that board! 

A few might understand. The rest kindly call you eccentric. Well, aren’t you?

Sometimes, during your day, you spy errant puzzle pieces hiding in plain sight. Some are attached to people, others to objects, and more still to the words that come from the mouths of the unsuspecting. You can even be one of those unsuspecting piece bearers! Who knows what piece might spring from your lips in casual conversation?

We find our puzzle piece lurking in the shadows of dreams, in the horror of the nightly news, in fuzzy recollections of days past, and even hidden within the movies or television shows we watch. Everything we see and hear, touch or taste, and smell is story fodder. You might want to warn those around you, budding writer, that they or their words might make an appearance on one of your puzzle pieces. Nothing is sacred. Quite literally everything with which we come into contact has the potential to be a puzzle piece. 

But here’s the rub; the puzzle pieces you find might not be for the empty puzzle board currently floating over your head. Oops. Now you have two boards. Ack! There’s a third! As a writer, you can’t help but hoard those pieces, shifting them around on their individual boards until one day…CLICK.

It all comes together!

Now you are walking around with a full board, its colours vibrant and begging to be shown off. Do it. Do the thing! Show off that board! You are the puzzle master!…of one complete board and two or three or four unfinished boards. Oops again. Better keep hunting for more pieces!

For a lucky few, their puzzle boards appear full or mostly so. That’s pretty rare, to be honest. Most of us walk around with three or four and sometimes far more mostly empty or partially filled puzzle boards floating above our heads. The need to fill them is constant and the world around us provides the pieces we need to do just that. All we have to do is keep our eyes and ears (and our minds, of course) open to literally everyone and everything because who knows? The piece we need could be right in front of us waiting to be plucked and clicked into place.

Now that you know where we writers find our inspiration, I have a question or two for you; where do you find your inspiration? Look up. Is there an actual puzzle board magically floating around your head? Probably not, but I guarantee there is an imaginary one following you about, waiting to be filled. You see, whether or not you are a writer right now, you have the potential to be. Don’t worry about how good you are. We have editors for a reason! Certainly, don’t fret about where your ideas will come from. It’s easy. Just look around. There are pieces of stories all around us. Just pay attention and, when you spot a piece, hoard it until you have enough pieces to complete your own puzzle. The real question is whether or not you choose to put it together. I hope you do.

—

A few years ago, Rachel discovered her love of killing people… in books. She has received several requests from friends and family to be murdered within the pages of one of her novels and thoroughly enjoys indulging them. She completed her first two pandemic novels, The Cull and its sequel The Gleaning (2017/2018) long before a real pandemic spread across the globe. She is currently writing the final (maybe) installment.

THE GLEANING

It’s been less than a month since the most catastrophic pandemic in recorded history decimated the world’s population. Survivors are beginning to pick up the pieces of their lives while navigating their horrific new world. The infected are still roaming the streets, ripping apart those unlucky enough to cross their paths, but something has changed. They are not dying as quickly as they had when the virus was first released. In an Us versus Them world, survivors swiftly learn that it is not the infected or even the virus they should fear the most, but those most like themselves. Tess and Henry have picked up a passenger with a dangerous secret while, less than a mile away, Bunmi resolves to do all she can to create a vaccine.

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: How To and Tips