So, you get an idea for a novel or short story. What do you do with it? How do you transform your idea from that thought bubble in your head into something shapely and solid that can appear on the page?
I’m not quite sure where my ideas come from. They seem to pop into my head as if out of nowhere. But when they do, they’re usually no more than a morsel. The small kernel of an idea, with much nurturing to be done to make anything substantial of them.
The most effective thing I can do to grow that idea is to just start to write. Nowadays, this tends to be my fingers tapping away on a laptop keyboard, although previously it has been ink on paper, or even banging away at a typewriter. The very act of writing itself seems to engage a part of my brain simply ‘thinking’ does not do. Although I’ll admit that I’ve often wanted access to some kind of sci-fi gadget which I can plug into my brain to enable the thoughts and words contained therein to be transferred directly to Google Docs. (And I mean, it’s only a matter of time until that becomes a reality, right?)
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