Thread by @garius

Literally anything.

I've written stories that sprung from a smell, or the sting in a piece of music, or just a throwaway line someone said on a bus.

I've basically never been able to stop my imagination going off on one once triggered.

Turned out that was a feature, not a bug.

https://twitter.com/kfoxx_writes/status/1450079967983796224

I've also found this is why I rarely write in a linear fashion. I tend to have a very rough timeline of events, and then over time scenes within that just get written as the right emotional mood hits me, or a smell triggers me etc. etc.

Then BOSH. 2000 more words done.

Also means I'm hugely wasteful as a writer. I end up throwing away a LOT when the full story starts to emerge and suddenly 'scenes' don't fit.

Which is agonising enough in the short story format. I'm discovering it's utterly traumatising (but necessary) in the novel process.

E.g I couldn't have written the first draft of this 'scene' anywhere other than while sitting in a pub in the rain, on a weekday, watching London go about its business.

Been tweaked a lot since. But it only popped into my head because I felt it.

https://twitter.com/garius/status/1448648590969110532

Then I realised it fit that particular character, her thoughts and her motivations. Thus it became part of her story.

Whether it survives to the final version of the manuscript remains to be seen.

Guess the 'lesson' such as there is from this (Which is only for me. Every writer is different.) is I realised a long time ago that what I needed on my mental post it note at all times was:

"If you feel it. WRITE IT. NOW. Worry about where it goes, and making it better, later."