Flash of Inspiration

Do you believe that you ever have a “Flash of Inspiration?” I love the phrase but I’m not so sure that I believe. In the time since I committed to writing a book for kids, I’ve focused on reading more of that genre and also started reading a book on how to structure and write a Classic Mystery Novel. Now technically I won’t be writing a classic murder mystery, and in fact I’ve been horrified by the books I’ve read for kids that involve death and destruction, but I’ve learned a lot by reading the “how to” book.

Last week it came to me, my “Flash of Inspiration” or whatever you want to call it. The idea for my book world gelled. The names and personalities of most of the characters came clear in my head. Hours and hours of thinking about it, trying out different scenarios in my head, and now I’ve written it down. All the basics of my world. A world that I can picture in my head, every little detail. It’s quite fantastic.

The reason that I have trouble believing that it was a “Flash” is that to me flash denotes sudden, lazy, popping up in your bed at night saying “I got it!!!” However, this book idea is one that I’ve nurtured, with many hours of active thinking time. I do believe that art takes hard word. People will turn around and comment on how talented you are as they take a 30 second glance at a piece that took weeks to finish. That’s not fair. Because it’s not talent. It’s the weeks that went into it, and indeed the years of work before that. My book will not be just something that I’ve written in the space of weeks. I know it’s going to be a long process. I’ve started writing the world down, and possible plot elements. I only now have the first scene set in my head. I’ll begin to write that down soon. I look forward to seeing what will happen in my new world!