One of the fastest and easiest ways I know to get inspired and accumulate some pages is to read a book while writing. At the same time. Simultaneously. You read a little, put down the book, pick up a pen, and write a little. Repeat as necessary. That’s all there is to it.
Simple as long as you don’t read fiction when you’re writing it! That’s the first rule. You don’t want to copy anybody’s plot or characters or turns of phrase! The kind of reading I’m talking about research material, non-fiction. Biography. Philosophy. Psychology. New Thought. That’s what I read and then apply to my story.
Something I try to impress upon my students is that every single time direct words are taken from another source, stick in the quotation marks. I do it because it reminds me later that the words in my notebook enclosed in quotes are not my own. If historians would do this, there would be no plagairism dramas.
I use lots of quotations in my notebooks, and I always mark the book, page number, and author as well. But more than quotations, I like to read and then spark off an idea with my own take on how such an idea might affect my characters. I can read one line and write pages and pages of inspired prose (or so I believe at the time of first draft) just from a few words that set something off in me, a recognition that yes, this is what my character needs right now.
What I write has little or no resemblance to what I read. It’s a connection I have made in my head that maybe someone else who’s done the same research might catch, but probably not. I am working right now with a lot of universal laws that have been around since Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree. Most of this stuff comes under the heading of “general knowledge” and does not need attribution.
Not many actual word-for-word quotations make it to my final drafts. If they do, my character is reading the book or has read the book or in some way the book and author are mentioned along with the quoted piece. Still, if ever an idea came directly from one source, I mention the source, giving credit where it is due.
Books inspired me long before I ever thought of being a writer. Then, one day, they pushed me over the edge into wanting to write. Finally, in writing, I turn to them again for another kind of inspiration. For me, the reading and writing of books is at the center of the circle of a certain kind of life, my writing life.
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