Taking a walk always calms me down and helps me to clear my mind. When I think too hard about how a story should be working or what a character should be doing/saying, then I've inserted myself too deeply and it becomes about what I think, and not about the story or the character. So, I get up and take a walk and loosen my grip on everything.
This weekend I was being driving mad by too much TALKING!! Everyone has so much to say. I was jangled by all of it until I started thinking about it in terms of a story. How could I make a character disappear or lose herself completely in the face of all the talking around her? It's almost always people that fuel my creativity--what someone says, does, how someone looks, walks, how we attempt to relate to one other--that fuels me. I'm fascinated by people. If the sky is full of lightening, I'm more likely to be watching the people watching the lightening than watching the sky.
I was never a 'favorites' person, except for Mikhail Baryshnikov who was my favorite dancer, artist, celebrity, person. I go through periods where I want to read all of The Dubliners again and again. I read anything of Alice Munro, all the NYer stories. I loved Gone Girl. Recently, I reread The Death of Ivan Ilych. Whatever I need at the time.
No one has written on Joann smith's wall.
No one has written on Joann smith's wall.