Gail Anderson-Dargatz  

Resources for Writers

On Finding Your Big Idea

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As you’ve already likely experienced, inspiration happens when you press your mind into service, and then step away to do some mindless, routine task. That’s when your best ideas will be generated. So, if you've worked hard, done the research, pressed your mind into service and you hit a wall, my advice is: go procrastinate. I'm quite serious about this.

I remember reading about the locations where the biggest scientific discoveries were made: the bed, the bathroom and on the bus. After a scientist had pushed and pushed to reach a solution, the answer manifested when she was mindless, about to snooze, having a bath or in a trance on the bus. The same principal holds true for writing. Do the research, do the thinking, then step back and relax. It’s in our restful, mindful state where the best ideas surface.

I don't spend all my writing days cloistered in my office. I do my best writing as I take walks, do the dishes or work in the garden. I get my best ideas, lines, whole paragraphs, and sometimes whole sections, word for word, when I’m doing some physical, repetitive, and mindless.

So, if I run into a roadblock while I’m writing in my office, I’ll get up and go for a walk. Sometimes just getting up does the trick and I just make it out the door when the eureka! moment strikes, and I run back to my office to write.

I've had students comment that what keeps them working towards the end of their project is the challenge of finishing the damn thing. That kind of "stick-to-it-ness" is commendable. But what will really carry you through to the end is fun: a sense of play, a sense of discovery, the thrill, and the mystery of this process you're engaged in. In my experience, "discipline" backfires: my subconscious, at least, is a toddler that does not like to be told what to do.

So, research, interview, experience, sit down to write. Write every day until it becomes habit. Once you’re there, writing will flow so much more easily. Then step back and do something mindless and the ideas will be there for you. And most of all, make writing fun, not work. Play!

Resource Categories

Blogs on Craft

On the Building Blocks of Fiction

Tips on how to craft vivid scene that allows the reader to experience events right along with the characters.

On Finding Your Big Idea

Insights into the writing process and what a writer's day really looks like, as well as perspectives on research and writing from real life.

On Getting to Know Your Characters

Advice on the many ways you can make your characters come alive on the page for both you and your reader.

On Deciding on Point of View

What is the best perspective from which to tell your story? Writers discuss how they made choices on point of view and voice.

On Choosing Your Situation and Setting

Writers talk about how they use situation and setting to build story and convey emotion.

On Developing Conflict and Structure

From how to work in different genres to finding the real story, writers offer good advice on building conflict and structure.

On Revising

Tips on how to gain distance from your work and to how to re-imagine your next draft.

On Publishing

Writers offer practical advice on the business of writing and promotion, and on the importance of finding a writing community.

On Making a Living as a Writer

Writers offer words of wisdom on living on less.

On The Writer's Life

Writers talk about their life as a writer.

About Gail

Gail's novels have been national and international bestsellers and two have been short-listed for the Giller Prize, among other awards. She works with writers from around the world on her online teaching forums.