All writers have their own paths to coming up with ideas for their books. Reflecting back on my experiences crafting The Black Velvet Coat I realize there were three separate passageways to receiving inspirations for my novel. Here I describe those ways with just a few examples.

IMG_044211. Through Intuition – Many of the scene seeds arrived while I was writing in community during a weekly writing group or day-retreat when given a word, phrase or picture as a prompt. I allowed my pen to go where it wanted and used my heart not my head to get the words down. I wrote all of my first drafts by hand and without an outline.

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2. In My Dreams – Vivid dreams that I couldn’t let go of inspired my book. I found a black velvet coat at a yard sale that I loved but passed on it. That night I dreamed about it and the next morning knocked on my neighbor’s door and bought it for $10. Later I dreamed about Anne, an artist, putting her hand in the pocket of the coat and pulling out a key. And then again much later, I dreamed about her using the key to enter an old building where it was obvious something scary had occurred with ominous red stains in the bathroom sink, a broken lamp and tawdry tossed satin sheets. I do my writing practice in the morning now so that I can continue to capture my dreams.

Anne's California Street Apartment

Anne’s Apartment

3. Subliminal Memories – As I continued to write my memories fell onto the page that I hadn’t thought about in years. I grew up in the early 60s and my parents used to go out to dances all dressed up; my mother in her white fox fur, sparkly jewelry, my father in his tux. Hitchcock films and TV shows such as Perry Mason crept into my writing with their noir detective scenes, mysterious handsome characters and twisting plots. My friend’s 1970s small apartment on California Street in San Francisco became Anne’s. My two summers studying at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff seeped into my scenes; driving through the Navajo nation with the upside-down basket hogans, the awe-inspiring Painted Desert, and terrifying real life flash flood. il_170x135.621655696_3uft

Julia Cameron’s small prayer from The Artist’s Way helped allow these spontaneous channels to guide me. “You take care of the quality. I’ll take care of the quantity.” Through practice I learned to trust myself to put the words onto the page without worrying if my writing was any good or if anyone would ever like it. My responsibility was to show up and get into the zone. It’s only when I’m there that I can tap into these inspirational techniques but I can’t take any of the credit for the outcome!

How does your own creativity come to you?