Ideas for Writing from Everyday Life

While I was out and about this weekend, keeping my eyes and ears open for things to write about, a couple of buses caught my eye.

The first was a modern bus which appeared to have no passengers. What particularly captured my attention was the LCD display on the front of the bus which usually shows the route number and destination.

It contained only one word followed by a comma:

Sorry,

I assume that there should have been another screen to follow which would explain why the bus company was sorry. Sorry, bus driver in training. Sorry out of service. Sorry, contract only.

But instead there was just that hiccupping apology and we could only use our imagination to fill in the reasons for it.

It struck me as a great hook for a story. You could do all sorts of things with that one word as part of an unfinished message.

What could it be from? A 'Dear John' farewell letter? A letter to an estranged friend? A suicide note? The possibilities are intriguing, but it's the very incompleteness of the message that makes it so tantalizing.

The other bus I saw was a very old one, a vintage one, possibly - I'm sure you know the sort I mean, with a separate cab for the driver and a platform open to the elements. How many of us used to jump on and off a platform like that when we were in a hurry to get to school?

This bus had something on it that you don't usually see on public transport - two white ribbons adorned the front, like the ones you get on wedding cars.

That opens up lots of possibilities for a story too. Could the story be about a couple who met on a bus or worked on buses? Was the bus taking the happy couple to the church? If so, then they must be quite unconventional characters? Or was it taking them off on their honeymoon? Perhaps it could have a 'Just married' sign and and a pair of old boots trailing from the back?

See what you can do with either of these buses. And don't forget to tell me if you manage to write something fantastic based on this exercise.

The Pink Wafer Effect

When you're growing a plant or a flower, you can get it off to a good start with a well-dug bed of top quality soil; you can keep away bugs; you can encourage it to flourish by giving it plenty of water and regular doses of Miracle Gro; but apart from 'forcing' it to mature earlier with a bit of hothousing, you can't actually make it grow.

I know the Prince of Wales is meant to encourage his plants to grow by talking to them, but as far as I know, he doesn't actually say, 'Come on, you little blighters, grow, or else!'

Plants have their own natural growing pattern. You can provide them with optimum conditions, love, care and conversation, perhaps even a little Reiki, but sitting agonizing over them, harrassing them, bullying them, is not going to make them grow the slightest bit faster.

Creativity's a bit like that. Last night, in my class, we were discussing how the writers and co-creators of the Life on Mars TV series came up with the idea for the show and went about writing it. There is a very interesting section in The Official Companion in which the four writers, Matthew Graham, Ashley Pharoah, Tony Jordan, and Chris Chibnall discuss the process of bringing the series to fruition.

One of the things that amazed the students was the fact that the three co-creators went off for a weekend in Blackpool to come up with ideas for television series. OK, so they did hire a small conference room and spend time in it bandying about ideas. But they also got out and about on the Pleasure Beach and spent lots of time playing.

To my adult learners, who in their day jobs are confined to an office from nine to five (or longer) five days a week, it was unthinkable that people who have a limited time together to come up with ideas for a deadline would waste time on playing.

So many beginning writers are used to squeezing their creativity into the odd hour or two that they manage to create for themselves among the obligations of job, family, household chores, tax returns, you name it. You mean some people actually go off and have fun!

I remember that in the American TV series, Thirtysomething, the two ad men, Michael and Elliot, worked in an agency which had basketball nets so they could relax their minds by playing, and thus give themselves space to come up with creative ideas.

One of my students works for an advertising agency, and confirmed that even on our side of the Pond, you do find that sort of thing in creative working environments. One of the companies he worked for even had Playstations in their offices.

To someone who works in local government or education or business, having time to 'waste' like that is just unthinkable. There are targets to be met, schedules to adhere to, timesheets to fill in - in some firms, every minute has to be logged and accounted for.

Of course, even creative people have to meet deadlines and fit in with other people's agendas. But giving your employees, giving yourself, time and space to play, to freewheel, is not time wasted. It's during that 'down time', when you're relaxed, that the 'aha' moments come.

So what are we writers to do? Install a basketball net in our front room so we can have a quick slam dunk? I don't think it would work for me. Ball games were never my strength and I can't say I ever found them relaxing, even when I was young.

But yesterday, while I was waiting for the kettle to boil, I did put on a CD and practise some of the belly dancing moves I'd been learning in my Arabic dance class. It must have made my brain more flexible as well as my waist, for once I went back upstairs to the computer to carry on with my web design work, I managed to solve with ease a Dreamweaver problem that I'd been struggling with all week.

Other times, if I can't think what to write, I'll sit and play the piano for a while. My friend who writes science books has a glass of wine and strums on his guitar. Another has candle-lit baths when she just can't find any inspiration for her romantic novels. And many writers go for a gentle walk when they find themselves at an impasse.

I don't think it really matters what you do. It can be anything you find relaxing, just as long as it gives you some breathing space and takes away from you the pressure to create, just for a few minutes.

It's like trying to remember something that you know when you just can't think of it, somebody's name perhaps. If you keep on and on trying to remember it, you'll stay stuck. But if you stop trying to force yourself to remember, and get on with something else, the missing information will suddenly pop into your head when you least expect it.

There's a telling example of this in episode 1 of the first series of Life on Mars. The detectives are trying to get an elderly lady to remember why she'd come into the station to make a complaint. The more Sam Tyler (with his modern, pressurized policing methods) tries to coerce the woman into remembering, the more flustered and useless she becomes. Then eventually Gene Hunt chips in with 'Pink wafers! I love pink wafers, don't you?'

Immediately the old lady relaxes, and after a genial chat and a few extra biscuits, she is able to produce the information the cops are after, vital information which leads them to the murderer. It's a priceless scene, very funny, but also psychologically true.

So if you're struggling with your writing and the Muse appears to have left you, don't beat yourself up about it. Go and practise your belly dancing, play an instrument, talk about pink wafers. Give yourself the space to play and before you know it, you'll soon be back in the creative flow.

The Box of Delights or 'All the World's a Prompt'

'What on earth shall I write about today?' is a question that's on the lips of every writer at one time or another. For lots of us, it isn't the actual writing that's the problem. Once we know what we're going to write about, we're off. It's finding something to write about in the first place.

That's why I created my secret weapon that I use for my class and my workshops - the Box of Delights.

My Box of Delights is a brown suede covered box, 18cm deep, with an oval lid, roughly 26cm by 19cm. It's the sort of box that would be used for a very large and very expensive box of chocolates.

To make mine extra special, I tie it up with a really swish shocking pink ribbon and finish it off with a big bow, so that it looks like a very classy gift - which is what it is really. For every time I take it out and use it with a group, I'm giving those writers the gift of imagination.

As with any present, anticipation is half the fun, so I wait as long as possible before I unwrap the box and reveal its contents.

I take out the box, place it on the table and tell the group I've brought them something special. Of course, everyone is intrigued and wants to know what's in it, but they don't get to find out straight away. First, I pass round the unopened box and let people feel how heavy it is, shake it, stroke the suede.

Then when everybody has had a chance to touch it, I ask for a volunteer to unwrap the ribbon, and another to take off the lid. By this time, everyone is really keen to know what's inside.

Next someone takes out the items one by one, tells the group what they are, and passes them round for everyone to see and handle. The handling bit is important. I find that people often react differently to objects if they can actually take them in their hands and hold them.

So what sort of thing does the Box of Delight contain? The great thing is that it can be different every time. Here's what's in it today:

* a peacock feather
* a relaxation tape
* key ring with an enamel camel
* a cross stitch bookmark decorated with flowers
* a red felt heart (Christmas tree decoration)
* a postcard with a picture of a young woman and the caption 'Ideas Above Our Station'
* a flyer for a mobile DIY service
* a wooden box with a wriggling toy insect inside
* an orange retractable tape measure (inch tape)
* a string of gold beads
* a little BBC book called 'Finish This...End of Story'
* a miniature framed picture
* a stopwatch
* a wooden turtle ornament
* a tiny medal on a ribbon
* a brochure for the Scotland Street School museum in Glasgow
* the Collins Gem book of Musical Instruments
* a red glass slipper Christmas tree decoration
* a sachet of Jasmine flavoured green tea
* a pottery brighly-painted mask (made by my son at primary school)
* a tub of tuning slide grease for trombones
* a padlock
* a tape measure
* a card advertising Salsa Fusion classes
* a golf ball
* a tiny toy army tank
* a ring pouch containing a guardian angel lapel pin
* a train timetable (Huddersfield-Wakefield-London)
* a miniature toy gun
* a photograph of a couple dancing the tango in a cobbled street
* a fridge magnet of an Irish gypsy caravan
* a fighter plane key ring
* a tiny treasure chest with 'Keep Out' written on the top

Once the contents have been revealed, each person chooses one or more items to write about there and then for an agreed time, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes. Then everybody reads out loud what they've written.

So where did I find all this stuff? Mostly, I just used items I had lying around the house. My 13-year old son has outgrown his toys, so I raided his drawer for some of the key rings and little novelties. Others were things that came through the door, like the DIY flyer, or odds and ends I had on my fridge door or in my handbag. It didn't cost me a penny.

The great thing about using the Box of Delights is that everybody responds to it differently. People don't always choose the things you think they will go for, like the pretty peacock feather or the glass slipper. They sometimes go for the most unlikely items.

The first time I used the Box, I was amazed that my students' choices included the train timetable, the trombone slide grease, and the green tea bag! But they managed to write some very entertaining stories as a result.

The Box of Delights proved really popular with my class. The ritual of opening the beautiful ribbon-tied box and unwrapping the contents turned a simple writing exercise into a special occasion. Some class members discussed the experience in their writing diaries or when they were reviewing their progress as writers, and said how much they'd enjoyed it.

It's something that you can easily make for yourself, using a brightly coloured hat box or even an old shoe box decorated with coloured card and stickers - making it can be part of the fun.

Or if you don't want to collect objects, you could compile a list instead. One of my students said she would prefer to make a list for her own use, as she felt she would have quite a limited range of things to choose from in her own home.

You and a fellow writer could even make up a box or a list and swap with each other, which would provide you with the element of surprise and open up your imaginative horizons.

Let me know if you decide to make your own Box of Delights and how you get on with it. Or tell me about any interesting objects you or your students have written about.

Meanwhile, whether you're writing or not, I hope your day brings you some lovely surprises.