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in the book! I hope I explain his ideas well when I tell you that I think his main point for all writers to grasp, new and old, is that all the material you need, your muse or whatever you call your data-bank from which to create new text is your own subconscious brain. Not in the library, in other books. Not the stuff you just read last week on the internet, or the stuff you read last year in a big, fat, expert text on your subject, but the stuff you learned and smelled and tasted and felt 10, or 20, or 40 years ago at your grandma's house, or on a t.v. show that scared the crap out of you when you were 7!

I agree with R.B. so much in knowing that the times when my brain seemed to use almost no effort at all and stuff just came flying out of my fingers into the keyboard, without stopping, sometimes for hours at a time, those were the times when I did my very best writing, and enjoyed it the most! There was little or no energy put into "What should I say next?" or "What would look good here?", it just produces itself.

Of course, we all, even the great ones, (a club of which I don't pretend to be a memeber, yet), must go back later and edit and slash and sometimes redo whole sections, but that first blob that comes out when writing in that almost automatic mode is usually pretty good. The stuff I write when I am trying too hard and not inspired and not letting my fingers do the walking, using too much brain, trying to be as natural as Stephen King or as smart about science as Robert J. Sawyer, is usually boring crap.

Just my wee opinion, but I have had some pretty impressive compliments on the stuff I write that crazy way, as opposed to the stuff I sweated over and squeezed out of my uncooperative brain. I think it's my best work and the scary part is, it took no work at all. Just play!

Learn more about this author, Kathleen Arnason.
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