Another question I hear a lot – asked of other authors, though only a few people have asked me – is Where do you get your ideas?
I love hearing the answer to this question. VE Schwab says it is everywhere. From anything. It is a giant puzzle and all the pieces fit together. The pieces could come from anywhere. Mary Sharratt said she got her idea for her latest book from a class she was taking. Score another point for lifelong learning. I’ve heard authors say they got their ideas (and even material) from searching through archives, digging through old letters, something they found in an antique store, a chance comment by a tour guide. So many ways.
I have been listening to a writing coach, Caroline Donahue, for just over a year now. She started doing Instagram Lives when lockdown started. She called it #QuarantineWritingRetreat, and at first she was doing them daily. Then after 12 weeks (!), she switched to weekly. She has only now, at the start of April, taken a month off to work on her own novel. And she has taught me this: she says that once you get one idea, others start coming. They crowd in. And soon, you have many ideas.
This makes it easier to perhaps abandon an idea that isn’t working out, to put something on the back burner if you are stuck, or to use material you have for another project. But it is also a time to be careful. Be careful of not chasing the Shiny New Idea. Okay, but that’s another post.
Anyway, she is right. I have another idea now. But how did I get this first idea? Well, I’ll tell you.
I was suffering a severe depression. I didn’t know it at the time. But I spent a lot of days on my couch. My husband was working nights, so I had to be quiet during the day while he slept. On Saturdays, I would watch PBS. Cooking shows in the morning, and cultural shows in the afternoon. I think we didn’t yet have Netflix then.
One day, I was watching a show called Sacred Wonders of Britain. It was fascinating. They talked about many cathedrals, of course, but that wasn’t what I was interested in. I have always been fascinated by ancient sacred sites. In one episode, they went to a place in Orkney called the Ness of Brodgar, a Neolithic temple complex on a spit of land between two lochs.
The host, Neil Oliver, said to the site manager, Nick Card (whom I have since MET), “What do you think was going on here?” And Nick said, “Probably some kind of ceremonial or ritual space.” Neil said, “So there was a mystic of Orkney?”
I jumped off my couch. I danced around the room. I knew – I KNEW – that I had my story. I wanted to people that temple complex and tell that story. My title is still The Mystic of Orkney, though that may change. And he still doesn’t have any other name. I suppose I will thank Neil Oliver in my acknowledgements. I will definitely thank Nick Card, whom I met briefly at a talk in Kirkwall at the end of the 2017 season. Yes, I was so obsessed, I actually went to Orkney the following year. And I’m so glad I did.
My idea hit me like a bolt out of the blue. And it is still lodged firmly in my brain. Other ideas have since been seeking my attention, and we’ll get to them soon. It took me about a year to write my first draft. And as you can tell, there are still many changes to be made. That’s where you come in.