When writers talk about where their ideas come from, the answers are as varied as wildflowers: they write about what keeps them up at night, or they ask “what if?” or they explore topics that leave them full of questions without answers.
In the case of Erin Rose Belair, she writes about the ghosts she’s made peace with. She describes this feeling in her essay for Glimmer Train:
I used to think stories had to come from some higher order, some grand tale. But I only started writing stories when I learned how to make peace with those ghosts, when I learned how to listen to what I was already telling myself.
Read Belair’s full essay, and also take a look at these other features this month at Glimmer Train:
- The SNCF by Karen Malley
- Accidental Bonsai by Lisa Graley
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
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My writing has to come from the ideas that won’t leave me alone, the stuff that I must write simply because I can’t NOT write it. This is especially true in the case of a novel, where I’m going to spend at least a year living with the thing. If it’s easy to dismiss, I probably will, and my readers should probably be grateful.
Great post Jane, I agree with you Michael LaRocca about writing things that never leave you, i write about them too, it’s very powerful. The piece of work shines, it’s as if it’s happy to be out there and I was feel much better after it. Soul soothing!