The other day, I was procrastinating-cum-researching and I stumbled across a figure. I know only a little bit about her, but I suddenly had the thought: this is the subject of my next novel.
At my friend Dorothy’s insistence, I sent myself an email about it, and I requested a book from the library. Then I went back to revising my current novel.
Where does inspiration come from?
The idea I’m working on now is so original and strong—I want to follow it up with something special. The idea I’m working on now came to me first about 1994. I was too scared to begin it then; I knew too little about the subject, and the approach was daring, maybe even shocking. I don’t want to incubate my next idea for such a long time. I want the courage to begin.
I have a few drafts of other things hanging around—not in the proverbial drawers but in today’s equivalent: old computer files. I worked hard, though, for the courage to let go, to move on.
I’ve been asking myself about what my next novel would be. And this leads me to the third and most vital courage for the writer, each and every step of the process: the courage to ask questions whose answers you don’t know.
By virtue of asking myself what my next novel might tackle, answers are beginning to surface in the world around me. I’m not looking too hard at any of them right now; I’m just letting them percolate, letting the heat gather and rise. It is by asking ourselves questions whose answers we do not know that the answers emerge. But that is scary—as scary as facing the blank page. It is the heart of writing, and it takes . . . a lot of courage.
Elizabeth Stark is the author of the novel Shy Girl (FSG, Seal Press) and co-director and co-writer of several short films, including FtF: Female to Femme and Little Mutinies (both distributed by Frameline). She earned an M.F.A. from Columbia University in Creative Writing. Currently the lead mentor and teacher at the Book Writing World, she’s taught writing and literature at UCSC, Pratt Institute, the Peralta Colleges, Hobart & William Smith Colleges and St. Mary’s College. She’s at work on a novel about Kafka.