For the last two years, in late October and November I have found myself in project limbo. Having finished a revision on one manuscript, and waiting for feedback, and wondering what I should start working on next.

But this year, with the energy of our country in such a state of unrest, and my birthday falling on Election Day, I’ve been finding myself doing a lot more soul searching — about my work, my voice, what I really want to do next, now, in the distant future. 

Writing is a tool for me to explore more than commercial plot points & romantic happily ever afters. It has long been the place where I tell the honest truth — to myself & readers — through the voices of my characters. And it’s often a truth I don’t even recognize until I’ve learned it again alongside my own creations. 

Art is something that comes inherently from inside. It is often sparked by “out there” – a walk in the woods, a line of a poem, a news article, a mystery unsolved, a place, a time, a TV show, a song. But the end result of our own art is something unabashedly, utterly us. 

Impossible to manufacture or for anyone else recreate. 

On a Monday afternoon, with a whole new week ahead, I’m asking myself to look for the spark, and then listen to the story that I want to tell as it comes alive. 

What are some ways YOU seek the spark of a new idea?