Looking for Inspiration? Writers are often asked where they get their inspiration from. For me it’s very easy. I don’t go looking for inspiration - it seems to find me. I’m naturally inquisitive and it doesn’t take much to trigger my imagination. What if, why are they doing that, when did that happen…are all questions that regularly pop into my head. I’m one of life’s great nosey parkers – and when there is no obvious answer, I’ll make something up. The perfect life skills for writing fiction!
My debut novel The Theatre of Dreams follows of the adventures of a devious octogenarian who is determined to save her family’s neglected seaside pavilion from a ruthless property developer and see it restored to its former glory. She recruits a young actress to play a part in an elaborate plot of deception and intrigue. There’s a love interest thrown in from a handsome building conservationist, and the mystery of a past family tragedy to solve. So, where did the initial idea come from?
The answer is a building. While taking a stroll along the seafront at Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire, I noticed a sign commemorating the site of a vast art deco entertainment complex, the Lee Tower, which had stood on the esplanade for less than forty years before being demolished by the local council. I immediately wondered why the building hadn’t been saved, why hadn’t the community rallied round? Of course, I later looked it up and discovered the building had been a complete white elephant, far too ambitious a design to make money for its owners, but by then it was too late. I’d already come up with my own version of events, which was far more interesting and entertaining! When I wrote the story I wanted to keep the plot surreal; my pavilion owner concocts a totally hairbrained scheme to save her building, which of course wouldn’t happen in real life, but that’s why we read (and why I write) to escape from our ordinary lives and into someone else’s!
