Lisa Young

Where do ideas come from? Woody Allen apparently has a million ideas coming to him 24/7. If one idea gets some feet and starts running – well, he has a screenplay in no time. Ideas must be lining up right outside his brain waiting to get in and get their chance.

I’ve never been one to buy into that whole “what if” exercise – the famous writer’s tool.“What if” never yields a thing for me. But it’s been a while since I tried – so let’s see. A Brainstorming Session of “What Ifs”: What if the floor lamp keeled over and the bulb busted and glass went everywhere? I’d have to get up and clean it and I’d probably end up going to bed as soon as I was done cleaning up.What if time stopped? I’d be stuck living a Monday night for the rest of my life.What if this house started growing and an attic appeared and I went up into it and found a world where everything was just as I wanted it?What if sports were banned? What if TV were banned? What if it were illegal to go to a movie? People would start ma…

NovelistHeather J. Wood shares the benefits of limitations...
One often thinks of creativity in terms of the blank canvas or the blank page—i.e. the freedom to be able to write about anything one's imagination can conjure up. Some writers chafe at the thought of restrictions. Yet, having set limitations can also be an immense source of creativity. For myself, at least, boundaries have allowed me to go in unexpected directions.
I would not have imagined myself writing a teen-oriented novel involving roller derby. In fact, I would have thought the idea was ludicrous a few years ago. Yet when I was offered the opportunity to write "something about roller derby", which eventually turned into my recent book, Roll With It, I was given a wonderful creative gift. The project turned out to a liberating rather than a restricting experience.
For one thing, I wasn’t worried about being "literary", so I felt free to write more naturally and authentically. The roller derby…