I'm very aware that I haven't blogged for a long time - apologies for that. Rarely, for me, I haven't had a great deal to say. I've been at home for six weeks, recovering from an operation. Now, usually, I'm far less bored at home than I am when I'm at work, but on this occasion I haven't really been able to get out and do much. I wouldn't say I was bored, because I'm very good at amusing myself, but I am getting a little bit claustrophobic. It seems rather unfair that as soon as I've started feeling well enough to get out and about, I have to go back to work, though. I start again on Monday.

In the first week or so after my operation, I was feeling rather queasy, and reading made it worse. After that, I was simply struggling to concentrate, so I haven't been reading a great deal.

I have, however, been listening to quite a few audiobooks. I've always liked having someone read me a story, and there are lots of unabridged ones available now. There's something rather comforting about it, I think, and I also find it to be a great way of coping with insomnia. Could this be because my parents read to me when I was a child at bedtime, I wonder?

Either way, I've recently listened to The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, Elidor and The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen by Alan Garner, The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Oddly, these are all books I've read before, although admittedly I haven't read the Alan Garner or John Wyndham stories since I was a child, when I was obsessed with both authors. But I thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. Storytelling, after all, began as an oral tradition, and I think there is something in all of us that secretly likes to have a story read to them.

This is precisely why the BBC should never have axed Jackanory. Many parents don't read to their kids any more, and I'm sure there are many teachers in primary schools and so on who don't read to the class every day either. Jackanory (which, for non-British readers, was a BBC children's television programme in which an actor would read a story to children in instalments over the course of a week or so, with a slot during the after school programming that used to go out between about 4 - 5.30pm on weekdays) would probably be the only chance plenty of children get to listen to a story.

Although in reality, there are hundreds of television channels now, so they'd probably switch over to Nickelodeon and some horrible vacuous import like Hannah Montana. I honestly fear for today's children.

Anyway. I very much enjoyed my audiobooks, and I'm sure I'll be downloading more. It's funny, though - they have to be a certain kind of book, for me. Ghost stories, kids' stuff, perhaps a bit of sci-fi. I'd probably listen to, say, a Dorothy L Sayers whodunnit. But a lot of the books I read, I wouldn't dream of listening to as an audiobook.

Strange.

Now that I have finally rediscovered my ability to read for myself, I've almost finished reading Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason. Loving it so far - chilling, pacey and atmospheric.

Writing-wise... not achieved a huge amount. A few drabbles. The beginnings of two short stories, both horror.  And some key scenes from a novel I'm planning. But nothing major, and nothing complete. My brain's just not been in gear. But I am, at least, writing, which is better than not writing.

Ideas

I firmly believe that people who say, "I want to write a story, but I haven't got any ideas" do not really want to write a story. They just want to be someone who has written a story.

It's not uncommon to see posts on various writing forums for inexperienced writers in which people ask for story ideas. Not prompts - ideas. Usually, the question will be something like this:

"I have decided to write a children's book. What should it be about?"

"Does anyone have any great story plots? I really want to write a book and I have bought a new pen and a blank journal to write it in, so I am all set. But I don't know what to write about."

"I've decided to write a book for teenagers. The main character is a girl called Brooke with red hair and green eyes. She is clever and sarcastic but also a little vulnerable. What could happen to her?"

"What are some things that could happen in a book about vampires?"

"I'm a really good writer and I've decided that my career definitely lies in fiction. The only trouble is, I've got nothing to write about. What ideas could I use?"

and so on and so forth.

I confess to having limited patience, and after a while, I find these questions borderline insulting. If you don't have any stories to tell, you're not a writer, in my opinion. I know that sounds harsh, but really, there is inspiration everywhere. I honestly think that being able to find that inspiration is part of what makes a writer.

I keep a notebook full of ideas. I don't use them all, but I am diligent about writing down every idea I have that might possibly become a story in future. Just flicking through it now, there are ideas inspired by:

- a conversation I overheard
- a rather toxic individual I once knew
- a building that was near my home when I was a child
- films I've seen
- paintings and photographs from art galleries
- fairy tales
- a museum I visited with my parents
- entries in The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore
- articles from the newspaper
- articles from the Fortean Times
- a joke my boyfriend once made about a childhood fear of mine
- other books
- the Stone Tape theory
- a man I once sat next to on the London Underground

and that's just for starters. I'm not some sort of genius, so anybody else could easily find inspiration like this. Some of the ideas are simple - 'what if' type ideas, for instance. Some of them are complete plots. Some of them are nothing more than a setting, an atmosphere. But every single one of them is the germ of a story.

I am far from being any kind of genius, so if I'm capable of finding inspiration, then everyone else is. It just requires a little bit of curiosity and a little bit of 'lateral thinking' (yes, I hate the phrase 'lateral thinking' too, but come on, at least I didn't say 'thinking outside the box' or worse still, 'blue skies thinking'). And - shock, horror - a little bit of effort. I certainly don't just sit around and wait for ideas to come to me. I actively look for ideas all the time, and if the tiniest speck of an idea comes to me when I'm not looking for one, I write it down. Immediately. I carry my notebook, which is very small, in my bag all the time.

It doesn't take anyone special to do this. You don't have to be a writer to come up with ideas. But you absolutely do have to come up with ideas to be a writer.