Gold versus Chicken

The above photo might be about a year old by now but I think it is a good representation of what I look like right now: unkempt hair, scruffy pjs on, twiddling a pen around and around in my fingers, and sighing every two minutes or so.

I'd argue that the frustration is well-warranted: I went to all the trouble of watching my collection of TikToks That Make Me Sad in order to inspire me and get my creative juices a-flowing, but instead of writing reams of emotionally devastating prose, I am instead looking forlornly at my keyboard, wishing I had not watched that last sad Wanda edit...

I am now a tangled ball of feelings but with no needle to direct my thoughts into a beautiful tapestry.

So here! Have this crap instead!

Gold Versus Chicken

(However ironic it might be that I'm writing a quick post about inspiration while unable to write anything particularly inspiring, I wanted to keep somewhat of an order with this series of posts.)

So around a week ago I released a post called the Alex Turner Method that outlined my own personal method of writing stories (in particular fiction, prose novels.) I thought some people might find it mildly interesting but I didn't want to weigh down the post with too much information so I plan on doing a series that dives into some of the steps in more details. And up first?

Nuggets!

My first step is to collect some nuggets. These are little sparks of ideas or a collection of shiny, inspiring paraphernalia that gets you out of bed at 4am to find a notepad to write it all down. For instance, right now I am listening to Solas by Jamie Duffy on repeat in the hopes that I can write something just as magical as that piece of music (I'll keep you updated on how that goes.) 

But really a nugget can be anything! Sometimes they are beautiful. A candle in the darkness of your room, flickering and warm and tempting. It's dazzling and golden. A golden nugget. These are your Solas's and your angsty Wanda edits. 

And then there's your chatting with your friends around the school lunch table when one of them casually starts talking about "three teddy bears and a dead body" and the next thing you know, you've written a horrific short story piece about exactly that. I like to refer to these sorts of ideas as more of the chicken nugget variety. They're meaty and juicy but also less glamorous and charming as some other bouts of inspiration.

But both gold and chicken (or your vegan alternative version -- whatever tickles your tongue) are both valuable in separate contexts. And I'd argue it's nice to have a lil' bit of both, ya know? 

But, Alex!

What?

What the heck is the point of all this talk of nuggets? (Other than to make me reflect on how hungry and poor I am.)

Well, Alex. When I was a wee lass just starting out with this whole writing thing (over a decade ago by now (holy moly I'm old...)) I had this vision that if it wasn't gold, it wasn't good enough. I gave myself these elitist restrictions and some of the stuff I wrote was good, sure, but writing can be more than just gold. It can be succulent and delicious and only some stories can keep the insatiable creative wolf inside of us all quiet for a couple minutes more.

So yeah. This is all really to say (in a very roundabout way) all ideas are precious. One day, you might need the gold nugget.

But they're not the most nutritionally substantial nugget you can get.

They're also not as good with ketchup. :)