Guest post by author Christine Lemmon

“Within me—within all of us—are creative idea as infinite as the waves of the whispering sea.”

~Christine Lemmon

I’m often asked how I get ideas for my writing. In attempting to answer that, I laugh and switch the subject. Articulating it is hard, but I know exactly how I get ideas.

While biking down Sanibel Island’s Periwinkle Way with my husband and children, I had a burst of inspiration and ran into a store to ask for pen and paper. Unedited and exactly as I scribbled it on the scrap paper, that burst became one of the epigraphs in my novel,

Portion of the Sea:

There are those times when a woman fears she is on the brink of extinction or that the dreams and wants she has for her life are endangered. It is then she must declare herself a refuge and take whatever measures to preserve her natural elements.

When my boys were little, we were sitting near the shore and I was using coquina shells to teach my younger son his colors. As soon as one coquina shell would surface, my sons would have to shout its color before it shyly disappeared back into the sand. That night, I added to the first line of Portion of the Sea:

I was shy, too, like those coquina shells.

Watching a sunset at Blind Pass on Captiva Island, I asked my husband if he saw what I saw, that glistening pathway atop the water, as if you could get up from the sand and walk it. I knew right away what I wanted to write, that no matter the circumstances, when life doesn’t go her way and she’s feeling down and depressed, there are always those “glistening steps” a woman must take for herself—steps that lead to survival—and it became a major theme in Portion of the Sea.

During the writing of Sand in My Eyes, while pregnant, I would take a specific five-mile ride around the island on my “trike” daily, and continued this after my daughter was born, with her sitting on my lap. I would see a morning glory and knowing very little about them, only that they often open for just one day and then die, I couldn’t but think that, like those morning glories, we don’t know which day will be our last, so we may as well make each one spectacular, and I knew I had to write a silly little story about flowers and how the flowers all had something to say to us.

And the daisies, I always noticed them growing alongside trash cans and ugly parking lots, and thought, even in times of ugliness, there are always glimpses of beauty. If we look for it, we’ll spot it (beauty in the world).

Ideas dropped easily as sea grape leaves from the trees—never forced—and often, on my walks or bike rides, by the time I hit Tarpon Bay Road on my way home, I didn’t want more ideas because I’d have to keep them all inside me until after eight o’clock at night when the kids were asleep and I could write.

During one of my walks, there was a bird one day, crossing the road and cars stopped. This particular day I was feeling down about my writing. A lady in a car held her head out the window and said to me, “The birds have no fear!” After thinking about it my entire walk, I went home that night and without fear started to write. I even put a scene about a bird crossing the road, and moving forward with our life passions despite fear, into the story of Sand in My Eyes.

Living on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico does inspire me, but in all honesty, ideas come to me mostly because somewhere in my life, a long time ago, I learned how to listen to silent moments, how to be receptive. I learned how to cherish moments of contemplation, reflection and prayer, and realized that time spent alone with myself doesn’t have to be boring or lonely; that within me—within all of us—are creative ideas as infinite as the waves of the whispering sea.

Sometimes ideas fall on me like little drops of water, but still, I pay attention to the small ideas, storing them away as if I had a pail on the beach for collecting things. Often, it’s not until months after getting the ideas, when I am on my hands and knees in the sand, trying to build a castle, trying to write a novel, that I need those drops of water, and see at last how they are a part of the sea.—Whisper from the Ocean

Even in the midst of chaos, or in the company of others, I have learned how to tap into my innermost depths. But always I start with prayer! For this reason, to me, inspiration is spiritual. And usually, if my mind is clear and free of debris, it doesn’t matter where I am, or what I am doing: carrying groceries up the stairs to my little house on stilts or walking on the beach. I can do it! I can spot a creative moment as clearly as one spots a seashell, picks it up and, holding it to the ear stops and listens. And that is my secret—I stop and listen. At first I hear what sounds like just a whisper from the ocean. But then I hear more. When asked how I get my ideas for my writing, that is what I want to say to my readers. That is how I feel.

Christine Lemmon is the author of three novels: Sand in My Eyes, Portion of the Sea, and Sanibel Scribbles, and the gift book, Whisper from the Ocean. She lives on Sanibel Island, Florida with her husband and three children.

You can visit her at http://www.christinelemmon.com.