Authors tell of various methods employed to recall, inspire and awaken creativity. Anne Tyler has her index card method, using a brief sentence or two – even a word – filed away, to be used to spark writing in seasons of drought.

I loved her description of one such index card which contained the sentence, “Jane’s grandmother says that if you have lost something; take an onion and place it on your kitchen table, and you will soon find what you thought was lost.” It is a card she has never tried nor used – but cannot throw it out….

Following my journey with Write to Right (W2R), I find I have no need for index cards, for inspiration springs out at me all the time – as one would expect with my butterfly mind. 

Thank you to my W2R group, I found that there is much to be gained in taking your thought-life and putting it down in words. Expressing ideas through writing, has opened up an amazing world and much satisfaction, as I read my marshalled brain waves and understand their origins and deeper import, for me personally. 

So I don’t feel the need to publish, yet I am grateful to my several long-suffering correspondents who are kind enough to tolerate this – what a wise elderly friend, Fr Francis Cull, used to call ‘his anecdotage’.

I love my anecdotal stage of life, and the other authors it introduced me to – all thanks to W2R!

Peter Gunning.