Inspiration

Isn't it strange when, where and why inspiration strikes? I've been working on a short story that's (very) loosely based on the legend of the Minotaur. It's something I've been fiddling with for several years now, with various attempts and rewrites, but it's never quite come out right and I've never quite managed to finish it.

Yesterday I suddenly realised, out of nowhere, what the problem was. The particular ending I'd been working towards just didn't 'gel'. It didn't convince me, and if it doesn't even convince the writer it sure as heck ain't going to convince the readers. Again out of nowhere a different ending presented itself, one that's much more probable and will make a better story. On the back of that I wrote another 600 words straight off and am hoping to finish the story (at the tenth time of asking!) later in the week.

But where do these flashes of inspiration come from? I'm grateful of course, but ever so slightly baffled. One minute I'm hacking around in a sea of words and can't see my way clear, the next everything opens up and I'm thinking 'Oh, of course,' in a braindead sort of way. And wondering why on earth that particular solution hadn't occured to me months ago. It's an odd business sometimes, being a writer.