Stalking the Wild Muse: Where Does Inspiration Come From? by Carol Goodman

LUCY BURDETTE: Carol's wonderful book RETURN TO WYLDCLIFF HEIGHTS was on the short list for the Mary Higgins Clark award last year. When I noticed that she had a new book coming, I thought you'd love to hear about it. Welcome Carol!

CAROL GOODMAN: One of the most often asked questions any author gets at panels and book clubs and blog interviews is “Where do you get your ideas?” or, more ominously, “Do you ever worry about running out of ideas?”   It’s an age-old question.  I picture a Q&A after the first production of Oedipus Rex in 429 BCE at the Temple of Dionysus.  “Hey Sophocles!” a sandalled and bearded fan calls out.  “Are you worried about running out of ideas after such a big success?”

Sophocles might have quipped that the dysfunctional antics of the Oedipus clan would keep him busy for a while, or he could have appealed to the Muses.  The ancient Greeks regarded the inspiration of the artist as such a magical and mysterious event that it could only come from a divine source—or sources.  They needed nine to do the work of inspiring dull, lumpen-headed mortals.  But what if you don’t believe in divine inspiration?  Where do you find your ideas? 

The titular writers in my new book Writers and Liars think the answer is a retreat on a Greek island.  Is this the answer?  Do we need to travel afar or go to a writers retreat to find inspiration?  It’s certainly a tempting idea.  If only, we say to ourselves as we wrack our brains for the next book idea, I could go someplace free of the worries and interruptions of everyday life—no pinging phone, no household chores, no stacks of bills to pay or pile of papers to grade.  Shake off the coils of your everyday routine! sing the Sirens. Travel will yield inspiration and a retreat will offer the mental space to explore those ideas. 

And yet, in the end, the Muse can be a fickle travel companion.  She may join you for a bottle of Mythos at the local taverna—or she may have taken the last boat off the island and left you with a bunch of frustrated writers and a homicidal maniac.  Which, of course, is what happens in my book.  Because the other big idea the Greeks (i.e. Plato) had about inspiration was that it was a divine madness (theia mania) that possessed the artist, making a bunch of writers stranded on an island a volatile bunch.

So while inspiration may be found on the road, I have found it most often at home at my desk, on an ordinary weekday morning, after doing the Wordl and the crossword puzzle and making a second cup of coffee and indulging in just about every form of procrastination known to lumpen-headed mortals and feeling like I am scratching out my words on a stone tablet with a blunt rock … and then a word or an image—maybe a whole sentence!—will come to me that wasn’t there before.  And that feels like magic.  Picasso perhaps said it best:  Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

By all means, take the trip, go to the retreat if you can, but remember, inspiration is everywhere including (and perhaps especially) in your own backyard.  You just have to show up for it.  

So, tell me … where do you get your ideas? 

Carol Goodman is the New York Times Bestselling author of twenty-six novels, including The Lake of Dead Languages, The Seduction of Water, which won the 2003 Hammett Prize, The Widow’s House, which won the 2018 Mary Higgins Clark Award, and The Night Visitors, which won the 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award.  For over twenty years, she has taught creative writing at The New School and SUNY New Paltz and offered private classes, book coaching, and editorial services to writers in fiction and memoir.  She lives in the Hudson Valley.

In the latest thrilling suspense novel from Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman, a group of mystery authors gathers on a secluded Greek island for a writers retreat, only to discover that their enigmatic host has been murdered and everyone present is a suspect.

They’ll kill for inspiration…

Fifteen years ago, Maia Gold attended a prestigious—and very exclusive—writers retreat hosted by billionaire Argos Alexander on the Greek island of Eris. It’s where she wrote her first book, the one that should have launched a brilliant career. But something dark happened on that island, a betrayal that has hung over Maia ever since.

Now, Maia finds a familiar envelope in the mail. It’s an invitation to return to Eris, and according to social media, she’s not the only one from that first retreat who’s been invited back. This could be the second chance Maia needs to jump-start her dreams. A chance for reconciliation… or revenge.

Almost all of the writers from fifteen years before have returned to Eris, bringing unresolved resentments with them. Soon, the guests learn that their illustrious host is absent, though he has left instructions for them to participate in a contest: whoever can write the most suspenseful mystery while on the island will win a fortune and literary acclaim. But this is no harmless game—when the guests gather in the morning to share their first chapters, they find Argos Alexander, dead. 

Tensions simmer as the guests try to determine who’s capable of murder, not just on the page, but in real life. On an island full of mystery writers, anyone could be the killer—and anyone could be the next victim. Trapped together until the next boat arrives from the mainland, they must sort out old grievances and figure out how to trust one another... or die one by one.