Vivaldi in the shower

There are many authors who don't start writing a novel before they have a complete synopsis of the story on paper.

I'm not one of those.

When I started writing Guarded by Secrecy, I only knew its main topic and, above all, what would happen at the end of the novel. These are the only two things that didn't change one iota throughout the writing process. The rest came little by little, by dint of inspiration.

One might ask what inspiration is. To paraphrase the American judge Potter Stewart, I probably could not succeed in defining it intelligibly, but the truth is that I know it when I see it. I also know that, at least in my case, I have to catch it on the fly if I don't want it to escape.

Unlike other authors, who, as Picasso would say, find inspiration when they are working, I operate on outbursts of creativity. I can spend hours in front of a blank page without producing anything worth keeping. At other times, without knowing how and no matter where or when, a brilliant idea comes to me and I have to run to the computer or mobile phone to write it down. I have called these sparks of inspiration Vivaldi moments.

It is said that Antonio Vivaldi, who apart from being an amazing composer was a priest, came up with a musical idea just as he was celebrating mass, and fearing that he would forget the precious melody, he left the altar running to write it down on a piece of paper. After that, he continued the ceremony as if nothing had happened.

These Vivaldi moments assault me in the most unexpected ways, reading, driving, cooking, when I wake up in the morning and can't sleep, and particularly when I'm in the shower in the morning. Perhaps because my brain has rested during the night (remember what they say, the best advice is found on the pillow), it happens to me very often that an idea pops in my mind and I have to pick up a towel and run, wet and half naked to write it down.

Of course, there is also what Thomas Alva Edison said: None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Just as inventing the light bulb supposedly took him 10,000 attempts, the author of a novel cannot bring it to fruition without doing a huge amount of research and writing. No matter how lazy one may be, one cannot escape this heavy burden.

But that's another story.