Photo Credit: Upsplash.

Inspiration for this post has come from Helen Jones who blogs at Journey to Ambeth. 

I have started reading the first book (Oak and Mist) from Helen’s series ‘The Ambeth Chronicles’ and I am hooked!

At the start of ‘Oak and Mist’ Alma finds a doorway to another world between two trees in her local park and this is where the idea for this post came from.

So, I forced myself to put Helen’s book down for five minutes and started thinking about the many doors in a writer’s life. I don’t know what it is about doors but once you start thinking about them you can’t stop..sigh!

1. Writing the opening line of a story is like building an imaginary door. Stories are like doors that open and transport the reader off to a different place, world or time.
2. A painful episode of writer’s block can feel like someone has locked a door inside your mind and thrown away the key!
3. Too many plot ideas can feel like you have a head full of open doors.
4. The special story that we can’t write or isn’t ready to be written, is kept behind a locked door in our mind. Hands up who has one of these? I do – please don’t say I am the only writer who has one of these! Mine is….Steampunk – gasp!  One day I will find the key (guts) and write it.
5. Getting a creative epiphany can feel like a new door is opening.
6. Sometimes we decide to sadly close the door on a story that is no longer working.
7. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to close the door on a first draft. It needs to rest.  However we have such a strong emotional attachment to it that we struggle to leave it alone.
8. There is nothing like a spot of door slamming when you are in the midst of a creative tantrum. I like to quickly follow mine with an angry stomp up the stairs. Sigh!
9. Certain fictional characters can get so annoying inside your mind; jumping up and down, shouting and moaning. Grrrr – you feel like chucking them in a room and locking the door – until they have quietened down!
10. Closing the door on your past literary mistakes and failures can be liberating.
11. Only you hold the key to the door which contains your literary dreams. No one else can unlock it, only you. A tough one to come to terms with.
12. Door symbolism in writing can be really useful. Doors can symbolise opportunity, hope and the passage from one world to another. They can also be great symbols of entrapment.
13. Doors can be great writer tools for building suspense and fear. In horror the reader is always left to imagine who is lurking behind that old door. The naughty writer might even add in a couple of moans, groans and a scream too!
14. If a literary door shuts in your face – try another! 
15. If you live in a busy family house like mine, sometimes the only place you can think and get five minutes to yourself is the bathroom. Creeping up there with a head full of creative thoughts and locking the bathroom door is one of my favourite pastimes. Sigh!

I hope you have a fabulous day🙂