Writing Inspiration

We had another lovely weekend out and about, providing excellent inspiration for any writer. On Saturday, we went over to one of my favourite, prettiest little villages, Luss, at Loch Lomond. We've been at different times of the year and it was a bit cloudy the other day, but pleasant for walking around. It's a fascinating little place with an ancient history and I've previously written about it for Suite101. You can find my Luss article online, with a few photos, if you'd like to read more about the village and its history.

As well as enjoying the glorious scenery around the Loch itself, this time we followed the fairly new Pilgrimage Trail on the Pathway Project which highlights the history of St Kessog who seemingly came to these parts in 510.

This lovely Celtic Cross marks the beginning of the trail and the interpretation of the different parts is as follows:

• the upper part contains the Christian symbols of the dove of peace, the grain of wheat, the fish symbol of the early church, the chalice, and the candle of hope.
• the Luss Lily which is only found on the Glebe (the area containing the trail)
• below the Lily are various faith symbols, not all religious, spelling out the word 'co-exist'.

Since I also write occasional articles on Scottish history for The Highlander Magazine in the USA, I came home armed with plenty of new ideas. Loch Lomond itself always inspires me with ideas for fiction and I'm hoping to start a novella set around the area, once I finish some of my other work first! The Loch and Luss already feature in one scene in my mainstream novel that's seeking an agent or UK publisher at the moment.

On Sunday morning we went to the Palm Sunday service at the ancient Abbey in the next town. Once again, my imagination went into overdrive, in between the lovely parts of the service, as this was the very Abbey in which the Royal Stewarts worshipped in the 14th century. Each time I go, I'm full of enthusiasm for writing a novel or novella set around the Abbey. And of course, I've still to write an article about its history.

Meanwhile, I've far too many pieces of work to finish and submit and will need to get down to some work now. But at least my imagination has been energised again!

Rosemary