Writing inspiration from Lord Byron

If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.

Lord Byron

These words from the great Romantic poet, George Gordon Noel Byron (1788-1824), more commonly known as simply Lord Byron, may feel quite familiar to writers.

Well, hopefully not hauled-off-in-a-straight-jacket mad, but I’ve been known to have stories jingling around in my head, and they simply won’t go away and leave me in peace until I’ve committed them to paper.

In fact, I can be quite bad about letting slip from my mind other items (calling the mechanic, scheduling a doctor’s appointment, organizing the closet) but a story idea seems to stay lodged forever in my brain, guilting me into taking it on.

And like Byron, I love to travel, so new places often spur on new ideas for stories that I ‘need’ to write. There hasn’t been a slow decline into madness yet, but I can feel stories I’ve had on the back burner too long nagging at my mind, jockeying to be told.

And you, writers? Can you understand Lord Byron’s sentiments? Are we all just staving off madness by emptying our minds and telling our stories?