ABSTRACT
Our memories are an infinite resource but are not just made up of personal moments and individual detail. Personal memories can also be associated with cultural memories, and such shared knowledge can inform our writing, placing it in time and lending it other factors. Writers have always found ways to overcome the difficulties presented by subjects beyond their direct experience. Family memories and even direct knowledge aren’t always enough to go on and we may need to supplement ‘what we know’. Most psychological models of the creative process include an unconscious stage, sometimes called the ‘incubation period’, where ideas hatch and develop beyond our conscious control or awareness.
