Explore "Miss Willett" by Blanche Colton Williams on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
THE STARTING-POINT. Mr. Benefield states that it has been so long since he wrote "Miss Willett" that the processes of growth have gone out of his memory. He is sure, however, that the story had its origin in a show-window exhibit on a street in New York, where a negro woman of a most evil expression used to demonstrate a folding bed. "I probably noted the exhibit in a book, left it for weeks or months and then one day when I needed an idea I opened the note-book, turned over the pages, stared at the scribbled note, and the elements of the story as written floated to the center of consciousness and joined in a more or less rough but complete whole. After that it was merely a matter of chiseling it into shape. " -- _Barry Benefield._
The expression "floated to the center of consciousness" seems to imply an inspirational writing force, much as does Mrs. Pulver's statement, "My crew will come to me ready named, ready behavioured" (see page 169).