SXSW Collaboration: Inspiration
*With it being a new year I decided to redesign my blog, so while my responses will appear in black, Shannon's will be in pink.
If you’re a writer or involved in any of the arts I’m sure people ask you, how did you come up with that? I always think of what inspired me. That is something that changes constantly. Sometimes it is a song that I hear on my way to work. Other times it’s an experience, not even anything profound but just a dinner with good friends, and one sentence from our conversation that evening will linger in my mind and evolve into a story.
Inspiration
is different than ideas or focus it is the driving force that makes you feel
like you are going to explode unless you get something written. It is what pushes a story forward even when
you’re tired or hungry or completely consumed with other things. It is what makes you feel that you are
creating something of importance. It is
reassurance.
More than anything inspiration is about being open, allowing
your mind to wander; giving yourself permission to daydream. Inspiration comes from anywhere and usually
when you least expect it. As a writer
that’s why it is so important to always have something to write on. For me, once I am knee deep into a story I
will often get ideas or storylines out of nowhere. But there are times when I am working on one
project and something will come to my attention, sparking an idea for a whole
different story. I don’t discount
whatever that new project may be, instead I write it down and save it for when I
actually have time to fully flush it out and provide it the attention that it
deserves.
This may sound maddening and counter-productive and believe
me it can be, there are at least three different story ideas going on in my
mind on any given day, not to mention the regular grocery lists, kid’s
playdates, work, puppy appointments, and all the other stuff that is also
floating around in there. But my simple
mandate of writing it all down, even when it doesn't make sense seems to help. This is why inspiration tome is a bit of sly
devil. It never seems to come when you
need it. It never appears when I have
the house to myself and a blank document opened in MSword. No instead it will rear its trixy head when I
have two kids in the bath, and a stack of papers that I need to grade. Oh the arts, no one ever said it’s easy.
Shannon's take:
This month’s SXSW collaboration with my fabulous author in crime Valerie Day-Sanchez is about creating characters and finding inspiration before, during and after writing a novel. Let’s start with what inspires me as a writer.
I’m going to be honest with you. I find inspiration in the craziest and sometimes most mundane things in everyday life. I recently experienced a complete lack of direction after taking a few weeks off before starting my third book in The Fae Witch Series, The Cursed Dagger.
The problem wasn’t that I didn’t know what direction my book was going to go because I always have a clear picture and general outline of what I want to convey in each story. Any author who has written a trilogy or series, can relate to the fact that you are essentially writing all the books in your head when you start the first one, but no my friends, the issue with me just a few short days ago was the dreaded first chapter.
You have to do some sort of recap because just in case there is that one reader (you know who I’m talking about) starts reading your book and has no clue there was a first or second book before that, you as the author, are obligated to go over every important piece of information to bring them up to speed, but you also don’t want your faithful readers to roll their eyes and shout, “I already know this crap, come on!”
I struggled with this, as I always do, and then one simple phrase from my teenage son had me
scrambling to my laptop. He had to write an essay explaining the famous quote from the Charles Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities, and when he flung out, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,’ I suddenly had this flash of inspiration.
The third book in my series is a bit darker and my main character goes through a lot of emotional upheaval and self-discovery. The quote inspired me to firmly see that I needed to have, even with all the recapping, a faint premonition of what was to come and that is how the inspiration of setting an effect of the calm before the storm came about in my mind.
Character development to me is more organic. I always have a pretty good idea of who my characters are but until you really started writing their thoughts and words, I don’t think you can truly connect with them.
I have always been a big proponent of imagining and daydreaming about your story much like a mini movie before sitting down to write it out. I think it gives you a clearer vision of the path you are setting for yourself as a writer and for your potential readers. I like to write the characters names out in my outlines and give myself specific guidelines on who I want them to be, but eventually, in the end, I am always surprised at some of the quirks that seem to flow from my mind as their personalities begin to take shape the further I delve deeper into the story.
Any inspiration you have, whether it is, about your story or your characters can either be gradual or hit you like a freight train. Yes, sometimes you have to look for it, but in some cases it can just be one little phrase that you hear or a picture that you see on your Facebook news feed that can drag you out of the depressing writing doldrums and into the creative light.
So I guess my advice is to just wing it and see what happens… ;)
Shannon's take:
This month’s SXSW collaboration with my fabulous author in crime Valerie Day-Sanchez is about creating characters and finding inspiration before, during and after writing a novel. Let’s start with what inspires me as a writer.
I’m going to be honest with you. I find inspiration in the craziest and sometimes most mundane things in everyday life. I recently experienced a complete lack of direction after taking a few weeks off before starting my third book in The Fae Witch Series, The Cursed Dagger.
The problem wasn’t that I didn’t know what direction my book was going to go because I always have a clear picture and general outline of what I want to convey in each story. Any author who has written a trilogy or series, can relate to the fact that you are essentially writing all the books in your head when you start the first one, but no my friends, the issue with me just a few short days ago was the dreaded first chapter.
You have to do some sort of recap because just in case there is that one reader (you know who I’m talking about) starts reading your book and has no clue there was a first or second book before that, you as the author, are obligated to go over every important piece of information to bring them up to speed, but you also don’t want your faithful readers to roll their eyes and shout, “I already know this crap, come on!”
I struggled with this, as I always do, and then one simple phrase from my teenage son had me
scrambling to my laptop. He had to write an essay explaining the famous quote from the Charles Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities, and when he flung out, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,’ I suddenly had this flash of inspiration.
The third book in my series is a bit darker and my main character goes through a lot of emotional upheaval and self-discovery. The quote inspired me to firmly see that I needed to have, even with all the recapping, a faint premonition of what was to come and that is how the inspiration of setting an effect of the calm before the storm came about in my mind.
Character development to me is more organic. I always have a pretty good idea of who my characters are but until you really started writing their thoughts and words, I don’t think you can truly connect with them.
I have always been a big proponent of imagining and daydreaming about your story much like a mini movie before sitting down to write it out. I think it gives you a clearer vision of the path you are setting for yourself as a writer and for your potential readers. I like to write the characters names out in my outlines and give myself specific guidelines on who I want them to be, but eventually, in the end, I am always surprised at some of the quirks that seem to flow from my mind as their personalities begin to take shape the further I delve deeper into the story.
Any inspiration you have, whether it is, about your story or your characters can either be gradual or hit you like a freight train. Yes, sometimes you have to look for it, but in some cases it can just be one little phrase that you hear or a picture that you see on your Facebook news feed that can drag you out of the depressing writing doldrums and into the creative light.
So I guess my advice is to just wing it and see what happens… ;)
Comments
Post a Comment