Where Do Characters/Ideas Come From?

 

Where do you get your story ideas? Do you wake up with them in the middle of the night, trying to pull them out of your dream before it dissolves? Does a character walk up to you and slap you in the face (perhaps literally)? What about situations? Does something poignant in a local news story or celebrity scandal resonate with you, or even a global event, a historical watershed?

I get way more ideas than I ought to admit from trashy television. It’ll be late at night and I’ll be sifting through the channels, quite possibly with an adult beverage in hand, Hoovering up all the crazy I can stomach. Alien abductions, serial killer documentaries, hunts for Templar treasure, reality TV catfights, you name it.

But something always leaps out from the madness—a fundamental truth about life, or human beings, or how people relate to one another. (Even if that fundamental truth is: we are all flippin’ nuts.) And I keep turning that idea over and over in my mind.

What if my dad really did run a moonshine still out of our backyard? How would that feel? What would my life be like? If I actually survived an alien abduction, would anyone believe me? Would I believe myself? What happens after the bodies are recovered and the case files are sealed? How do the detectives move on? Or even, how would that familiar story go if I wrote it? How would I make it stand out?

The story I’m outlining right now is a Cuisinart mixing of about three such tales: an ancient retelling, a medieval mystery, a near-modern wartime saga. Characters and places and props may change, but the humanness of our stories remain. Whatever dressings of genre, setting, and technology you put on your characters, I suspect you’d know them anywhere.

So what have you learned about the way they choose to meet you?

 

That Insidious Predator

It hunts you down when you’re exhausted, powering through a first draft in search of the finish line. Or maybe when you’ve just settled in for a long night of revisions, it calls to you. It can strike as you try to fall asleep, or wake you up before your alarm goes off.

The Shiny New Idea.

Mine usually start with a situation, and then the attendant plot structure and necessary characters spin off of that. The function comes first. But I know plenty of people who find their characters first, their form for the book, and grow the plot out of that.

But how do you tackle that idea when it’s not yet time? When you’re caught up in your old love, or maybe multiple ones, and can’t make brainspace for whatever comes next?

If you’re a plotter, can you step outside of your current work long enough to get the outline down on paper? Or maybe you trust that if the idea is good enough, real enough, it’ll patiently sort itself out in the back of your mind so that once you have the time, it’ll be ready and waiting and all gussied up.

Or maybe you have to word-vomit anything and everything associated with the new idea before you can trust that it’ll stay put. When my new idea woke me up last weekend, I had to sit down, write out her first few paragraphs and a few bullet points, and then get on with my day. Otherwise my MC and her story would wander back into that jumble of isotopes in my head, never to collide and form a full-fledged atom again.

Whatever your method, I think we’ve all faced the dark fear of running out of ideas. I have a bullet point list of at least twenty books I want to write eventually, and I still fret about reaching the end of that list someday and having nowhere to go. Which is ridiculous, because it feels like each book I go through the writing and revising process with spawns at least ten more ideas, usually completely unrelated to the task at hand.

How do you tackle those shiny, sparkly plot-predators? Do you succumb to them, indulge them just long enough to keep them happy, or ignore them completely until the task at hand is done? Are you desperately in need of a new idea and fantasizing about smothering me with a pillow for daring to suggest that there are more ideas than hours in the day?

 

Wordless Wednesday: Autumnal Inspiration

 

Photo inspiration credited to the incredibly wonderful pinterest.com.

Inspiring Wednesdays

Inspiration on a Wednesday!

We all have a love/hate relationship with our WIPs, don't we? At some point you feel frustrated or stuck with it, or maybe you're distracted by a shiny new idea like Patricia mentioned yesterday in her post

For me, I'm at a point where I'm starting to diverge a little from my outline. This happens to me with every WIP, so I'm used to it. But that doesn't mean I like it. It makes me feel scattered. That's the best word for me to describe me and my writing life right now. I still LOVE my WIP. I mean really love it. But I feel scattered deviating from the outline, even though it's really not by much. It makes me write slower, get frustrated easier, and think that maybe everything I'm writing actually is crap. I end up feeling like I'm missing something in that chapter(s). Not a good feeling.

So what do you do when/if you feel like this?

I can tell you what I do. First, I share my chapter(s) that are giving me trouble with my beta reader and crit partners. They encourage me and point out things I miss. I have two amazing crit partners, Danielle here is one (she's a bit busy with school right now & hasn't seen much of my current WIP) My other crit partner is equally amazing and really helped me tonight. She pointed out exactly what my last chapter was missing. I think it's so important to have good writing partners and friends!

But what I also do (which yes, I'm tying this all into the topic of inspiration) is really delve into music and photos and anything else that will draw me into the world of my WiP and into my character's head. So without further rambling, here are some my inspirations (which have really help me this week)


(I've been listening to a lot of Manchester Orchestra lately. The general mood & feel of this song always makes me want to work on my WIP. The lyrics aren't completely in-tune with my WIP but at the same time they still work too. [ps-this is the 1st time I've seen the video for this song and kudos to anyone who thought, 'Are you my mummy?' at all while watching this.])

And here are some photos that remind me of my WIP
(Why yes, my WIP might be a little creepy, why do you ask? You can check out a taste of the creepiness on this teaser post if you want)


So how about you guys? Any of you in slumps and use different types of inspiration to help out? Any of you just have an amazing piece of inspiration that you found/used this week and want to share?

How inspiring!!

I love my WIP. That's a good thing when you've been working on it for over a year. A really good thing. The part that blows my mind: It doesn't feel like it's been over a year. It's always new. Always changing, developing, growing and morphing into something better and something more. That's so much fun.

In my newest draft (and hopefully my last. Six times is enough!**) I'm really playing up some of the creepier elements of the world where my characters live. That whole aspect was inspired my Patricia and one of my roommate. Patricia gave me this fantastic idea, which you will see below a little..and my roommate gave me this website and more ideas. And the music below, which is my new favorite.

I never had a plan for you

There's a billboard in my book. I think that's why I love this. Also, my WIP is called Follow Me Through Darkness and I love the mix of that title with the billboard and the flashlight. There's something about it....

"you push and pull like wolves at the door but all i hear is humming"

 Another billboard! It's just a gorgeous image. It reminds me of my story too somehow.

“i was born in a house of wyeth”

 This one. A girl moving in the darkness toward something. Yup. That's my book. 

You Have A Wanderlust Growing In Your Bones

This is my favorite image of all. It's my MC. Looking out beyond the world she's in. Pressing, standing and hoping. There's a childlikeness to it--that all she wants to do is go outside. Meanwhile, everything around her is falling apart and she doesn't notice because all she wants to do is be somewhere else. Be freed.

And, this song. It has nothing to do with the story, not really, but I just love it. It's by Elizabeth and the Catapult and they are my new favorite. :) It's called "Rainiest Day of Summer." 

Rainiest Day Of Summer (Album Version) (press to play! or go here)

What are you pulling inspiration from lately??

**I say I'm done, but if I needed to do another re-write (or two) I would. I will re-write this book until it's perfect and amazing or until I'm done trying to tell the story.

My Creative Juices are Pumping....

I am still thinking through my character and plot, but I was inspired by some images and music this week.

I love the sense of place I get from this photograph. My WIP has two main settings - Georgia and the Pacific Northwest. This image really got my mind working for the Pacific Northwest setting.

My WIP also deals with fire so I was drawn to this image. It seems as if the fire dwells within this person, which makes for an interesting literary concept.

My musical inspiration this week is from Massive Attack. I love the sound of the music and vocals. It puts me right into the moment with Thora as she is on the precipice of her life changing in ways she has never expected. I love that it almost sounds like a heart beat. I also like the line about teardrops on the fire - it lends itself nicely to the fire elements of my WIP. The idea of black flowers blossoming is also something cool that I might choose to explore somehow in my work at some point.

Inspiration on Wednesday!

So for this inspiration post, I thought I'd post a few pictures that I just think are pretty awesome in general. Hope something in them inspires you to write or create art in some way!

(How amazing is this?! I thought it was a b/w photo at first glance!)





I can just imagine an old masquerade dance gone wrong with these photos. What about you?

Insipiration

You know what's amazing about inspiration? There are so many many different things can make you feel inspired! For me music is a key component for me when writing. Usually I get music that has the same feel of what I'm writing or a specific playlist for my WiP that I listen to over and over again! (Seriously! My last WiP has one song that I ended up listening to around 600 times!)

So here is a song from my current playlist that I love listening to while writing.


And since I talked about how there are so many different things that can be an inspiration, here's a photo that reminds me of my main character. I love getting a photo album together for a WiP. Having those visual reminders can make me want to write even when I feel like I'm in a funk!



What inspires you?

Friendly Inspiration

I have been trying to pin-down what it is that inspires me for a few weeks now (especially once I realized I was going to have the inspiration post this week! ;)

I think one of my favorite things about being part of the YA writing community is that I’m not only inspired by the journeys famous, amazing, legendary writers, but also the journeys I see unfolding before me, those of my writer friends (many of whom are amazing and soon-to-be famous and legendary!) I’ve found that my excitement when I’m sharing in celebrating the exciting news of my friends as they reach milestones in their own writing inspires me to continue on my own journey. For me, feeling inspired to write is significantly based on my mood. And when I’m cheering on my friends, on the days they have big news (a book deal!) or just regular, everyday news (a good writing day for them!) it makes me happy, which in turn puts me in the mood to work on my own projects.

To give you an example of what I mean, I’ve asked two of my writer friends to do micro-interviews for this post sharing some of the happy moments and lessons learned of their journeys to publication. Both of them are gearing up for their debut years in 2012 and I am very excited to be cheering them and their fabulous books on! The answers they were generous enough to share are below, I hope that they will inspire you to ask the writers in your life to share their happiest moments as well! :)

Jennifer Rush’s debut ALTERED will be published by Little, Brown in Fall 2012. You can find out more about Jennifer on her blog or twitter.

What has your favorite part of your writing journey been so far?

Jennifer Rush: My favorite part was the agent querying process. I had submitted enough manuscripts over the years, that I knew how hard it was to catch the attention of an agent. So when I had several requests that first week out, I was pretty excited. BUT…I knew not to expect too much.

When I read the email from my (now) agent asking if I was available to talk on the phone, I went numb all over. This was what I’d been waiting to hear for years. And to finally hear it was amazing.

What is the one thing you know now that you wish you had known starting out?

Jennifer Rush: I wish I had been more patient. My writing in the beginning was trash, but I was so eager to be published, I didn’t take the time to practice the craft. If by some fluke, I’d gotten a book deal five years ago with the manuscript I was submitting at the time, I don’t think I would be as proud of it today. I see its flaws now. I see a lot of amateur mistakes in the pages. 

I am so glad that my debut novel will be ALTERED. My writing has grown so much in the last few years.

Jessica Spotswood’s debut BORN WICKED will be published by Putnam on February 7, 2012. You can find out more about Jessica on her blog or twitter.

What has your favorite part of your writing journey been so far?

Jessica Spotswood: I think my favorite moment was when my husband woke me up last Tuesday with a box of ARCs. My book! Book-shaped! With my name on it, and my dedication to my grandmother, and all my words inside! It made it feel startlingly real. I've been a writer since I was a little girl, but I felt like a Real Author when I got to hold it in my hands and pet the pretty cover. 

My favorite thing, though, is that I now have a team. I have this amazing editor and her genius assistant who love my story, and they're there to cheer me on when I need that and challenge me to do better when I need that. I have an awesome agent and a handful of brilliant, wonderful critique partners too. So, when I doubt myself (which definitely doesn't stop just because I have a book deal), I trust them. I know that if I make a wrong turn in the story, they'll be there to help me fix it. That's immeasurably comforting. 

What is the one thing you know now that you wish you had known starting out?

Jessica Spotswood: I wish I'd known how common it is that the book that snags you an agent doesn't sell. My first book (a YA fantasy called INHERITING GAROLASS) didn't. I was so disappointed in myself, and worried I'd disappointed all my friends and family who believed in me, and scared that my agent would lose faith in me. Now that I'm more involved in the writing community, though, I know that it happens all the time. And honestly? It was really difficult at the time, but I'm glad. I learned an awful lot from writing that book, and I'd love to revisit it someday, but BW is much stronger because of the mistakes I made and the editor feedback I got with GAROLASS. 

Where do you get your inspiration from? If you’d like to share a story about your own writing journey to inspire others, we’d love to hear it!

A BIG thank you to Jennifer and Jessica for today's inspirational stories! You guys rock!

Musical Inspiration

Cindy and I have had numerous discussions about music and writing. She chooses to write without music because it serves as a distraction. However, I don't think I could write a decent sentence without it. Music has writing power. I love how a melody or a set of lyrics can trigger the perfect character emotion or send my mind in a new plot direction. Each of my main characters has their own playlist. This helps me get into their frame of mind before my fingers touch the keyboard.

I wonder how other writers approach the issue of music and their writing. Is it an inspiration for you or does it only hold distractions?

I thought I would share a song from the playlist of the main character from my WIP this week. Youtube was being a punk so I just grabbed a video with the song - the dolphins while cute - have nothing to do with my WIP.