Inspire Me

The idea for a book is such an elusive thing.  I mean honestly.  We can't all be J.K. Rowling and have a character, complete with back story just waltz into our brain pan.  I've been chasing down my mc's (sometimes with Tasers) for quite some time now.  Maybe I'm going about this a bit backwards...but I don't think so.  It feels right to me.  I don't think writing is all that linear. Well, no.  I take that back, because now that I'm actually, physically writing my book.  Yes.  I'm writing it "Chapter One. Page One".  But to GET to this step wasn't a very Set in Stone process.  I didn't wake up and go, "I think I shall write a book.  Let me sign up for a writing class..."  It was more, I want to write.  I need to write.  Don't really care what I write about.  However.  A good plot for a book, this does not make.

So.  How to find a book plot when one MUST write?  Quick!  To The Internets Batman!

First I did a lot of staring morosely at blank pages in a moleskine journal.  Getting frustrated at my lack of ability to travel as they did back in 'the day', to find inspiration to write.  All I need is a good trip to Italy!  Or France!  Or Ireland!  Or Vegas!  That's all...just a little one...

When I didn't win the lottery...I found some random websites that all seemed to have "A Writing Prompt a Day!"  Which now I can no longer find the links to.  No matter.  They were pretty funny.  One of them told me to draw a grid with three separate columns on it.  Next, in the first column put three things that I am Passionate about.  In the second, three Hobbies. In the third, three book genres I enjoy reading.  The theory was that I was creating a chart that I could then pull things from to write a book about.

My book from that chart:  A murdering Chef that lives on a winery, quilts and battles a horde of dragons intent on taking over the world.  I'll let you divide them into the proper categories...

Then I stumbled upon the new-ish fad of doing 6 word bios. Fascinating. Challenging. A lot harder then it sounds. But not really a writing prompt. Unless you're writing your memoirs. I'm not That famous. Yet.

My Bio:   Culinary: Indescribably painful yet beautifully fulfilling.

Finally, the most random of all.  I actually found a random story generator. Which, turns out is really just a daily writing prompt in poor disguise. But. But! This...this was my muse. My Venus de Milo!  My Marilyn Monroe. My Nic Cage. My ...well.  You get the idea.  I hit the button probably 5 times.  It came out with crap like,

"The Rookie Movie Star struck the match in an abandoned store to delay the vote."

The prompt I got that I stuck with was...

"She picked up the key and ran down the dark alley to an abandoned store before the gun went off."

I'm not entirely sure where all these abandoned stores are...but there sure is a lot of action around them! A character popped into my head. A plot. Granted, I'm not sure the 20's are going to like having Steampunk forced on them...but we'll see.

Inspiration is an interesting thing.  Rather slippery.  But when we find it, there's no denying it.

I do still think I could write best selling blockbusters from a winery in Italy...

Where the Magic happens

I was on Facebook the other day.  Wasting time.  Trying to get my mc's out from under the stairwell where they have been trapped for the better part of a week (poor things, I hope they packed a good lunch!)  I happened to click over to this page that I follow sporadically called Literary Living. I've found a few good links there in the past (Such as for Inkubate, and Litopia).  That day the moderator had chanced to post a picture of where Jane Austen had done her writing, with a clever tag line like "If she managed to write 6 best sellers from a Tea Table, what's holding you back?"

Which made me laugh.  And, got me thinking.  But not in the way you think.  I'm always curious about where, and how people write.  What program they use, if they listen to music, if they write in the morning (crazy people), or at night (like a sane person ought to).  I'm curious about what their writing set up looks like.  If they write long hand. Type.  Combo. Or pace back and forth muttering and gesticulating wildly having mad conversations with the voices in their heads until it makes sense.  And Then they write it down in a calm dignified manner.  And as I'm thinking this to myself, idly curious about others, I happen to look over at my writing space and have to laugh.

Here's why.  In my mind, This is where I write...








And in reality this is what my space really looks like...

Close.  So close.  Though, I do think Jane would be proud of my simplicity.

All the Hoopla

 
Ahh Valentine's Day. On this, the most Romantic of Holidays (arguably), I tend to remember one of the most memorable papers I ever wrote in High School. 

It was for our Junior History 'Thesis', which meant it had to be over 10 pages long.  With Footnotes. Good God.  This was before the internet, mind you. We had to use the actual Library, and stuff.  I was brought up in a conservative town (to put it mildly). Though, to be fair, I didn't realize How conservative till I moved away.  So, imagine, if you will, going into a small town library charged with the task of trying to come up with a topic for a TEN PAGE paper.  I mean really.  That's a lot of research.  You have to be FASCINATED by the subject. I remember there were a couple of my friends in there, who had already picked their topics.  Something like "The Wooly Mammoth", one did his, I believe, on the Human Genome Project. Stuff like that.  Yawn.  Volcanoes.

I remember randomly flipping through the encyclopedias, hoping that something would reach out and grab me.  V. Voles. (I don't know why, I always flip from the back..) Violins. Valentine. St. Valentines. St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Bingo.  The entry in the encyclopedia was about 4 sentences long.  But it was enough to get me interested.  I mean the name alone!  So I went to the card catalog.  Looked up St. Valentine's Day Massacre.  One Book. Whoa.  I was impressed our small town library had that!  I found it, and, wonders of wonders, it had Pictures.  Actual, honest to God, black and white pictures taken of the crime scene.  Yup.  And so the obsession with the '20's and anything gangster was born.  Before it was cool.  I was a trend setter.

It was hard, doing research for that paper.  I got some looks from the librarians.  I had to do a lot of clarifying, repeatedly.  "No Really.  I did mean to write 'Massacre' after the St. Valentine.".  I got questioned a lot, but in the end it was worth it.  Writing that paper taught me a lot about research. About writing something that people don't really agree with. (And that wasn't even really a hardcore topic!) And really, just simply doing what you want to do.  Cause that's how they rolled in the '20's, gangster style.