Inspiration
10:51 AMWhere does inspiration come from? For me it most often comes in the form of a movie. That seems funny to think that inspiration for books would come from movies but three out of my five books have been born out of watching movies. It is often something small such as a line in the dialog that sets me thinking, one shot that awes me, or the very feel of the movie as a whole that I liked and want recreate in a book. After I get the initial idea I fall back on my extensive reading to supply me with ways to make the story come alive and be meaningful to the reader.
I must confess that I have a secret weapon when it comes to keeping a fire and a vision while writing a book, I talk to myself. It may have been a bad habit to get into but it has helped me work out so much of the book and to keep it in my mind as real characters and places. I will spend a few hours every week, walking around our five acres helping g my characters come alive by acting them out and figuring out what they will do next. The only other thing that I do to help keep my fire is something most peole don’t want to hear; keep writing even when you don’t feel like it. Sometimes, if you just start writing you will soon find yourself interested in your writing again.
Now, it is your turn. I want to know what inspires you to write and keep writing. I Would also love to know what makes a really great book for you. What kind of characters, places or genres make a great book for you?
1 comments
The thing that I've always heard is to write what you know. A few of my ideas have come from my family. The book I am currently working on, which is a book about knights, was an inspiration from my younger brother who was playing with his Lego in his room. I overheard him say,"Seven knights from seven provinces" and I was immediately set off on a whirlwind of an idea. Of course, it has come to be something entirely different from my original idea, but that's ok.
ReplyDeleteAnother book idea that I had when I was younger came to me in my "Peter Pan" phase. I was a huge lover of peter pan and the idea came to me one day to start a book out with the line from the Peter Pan book by James M. Barry. The line was the question Peter asks the reader "Do you believe?" and then going a little deeper into J.M. Barry's text where Peter asks the readers if they believe in fairies and if so, to clap their hands. I was trying to make a parallel between that and Christianity. Asking, Do you believe in Jesus Christ? However, this story was one of my flops, because my characters were not strong enough in terms of their backgrounds and personalities. I may try it again sometime, making the Characters and plot more full but I don't really feel like it. After all I was only around 13 years old when I
wrote it.
So, I get inspiration, from my family, books, sometimes movies and also take a lot from my imagination. The book I am currently working on (about the knights) is one of my best. I Used bible characters as well as characters from movies to help me have something specific to base my characters in my book on. Like one of them, is based on Judas. (Because the character is a betrayer.)
Blessings,
Jessica