Blogger: Mary Keeley
Books & Such agents and staff are on a writers’ retreat with our clients at the Monterey Plaza Hotel this week and lavishing them with attention. (See photo below of some of our clients being “swept away” by Monterey’s world-famous aquarium.) We’ll be re-posting blogs that received a goodly number of visitors and garnered considerable comments.
Authors are creative people—and it’s a good thing. If you had a strictly “process” brain, you would miss those unscheduled inspirations that come at inconvenient times.
How many ideas come to your mind when you’re sitting at your computer? And how often do you sit there staring at a blank screen?
One of my clients just e-mailed me an idea that came to him in the middle of the night. He had been struggling to significantly trim the word count of his fiction manuscript without removing anything vital to the main plot. This inspiration not only solved the current dilemma, but he also saw a way that the portions he was going to have to remove from this novel can be used in the next book.
Inspirations are wonderful, aren’t they? They can come to you while you’re at the grocery store, at your day job, or with your writing group partners. An author recently told me that inspirations sometimes come into view during the day while she cares for her two small children. She composes them into story form in her head until she can sit down at her computer after the children are in bed.
David Baldacci, known for his suspense novels, took an interest in his family’s history. His novel, Wish You Well, is the result of his study. He commented in the “Author’s Note” of the book: “Ironically, as a writer, I’ve spent the last twenty years or so hunting relentlessly for story material, and utterly failed to see a lumberyardful within my own family. However, while it came later than it probably should have, writing this novel was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.” Publishers Weekly called it “. . . his best novel yet, an utterly captivating drama.” He dedicated the book “To my mother, the inspiration for this novel.”
Inspirations are different from ideas that you manufacture. They can come to you quietly, or they can wake you from a sound sleep. They can develop gradually, or they can blow us away with their complete impression. They’re a special blessing and encouragement from God. So hats off to you,writers, as you anticipate, give thanks for, and develop the inspirations God gives you to communicate to your audience.
I know you’ve had instances when an inspiring idea came to mind. Do you recall where you were when it occurred? What did you do with it? Is one forming now?
I recently had a flash of inspiration while lying on a chiropractors table after an adjustment. I was able to rough out the idea that evening and post it on my blog yesterday.
Hope you all had a wonderful–inspiring–week!
It was inspiration that set me down the road of writing about everyday miracles. I was marveling at the clear memory I have of nearly drowning when I was four. And thinking about how it was, strangely, a mostly good memory. So what if it being good was a God thing? What if it wasn’t about drowning, but about a miracle? Like walking on water? That inspiraton set of an avalanche of ideas.
Hmmm. Inspiration–breathing in. So our books are an expiration? I do love words.
This sounds like a VERY interesting idea about miracles, Sarah. And I like your inspiration/expiration concept! I like words, too.
I had an odd source of inspiration recently– our mail carrier. We had a small discussion on what a person’s mail tells about their personal life. (Overdue bills, types of magazines, retirement brochures) The tiny conversation sparked an interesting way to help develop characters.
What about the garbage man? He gets an interesting view of the remnants of our consumerism.
Kathryn,
LOVE that inspiration idea – my brother-in-law was a mail-carrier and he knew EVERYTHING about everyone! Talk about fodder! Fortunately, he’s a good guy and knew how to keep his nose to the grindstone. The old poop won’t even tell me some stuff!
Hope you had a fabulous week! I loved seeing pictures of all of you on Facebook.
I had a general idea for my current wip, but literally woke up at 3 am a few months ago and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I started brainstorming…and it. was. awesome.
This is going to sound weird, but inspiration usually finds me mucking my horses’ pen.
Well, maybe it’s not so weird after all. Ideas do tend to crop up when one is doing a task that allows the mind to wander a bit. Inspiration requires a free rein.
Talking about inspiration is a great way to end the week. The shower is usually a good place for me to get inspired. A long walk works too. I’m lucky to have the woods outside my office window to gaze at. I’m waiting for the little creatures there to speak to me.
Hope you had a lovely retreat.
I’ve had inspiration strike during church services (a scene with two characters arguing of all things :)), while I was driving, but most often when I’m in the shower or just about to fall asleep. 🙂
Oh and when I’ve been weeding.
I forgot to mention I really like that picture, Mary. I hope you all had a wonderful time in Monterey!
Inspiration can come in the strangest places. Sometimes chocolate can inspire a thought or idea. Once in the middle of the night as I was writing, I had an inspiration for a blog post. It all started with a piece of chocolate that was not my favorite, but someone else in my house’s favorite. Then I got to thinking about stories and writing voices.
Next thing you know, I’m writing a blog comparing chocolate to the writer’s voice and asking what flavor of chocolate the reader’s writing voice was. All because I grabbed the wrong piece of chocolate…can there be a wrong piece of chocolate? All because I grabbed someone else’s chocolate.
Great Post, Mary!
That was a fun post, Michelle. I remember it. 🙂
I was working on character profiles for the story I’m planning to write during NaNo. One background character is very important emotionally to the main character, but honestly there was no real reason for that character to exist in the story. So there I was, fighting and struggling to come up with anything at all to make this character mean as much to the story as she does to me, when it hit me right between the eyes.
She’s the main character’s birth sister! The main character was an orphan found by a young boy who became her adopted brother.
I was so psyched when that bit came to me, because it pulled all the other senseless pieces together beautifully.
I had one as I was waking up yesterday. I’ve been struggling with a character’s goals and motivation, and it finally all clicked into place as I was half-awake. It was a sudden bolt and there it all was, and now he makes total sense.
Sometimes inspiration comes to me in the shower. I keep repeating it over and over until I can dry off and write it down. (And yes, some of my inspiring shower ideas don’t stick around long enough to be documented and are lost forever – or until my next shower.)
Peter, the same thing happens to me & I do my best to remember them! 🙂
Inspiration for scene ideas ride along next to me on my long bike rides. Just today I got an idea while we drove out of town. Good thing there was a pen and a napkin in the glove compartment. 🙂
Both as a preacher and author I have come to the conclusion that inspiration is a three legged stool: 1) Hours of hard work and study, 2) Sudden flashes of inspiration, and 3) The Holy Spirit.
I never know which one of those legs is responsible for any given inspiration, so I am always pursuing all three!
My ideas can strike me anywhere but most often it’s within my dreams. I find myself waking with the thread in my conscious and my stories grow root from there.
If I don’t write down a flash of inspiration immediately, it’s usually gone. Sometimes I tell my writing friend about something that happened to me and she will immediately come up with an idea for the use of it in one of my future novels. I recently met a young man while I was on a trip and he made an impression on me. When I told her about it, she quickly said he would make a great model for a character I had come up with for a brewing novel idea I had a few months ago. Thanks, Morgan!
When does inspiration hit? In the shower, yes. Right when I’m about to fall asleep? On a regular basis. But I like the unusual & unexpected bursts. Like the time I got a plot idea while watching a documentary about Charles Manson. Creepy, definitely, but I’m excited about where it will go.
Another idea came to me after hitting a deer one night on a deserted Ohio country road. You just never know when or how inspiration will strike!
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