This was cross-posted from 2010: A Book Odyssey. Please stop on by!
I’d like to talk about inspirations, specifically those that prod me into writing more. So here we go, in no particular order.
- Reading a book I really love: This has happened so many times to me. I read this story dripping amazingness and start moaning because I wish I had written it. This happened with Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause, which remains my favorite young adult novel due to its sensuous descriptions and amazing werewolves; Looking For Alaska by John Green, with its brilliant voice and characters that feel very real; The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, with its lyricism and sophistication; A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, with its satisfying mix of Victoriana, romance, magic, and snark; and so on.
- Reading a book I really hate: I’m not going to name these books, but the real wall-bangers make me want to prove I can write so much better than this drivel that actually got published. More so if this drivel made millions of dollars and is coming out as a “major motion picture” right now. Ahem. This may be an alternate form of my jealousy of books I love, but of course I hate them. Anyway, it still inspires me not to make the mistakes I’m seeing, and/or get back to work on my own novel rather than snarking over theirs.
- Nonfiction: I’m a research addict. My debut, Other, has a boatload of paranormal people in it, so I got to read all sorts of books on folklore from around the world. I went on a pooka research binge for Gwen, the heroine, and then spent ages hunting down a rare book on kitsune (Japanese fox-spirits) for another character, Tavian. I also found new paranormal beasties I hadn’t seen before in urban fantasy, and snuck a few of those in. I also love to browse nonfiction in the area of my character’s interests, such as nonfiction on art for Vincent, who’s studying art at college when we meet him in Unseen.
- Library/Bookstore: This sort of ties in with the first three, but I must stress the value of browsing for inspiration. I go to both the library at my college and the smaller public library downtown and meander around, looking for books that are slightly familiar or completely intriguing. I go for the oddest-looking books, usually, and toss these scraps of information on my compost heap of inspiration. Ideas tend to sprout the best, that way.
- Photography: I <3 Flickr. For Vincent, the protagonist of my work-in-progress Unseen, I spent ages looking at photos to get a clear picture of his albinism. Also, Flickr is my favorite cheat sheet for descriptions. When I’m trying to describe a particular scene, like a moonlight forest with wolves, I search for those keywords on Flickr and gape at a few dozen superb photos before writing down the details.
- Music: I don’t exactly have a playlist for each of my novels like some people I know, but I do have specific kinds of music I like to listen to, depending on what I’m writing. Sometimes I try to listen to something I think my character would, such as a cliché hard rock band for Brock, the protagonist of Bloodborn, the sequel to Other. It helps me get into character.
- Gardening: A lot of the time I think of my best ideas while I’m gardening. It helps me tuck away my hyper conscious mind (I’m thinking of Natalie Goldberg’s term “monkey mind”) and let the unconscious out while I’m doing a calming, repetitive task like weeding or planting seedlings. Also, it helps me to take a breather from my writing when I’m feeling frazzled. Same goes for little things like just going out to get the mail. Usually I sprint back inside with a new idea or solution to a problem, crowing, “Aha!”
- People: Being fortunate enough to live in a college town and a state capital, I get to see a weird—er, diverse—mix of people. Especially on the bus, or on campus. I once saw a college-age guy drinking from a green sippy cup on the bus, which he tucked into the pocket of his trench coat. And during a festival on campus, there was this gray-haired old guy with a saggy belly wearing vampire fangs. And “dancing” with these red-and-orange ostrich feather fans. Yes. And then there was the creepy old guy who offered me a lollipop at a Greyhound station. I would really like to know—or create—the stories behind these people.
- Traveling: I can’t tell you how many of the locations I use in my novels came from my travels around the western US. I draw upon western Washington heavily, since I grew up and still live there, and also Oregon, California, and Idaho. I’m excited to write about creepy little half-abandoned logging towns for Bloodborn. I hope to travel more—and wider—in the future, especially since I can only count Canada as a foreign country I’ve been to.
- Stumble: Yes, I’m evil for including stumbleupon.com on this list. But honestly, you get to choose your interests and then randomly find similar stuff deemed cool by other people. How can this not be inspiration? Okay, so it’s also a massive black hole of procrastination, but I’ve come across some great story ideas while stumbling. And aren’t a lot of inspirations born out of procrastination?
