Taming Inspiration

- by ria, on Wednesday, 8th December 2010, 6:36pm

I was reading an article about creating articles recently, where the writer said he can only write when he’s inspired. He gets an idea and if he doesn’t go with it straight away it fizzles and he stops working on it. He said he’s so driven by this wave of inspiration that if he stops in the middle, he can’t continue when he gets back to it because the inspiration is gone.

I completely understand where he is coming from, but I don’t agree with him. I used to be like him, waiting for inspiration and once it hit, sitting down for a 7 /8 / 12 hour stretch to try to get the whole story (or drawing, it used happen a lot with drawings) done before I had to stop working on it for the night. Usually if I didn’t get the piece finished by then, it never got finished. I get the impression a lot of young writers work this way.

The bad news: it doesn’t work. If you want to write a novel, you have to be able to take the inspiration and tame it so that you can use it whenever you need it. You must be able to draw that creative / excited energy out for the entire length of writing the novel, which could be a year or more. Any published author will tell you that writing a novel takes persistence and a strict schedule more than inspiration. That flash of brilliance is just enough to get you started, it’s up to you to take up the idea and carry it through to completion.

‘But how do I do that?’ you ask. Self-discipline, a good writing schedule and deep understanding of your story and characters helps. Really, you are the only one who can answer the question. I guess you need to ask yourself how much your story means to you, how strong is your desire to finish it. For me, I want to be a writer. I’ve wanted it for a long, long time. That need to be published is what keeps me going; you have to figure out what drives you, and use that to push yourself along when the inspiration wears off.

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category: thoughts, writing

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My Inspiration

- by ria, on Wednesday, 15th September 2010, 12:19pm

I’ve kind of touched on this before, but inspiration and ideas come from everywhere. Since I finished draft 3, I’ve found myself at a bit of a loose end. I’m not quite sure what to do with myself now. I figure I’ll move on to book 2. In this in-between-time, I’ve been thinking about how my book started out.

The story I tell in this book has been growing for the last 13 years or so. It started with a painting entitled Fall of the Rebel Angels by Samuel Forde (1828). The painting depicts Lucifer and his angels being cast from Heaven. It’s pretty dark, Michael or Gabriel or someone illuminated on high, and Lucifer and his boys falling into darkness. They look back at the archangel and that look speaks volumes to me. It is fear and longing and hatred and jealousy. But mostly it is regret. They don’t want to leave the light and fall into the darkness. But they are too proud to ask for forgiveness.

I used go into the gallery every weekend and look at that painting (it’s been taken down since) and marvel at The Fall. Some years later I got around to reading Paradise Lost (actually, I never finished it. I found Raphael totally boring and I stopped reading at the bit where he’s talking to Adam and Eve). There was one bit that really stood out, and that was when Satan has a moment of doubt. He’s plotting his revenge on Heaven, but for one moment he questions everything. He wants to return to the light, he wants to be good again, he misses the glory of the Host. He shows such weakness, such humanity.

That frailty wormed its way into my soul and took root there. In college I made animations and shorts that revolved around the idea of the fall. Most of the stories I wrote involved people being cast out, being filled with darkness at the injustice of it all.

Only recently did I realise how much Fall of the Rebel Angels affected me. I did not put these things together until I started editing draft 1. Draft 1 was pretty much a fall from Heaven. It was even called The Fall back then. It was about angels and demons and one angel’s fall from grace and subsequent exile. It was childish and cliché. But it was a base from which the current incarnation of my book grew. There is still exile and desire for revenge and weakness and doubt and grief. Perhaps it’s not laid on as thickly any more, but it’s still there.

I find it interesting that I’ve been writing this story for 13 years, that the inspiration has been with me that long. I wonder will getting this book finished and published satisfy that need within me to tell this story, or will pieces of it show up in things I do from now on.

Feel free to add any similar inspirations you might have, in the comments.

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category: writing

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What to Do When You Don’t Feel Like Writing

- by ria, on Wednesday, 18th August 2010, 10:30am
A Writing Schedule

If you find it hard to sit at your computer for 6-8 hours typing out the images in your head, then I may have some advice for you.

Sometimes, a routine can help with getting you into the right headspace for writing. This is where an outline comes in handy. Figure out all the free time you have during the week for writing. Make a chart that shows the days of the week (or, use something like google calendar – that’s what I use).  Now, look at all the scenes in your outline and try to guess how much time you will need for each scene. Let’s say a scene a day. Find your first free day and mark in ‘Scene 1.’ Find your second free day and mark in ‘Scene 2.’

If you don’t have whole days to work with, you can spread your scenes over two days. Try not to spread your scenes too far. You are trying to write a book, here. Even if you only have an hour, you can get 500 words done. 1,000 words make a good scene. At most, you should only need three days for any one scene. If you are editing, do the same thing, but instead of scenes, do chapters per day.

This may seem hard, but it’s the only way to get a novel written this decade, especially if you don’t have much free time. Or worse, if you have all the time in the world. In that case, you feel that you have plenty of time, no need to sit down and start yet. Wrong. Start now. Before you know it, your time will be gone and you won’t have your book written.

When that Doesn’t Work

If you suffer from laziness, lack of inspiration, not knowing where your story is going, and you don’t feel like writing, try writing anyway. The only way to get over these problems is to write through them.

If you really don’t feel like writing, don’t write. Simple as that.

I suffer from occasional apathy, and on these days I can’t do anything. If I force myself to write when I really don’t feel like it, I end up with the worst prose and usually have to scrap it and go again when I actually feel like writing. Fortunately, these apathetic moments usually only last two or three days.

Do Something Else

If you think it’s just a passing phase, that you will feel like writing next week, don’t stress. Maybe write something in a blog, write a letter / email to a close friend, write ideas that you may have. You don’t even have to turn on your computer; you can jot them down in a notebook.

If you are inspired but can’t face your manuscript, don’t. Use some other format. Sometimes when I don’t feel like writing, I get an A4 pad (I prefer blue or yellow paper) and start writing (in pencil, fountain pen, marker). A change of scene is great to get me out of a slump. Now, I could just as easily suggest you go somewhere that you don’t normally write, a café, park or something, but I hate doing that. I need peace and silence for writing and don’t get how anyone can work in such a distracting environment.

If none of that works, stop trying. Go read a book, or play a game, get some exercise, clean the house, sew, go shopping, whatever. Maybe you need a break to get your inspiration flowing again. Whatever happens, don’t let a little unenthusiasm (firefox tells me this isn’t a real word – oh well) turn you away from your novel. Give it a week and come back, or move on to a different scene.

Whatever happens, don’t give up.

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category: writing

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Ideas

- by ria, on Wednesday, 28th July 2010, 11:51am

Coming up with ideas is hard. Especially if you are staring at a blank page. I can’t sit down and just start writing a story. First, I need a character I love, then I need a setting that fires my imagination. Then I need a plot. Two posts before this, I spoke about creating an outline, but I didn’t go into any details on where the ideas come from.

For me, they come while I’m writing. I’m working on a trilogy at the moment. I’m editing book one, book two is written and book 3 is half-written. So I have a good idea of the overarching plot. As I write, I’m thinking ahead, ‘How can I use this turn-about in one of the later books?’ So I’m getting ideas for book 3 from things that are happening in book 1. And I kind of hope that that shows through when I have them all written. I want people to be able to see the connections. I want them to say to themselves, ‘Ah, yes. I remember this from book 1. This author wove that narrative string nicely across the trilogy.’

But what if you are starting with a whole new book? One where you do not have a large background of information to pull ideas from? As I said already, start with a character, or a setting. If you are really brave, you can start with an emotion.

Setting as Inspiration

Let’s say you decide to focus on coming up with the setting first (I’ll get to character in a minute). Think about things you like: wood, metal, water, desert, city, food, bed… (yeah, now I’m just getting random). Anyway, think about something you like, say metal, and figure out how to work it into your setting. The setting is full of metal: a metal planet, a factory, a slum where huts are made of metal sheets… you can work it in any way you like. Then build on that. Let’s say you went with the metal factory. Is it in use or abandoned. Let’s say its abandoned and there are people living there. Why do they not have homes? My brain jumps to a post-apocalyptic setting. A bit cliché. I can do better. The metal protects them from something… Lightning? I don’t know. My brain has run out of ideas. Maybe I should go with something else.

You get the idea. Once you have your starting point, work up from there. You probably should leave the starting point behind. Don’t work it into your novel, use it to get a feel for the setting and then do something better with it.

Character as Inspiration

Starting with a character is generally the way I work. I usually get the look and style of the character first and then build up characteristics based on that. For example, one of the girls (women – she’s about 22)  from book two. My initial inspiration for her was an image of a girl wearing baggy pants and a t-shirt standing on the wall of a river bank, her long coat and hair blowing out behind her. A bit dramatic, I will admit, but you have to start somewhere.

In my mind, she’s alone and it’s dark. Now, what sort of girl would wear such clothes, be out at night and standing on the wall of a river bank. Someone confident, she doesn’t care what people think of her. She’s not going with convention – what grown adult walks along walls just for the fun of it? She’s also not wearing clothes that are conventional for a lady to wear. She’s definitley got more of a punk vibe going on. The final detail is that she looks serious. There’s something wrong, maybe insomnia, maybe depression, that has here out at night standing over the river. She’s not facing the river so I know she’s not suicidal. She just wants to let the wind take her problems away. Right, and I got all that from one image.

Now, this image did just pop into my head one day, but you can use things around you to the same effect. An image from a magazine, someone on TV. Find someone who attracts you, figure out why, and build up a personality for them. Don’t use someone you know, or a famous actor. They already have too much of their own personality.

Emotion as Inspiration

The final inspiration I’m going to write about is emotion. Emotion is a powerful thing. All of us feel, we all like to feel good, but sometimes it can be nice to wallow in bad feelings. Sometimes it is therapeutic to do so. But not too self-indulgently. Just for a little while.

Using emotion as inspiration can be tricky. You have to figure out what emotion would you like to explore. You have to come up with a situation that causes this emotion. Let’s say you want to write about forgiveness. Forgiveness is one of the most powerful emotions out there, it’s always a great one to write about. So, at the end of your novel you want the power of forgiveness to come shining off the page. You need to work backwards. You need a character who needs forgiving, or who holds a grudge. You need to work up to that. Being inspired by emotion isn’t generally something that happens to me at the start of a book. It usually comes when I have a better idea of everything, when I know my characters well, when I know what kind of emotional turmoil I want to put them through.

Other Sources of Inspiration

I want to add that if is there some cool action sequence you’ve always wanted to write, note it and work it into your novel somehow. Nothing like a good action scene to get your inspiration glands working.

So, How Does the Plot Come from All This?

Well, that’s the easy part. You have your setting, your primary emotion, or your character, the plot is what you do with it. Turn it on it’s head. Add conflict. Give your character something to worry about. Actually, I’m going to write a whole separate post about this.

One Further Comment

Whatever you do, don’t think that you can sit down and write just because you have a cool setting or a brilliant character. Believe me, if you do that, I can guarantee that your first 10,000 words will be nothing but back story and filler. You need a plot before you start writing. Exciting stuff has to happen on the very first page.

* * *

There’s a really important post on finding your plot coming next week. Set your rss to threecornersquare so you don’t miss out.

PS, I write the longest posts ever. This one is 1127 words.

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category: pre-production, writing

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