Writer Wednesday: Getting Started

It's the question every writer is asked, at almost every Q&A: Where do you get your ideas? In other words, how do you get started writing a story?

I ran across a video of writer Neil Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Graveyard Book) answering that very question. You might want to watch it. It's bound to be more eloquent than my answer.

He said this, which resonated with me: Writers notice when they get ideas. They notice when their imaginations take a strange turn. Anyone can do it; you just have to practice and train yourself. Start by writing anything down, no matter how mundane or fantastic. It may not be the greatest or most original idea ever, but you'll wake up that part of your brain that wants to play with the world.

The What If? Question
We're all born doing this, asking that "What if?" question. In my presentations to schoolkids, I often show them the "What if" pattern of my first novel, The Key & the Flame:

• WHAT IF 3 kids found their way to a fantastical kingdom?
• WHAT IF that kingdom was full of magic?
• WHAT IF the king of that land hated magic and killed anyone who practiced it?

That's just the beginning. The What If's carry on from there, but they could go in any direction. If you start at the beginning of the story--WHAT IF a girl was given a mysterious key and she found that it opened a door in an ancient oak tree--you could take that all over the place.

What might lie on the other side of such a door?

• a fanastical kingdom
• a house containing long-lost things
• a girl holding a sword
• a ship at sea
• outer space
• a library
• the world in miniature
• an African savannah
• a path through the sky
• someone who grabbed your hand and yelled, "Where have you been? Let's go!"

Gettting started is noticing when a strange thought passes through your mind. You might note it down for later reference in a notebook you keep in your purse or pocket. Sometimes I do that, but often I just have my mobile phone with me and I jot it in the Evernote app under a file called "Writing Ideas."

The Why? Question
Get used to asking not only "What if?" but also "Why?" You're sitting in an ice-cream shop and you notice a haggard man in a rumpled suit sitting alone, eating an enormous banana split. Ask yourself Why? Why is he eating such a celebratory dessert all alone? Why does he look so disheveled? Is that a tear rolling down his cheek? Why is he so sad? His suit is wrinkled but his shoes are polished to a high sheen; why is that? Did he drive to the shop or take a cab or a train? Did he stop on sudden impulse or was this a planned outing? Doesn't he have a job he should be at? Has he just lost it? Was he on a date that failed miserably? Why isn't he married?

Eavesdropping
One of the reasons I like eating lunch alone on a barstool or in a restaurant is that I listen to conversations around me. These snapshots of people's lives can be very interesting. Or they can be very dull, and my brain spins them into something more interesting.

"So I told him, 'Forget it. I'm not covering for you anymore.'"

"No way!"

"I'm tired of his garbage. Why should I have to take the heat for what he did?"

Oooh oooh ooh ... what did he do?

"He must've totally lost it."

"Oh, he was mad, all right."

Did he pick up a vase and throw it at you? Maybe he drew a gun ... You'll pay for this one, Madeleine ....

"So you turned him in?"

Hurry, Maddie, hit the alarm button! Why are you just standing there? He's going to kill you.

"I almost didn't. I mean, we were friends once."

An old lover. I knew it. He still has feelings for you, but now those feelings have turned to hate. Maddie ... the alarm button ... Maddie!

"That should count for something, I guess."

Why don't you ever carry your own weapon? You know what he's like.

"Well, not anymore. I'd had it."

So then ... I can't watch ...

"So then I said, 'You can't switch time cards with me anymore, Frank. If you're late, you're late, and you'll just have to deal with it.'"

Oh. 

If You Live in a Boring Place

Nothing magical ever happens where you work? I don't buy it. Look around. Listen. Observe. Be Sherlock Holmes. Ask questions, always, always, in your head. Fill yourself up with wonder: Go to movies. Read books. Read different books, stories outside your comfort zone. Wander through art galleries. Take a day trip. Visit antique stores. Walk through the open-air market. Do these things alone, and really look at the objects. Listen to the people. Let your brain play.

That's where ideas come from.


image from Wikimedia Commons, by Mehdinom (own work). Reproduced by permission under GFDL  and this Creative Commons license.

Thank-You Thursday: Inspiration Is EVERYWHERE

Why this photo? Because it sparks the imagination.

If you're just tuning in (as most people are), you'll not realize that I've been overflowing with gratitude about the writing life all month. (Check out the other Thank-You Thursday posts here.) This week, I'm grateful that as writers our inspiration is all around us.

If I were a stockbroker trying to make creative investment decisions, I wouldn't know where to turn for inspiration. (And, yeah, you wouldn't want me touching your money anyway.) Cooking? I can stare at a cupboard full of food and see nothing to eat.

But writing is different. The great ideas are just waiting for us! An overheard conversation (oh yes--I do eavesdrop), a moment of déjà vu, the shape of a cloud on a stormy day--all of these things are fodder for a story. And that's just the fountain of ideas. For excellence, we can turn to those masters who make it look so easy, but who work so hard. 

Here are some of my favorite inspirations:

• C.S. Lewis
• E.B. White
• Russell T. Davies
• Madeleine L'Engle
• Joss Whedon
• Stephen King
• J.K. Rowling
• Harper Lee
• Steven Moffatt
• Roald Dahl

... and that's the short list. As writers, we're free to pick apart the masters' material and see how it works, why it works, and what we can do to make our own stuff better. We can also glean inspiration from symphonies, pop songs, architecture, vast landscapes, city streets ... the list never ends. 

Don't ever tell me you don't have any ideas. What you have is an overabundance of ideas. You just have to narrow it down to a single, really good one.

So thank you, creativity goddess, for all the great stuff to draw from. And also, thanks for making me so bad at math that no one will ever hire me as a stockbroker.

And how about you? Where do you draw inspiration from?

image: The Prague astronomical clock (in Old Town Square) was installed in 1410 by clock-makers Mikuláš of Kadaň and Jan Šindel, and is the oldest functioning astronomical clock in the world.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Godot13 and is free to share and reuse under this Creative Commons license.

Inspirational Talismans

Small confession, folks: Small because a lot of people already know this about me; confession because, well, not everyone does.

I keep stuffed animals around.

No, not that kind (taxidermy--ew). I mean plushies. The fun kind that I look at throughout the day and think, Oh yeah--work is supposed to be play for me. (And it is, most of the time.) So I thought I'd introduce you to some of my pals.

This is Snort, who sat on my desk throughout the writing of The Key & the Flame. The book revolves around the element of fire, so a dragon ... well, you get it. He came from a shop at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, KS.

Yes, that is Hedwig, fresh from the Harry Potter series. Since those are some of my favorite books, Hedwig deserves a place of honor. She was acquired at a shop at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, FL. (I know ... so cool, right?)

 Aslan the lion sits on my bookshelf in honor of The Chronicles of Narnia, my very favorite series of books from childhood. If you haven't read it, I can't think why you're hanging out on this blog instead of snatching up your very own copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan was snagged from my daughter's collection of stuffed animals when she decided to cull the herd one day. *Whew* We nearly lost him.

Mortimer the Moose has no literary reference whatsoever, but he's cute as all get-out and represents the first stuffed friend I acquired in adulthood. He was a souvenir from my sister, who bought him on a trip to Jackson Hole, WY.

 Jabbers the parrot is one of the few genuine Beanie Babies to ever grace our home. I'm nuts about birds of all kinds, especially parrots, but they're so beautiful and wild I can't bear to keep them in cages. So Jabbers is my substitute. He was a gift from one of my lovely sisters-in-law.

Gimpy the frog came to live with me when I broke my wrist back in August 2011. It was a particularly sucky month, to be frank, and the broken wrist capped it nicely. I had to wear an external fixator for several weeks, so I looked kind of like a cyborg. Gimpy, a gift from my sis, made me feel less alone.

Pooh, my Bear of Very Little Brain, is both a tribute to A. A. Milne, who I love dearly, and to my daughter, who worshipped all things Pooh-related for a big chunk of her life. She's much bigger now, but Pooh never grows up, so he remains very special to me. Also, he's downright huggable. He came from a toy store that closed a long time ago in our suburb.

I bought the Reader Owl years ago because I thought she was hilarious. She used to sit on my desk when I was a teacher's aide and amuse the kiddos. Now she sits on my file cabinet and reminds me of the first rule of good writing: Read! Read! Read! I think she came from our local Borders Books, whose demise I still mourn.

Finally, Áedán is a little bean-filled plushie who represents the Golden Salamander in The Key & the Flame. Just as he's lucky for Holly, he's lucky for me, and sits on my keyboard while I write each day. My daughter found him for me in the gift shop of the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, one of our favorite haunts.

Now tell me: What talismans do you keep?

Why the World Needs Your Ideas

So here we are, a brand-new year. Maybe you've got a resolution to finish that book, submit x number of queries, or just write something really cool that you're proud of. But with every new year--at least for me--comes that niggling little voice saying: Yeah. You made big promises last year. Remember?

And as if that taunting voice weren't enough, I start second-guessing anything I've already done. What about you? Think your stuff is lame? You've got nothing to say that anyone wants to hear? That kind of thinking stymies any creative endeavor. And while we definitely need to go over our drafts and weed out the cliches, whether in language or plot or character, we can't do that if we don't put something down first. And hey, there's only one you, and only you can express your ideas. So don't be afraid to put them out there. Derek Sivers tells you why:




So tell me:  What are you going to do differently this year?

The Secret to Writing More

 I came upon a blog post recently entitled "The 7 Habits of Highly Prolific Writers." I highly recommend it to all aspiring writers. For one thing, it's very brief and gets to the point.

Unlike myself.

Here's the takeaway from that article that I lit upon: "Sit down and write." That doesn't sound like rocket science, nor does it sound like anything especially new. But here's the thing: Very few people do that.


When I was (much) younger, I did a lot of whining that went something like this:

"I don't have time to write. I have a stupid full-time job."

"Why do I have to do homework? I'd much rather write my story."

"I'm so tired when I get home I can't get up the energy to write."

There was a lot more to it, but since it was whining, I don't guess you really want to read it.

I do remember one evening hanging out in the kitchen while my dad was cooking dinner. I was on one of my "poor me, I never get to write, and it's my life's dream" rants. He said, "So why don't you go do it?"

I hummphed in that classic You haven't been a kid since the Great War, how would you understand anything? teen attitude and went up to my room.

And I wrote something.

The fact is, if I'd done as much writing as whining, it wouldn't have taken me so long to get a publishing contract. I got close plenty of times--I'd get a little something published, then slack off, then get something else published. I got encouraging letters from editors and agents. And I let other things get in the way.

Don't get me wrong: They were good things. Things like raising a kid, dealing with some personal issues, learning balance and structure in my life. They may even have been necessary to get through before I could bring the writing around full circle. But the fact is, however justified, I did put other things before the writing.

So I have no one to blame for my delayed success but myself.

I don't kick myself now, because as I said, those things I put first were necessary and wonderful. But neither do I sit around saying, Gee, how is that some people publish at 29 and I'm publishing at %&*#^ age? I know why. I'm okay with it.

Make sure you're okay with the choices you make. Are they necessary? Then fine. But if they're not, then figure out why you're not writing. Maybe it's because it's really hard and scary. And it is. But be honest: Focus on that, work on that. Don't whine that you can't find time.

When you must write, you find the time.     

Aid to the Process

Source: tweakiz.com via Miss on Pinterest

The inimitable Ms. Lee.