Where do you get your
story ideas?
It’s one of those
questions that makes all writers roll their eyes, because, geez, everyone asks
that. All of us probably have different answers to the question, too. We draw
from our own lives or pop culture or we just have a bunch of voices rattling
around in our heads who talk to us sometimes (but we totally aren’t crazy).
Sometimes those ideas dry
up, though.
So where does one get
inspiration?
Look around you.
I was looking for
something to read one night over the holidays. I’d decided that I had to start
making a serious dent in the Mount To-Be-Read, which in my case is a literal
stack of paperbacks, most of which I’ve picked up at conferences the last
couple of years. I found a book in the stack written (and autographed!) by one
of my favorite romance writers and couldn’t believe I hadn’t read it yet, so
that was a good start. (The book was ANY DUCHESS WILL DO by Tessa Dare.) There’s a scene in the book that stuck with
me for a few days after I put it down; I don’t want to spoil it, but suffice it
to say, it’s a deeply emotionally resonant scene in which the hero finally
confronts something traumatic he hasn’t let himself process and deal with. I
put the book down and then went back later and reread that scene. It got to me
as a reader, and I wanted to work out how, as a writer, I could evoke that same
emotion in my reader. I do that sometimes. I’ll pull apart a really good book
and try to work out what made it so good. What is the writer doing that gets me
to have such a reaction?
I’ve been reading a lot
over the last couple of weeks, more than I usually do. I was a big reader as a
kid, and I still buy books like they’re going out of style, but my schedule is
unrelenting at times, and I’ll go for weeks without really reading much at all.
But a really good book will get my brain churning. “I want to do that!” I’ll
think. I read a lot of nonfiction, too, mostly biographies and history, and
those will give me ideas, too. I’ve run into obscure historical figures on whom
I’d like to base characters, or settings and historical periods I’d like to
explore more by writing fiction.
I spent some downtime in
early January watching movies that were released over the last year or so but
that I never got around to seeing. For me, inspiration from movies often comes
in the form of wanting to evoke a particular feeling more than the stories
themselves. But movies can be a good thing to analyze—they often have to say
more with less, convincing you that two people have fallen in love or conquered
their demons in less than two hours.
In THE ARTIST’S WAY, Julia
Cameron recommends going on “artist’s dates,” days where you refill the
creative well, so to speak. Reading or going to a movie can do this, but so can
going to a museum, taking a trip out of town, or even just walking around the
neighborhood. Sometimes we just get tired and tapped out and have to find ways
to get our creativity back.
There are dozens of ways
to do this: read books, see movies, listen to music. Maybe a lyric in a song
will give you an idea. Maybe a movie will give you a feeling. Maybe seeing a
piece of art will jog something. Maybe just taking a journal to the park and
freewriting until you think of something clever is the way to get your mojo
back. Carry a notebook around with you so that you can jot all your ideas down
as they occur to you—no matter how silly. Maybe that’s just the thing when you
come back to it later.
I encourage you to find
ways to refill the creative well, to make your writing even better than it
already is!♥
Kate McMurray is President of RWA/NYC, and an award-winning author of gay romance and an
unabashed romance fan. When she’s not writing, she works as a nonfiction
editor, dabbles in various crafts, and is maybe a tiny bit obsessed with
baseball. She also served as President of Rainbow Romance Writers, the LGBT
romance chapter of Romance Writers of America.
She lives in Brooklyn, NY. Visit her at www.katemcmurray.com.
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