Please, do go on....
Nov. 21st, 2008 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j_cheneyAKA, yet another note on process....
I'm thinking about inspiration today.
At least in writing terms, I'm never in short supply here. This is the easiest part for me. Ideas just float by and get sucked into my brain when I inhale.
They aren't plot bunnies, though. They are, perhaps, character bunnies, situation bunnies, setting bunnies, vignette bunnies, but not necessarily plot bunnies
So, some examples,
I have a few setting bunnies, mostly related to my reading. I'd like to set stories during the influenza epidemic of 1918 (I wonder why?) or during the Longest Night in London. There are hundreds of character bunnies hopping around in the braincase. And vignette bunnies? I record these when I get the chance, cluttering my hard drive with little scenes that may never see daylight....but that I haven't got time to focus on.
None of those are bona-fide plot bunnies, complete with a head, body, and a fluffy tail. Real plot bunnnies are pretty rare.
So how do I come up with stories?
"The Stains of the Past" was generated out of two character bunnies from The King's Daughter. "A Hand for Each" came from an earnest desire to write a pirate story for Shimmer's pirate issue. Took me two months to come up with a plot for that. "Touching the Dead"? Ultimately that was inspired by a 'science' note that appeared in a magazine about 15 years ago....Glamour Magazine. Don't laugh.
I read a lot of magazines. "Masks of War" was inspired by an article in Smithsonian, "Afterimage" by articles in Popular Science and SciAm. "Taking a Mile" originally came from the book The Physics of Star Trek and a PBS special on transgenics.
I took a different apporach with the dragon stories, wanting to write some stories that had 3 factors.
1) Epic fantasy
2) Contrasting the western concept of fire-breathing dragons (bad) with eastern dragons (generally benificent)
3) that involved a family, not just one or two heroes....a family that fights...evil, or whatever.
I knew I wanted to do those things, but didn't really have anything particular in mind. Then along came this:
In that same magazine, I found this:
I'd cut them both out, and they lay there on the table, looking up at me, side by side. And it hit me. There they are....a little girl and her....aunt....and the little girl is clearly, in this picture, doing some sort of magic. Clearly.
Then it became a matter of figuring out how to get a clearly non-Asian woman into China (yes, I admit I had to get rid of the Mongols and the Tatars to do this, but I'm OK with that...voila, no Golden Horde), and the plot suddenly had something of a body, at least. The details I had to assemble myself from there, but the basic inspiration (not an actual plot bunny) hit me pretty fast.
The point being that for me, at least, the inspiration seems to come from anywhere. Whatever the brain takes in can be refigured eventually, sometimes in ways that I would not have expected (such as the fully-formed plot bunny that erupted from Trauma and Recovery, more than a year after I read it, and worked its way into the dragon line-up).
Anyhow, I suspect that most writers get their inspirations from a lot of different places. What's the weirdest inspiration/plot link that you have?
I'm thinking about inspiration today.
At least in writing terms, I'm never in short supply here. This is the easiest part for me. Ideas just float by and get sucked into my brain when I inhale.
They aren't plot bunnies, though. They are, perhaps, character bunnies, situation bunnies, setting bunnies, vignette bunnies, but not necessarily plot bunnies
So, some examples,
I have a few setting bunnies, mostly related to my reading. I'd like to set stories during the influenza epidemic of 1918 (I wonder why?) or during the Longest Night in London. There are hundreds of character bunnies hopping around in the braincase. And vignette bunnies? I record these when I get the chance, cluttering my hard drive with little scenes that may never see daylight....but that I haven't got time to focus on.
None of those are bona-fide plot bunnies, complete with a head, body, and a fluffy tail. Real plot bunnnies are pretty rare.
So how do I come up with stories?
"The Stains of the Past" was generated out of two character bunnies from The King's Daughter. "A Hand for Each" came from an earnest desire to write a pirate story for Shimmer's pirate issue. Took me two months to come up with a plot for that. "Touching the Dead"? Ultimately that was inspired by a 'science' note that appeared in a magazine about 15 years ago....Glamour Magazine. Don't laugh.
I read a lot of magazines. "Masks of War" was inspired by an article in Smithsonian, "Afterimage" by articles in Popular Science and SciAm. "Taking a Mile" originally came from the book The Physics of Star Trek and a PBS special on transgenics.
I took a different apporach with the dragon stories, wanting to write some stories that had 3 factors.
1) Epic fantasy
2) Contrasting the western concept of fire-breathing dragons (bad) with eastern dragons (generally benificent)
3) that involved a family, not just one or two heroes....a family that fights...evil, or whatever.
I knew I wanted to do those things, but didn't really have anything particular in mind. Then along came this:
In that same magazine, I found this:
I'd cut them both out, and they lay there on the table, looking up at me, side by side. And it hit me. There they are....a little girl and her....aunt....and the little girl is clearly, in this picture, doing some sort of magic. Clearly.
Then it became a matter of figuring out how to get a clearly non-Asian woman into China (yes, I admit I had to get rid of the Mongols and the Tatars to do this, but I'm OK with that...voila, no Golden Horde), and the plot suddenly had something of a body, at least. The details I had to assemble myself from there, but the basic inspiration (not an actual plot bunny) hit me pretty fast.
The point being that for me, at least, the inspiration seems to come from anywhere. Whatever the brain takes in can be refigured eventually, sometimes in ways that I would not have expected (such as the fully-formed plot bunny that erupted from Trauma and Recovery, more than a year after I read it, and worked its way into the dragon line-up).
Anyhow, I suspect that most writers get their inspirations from a lot of different places. What's the weirdest inspiration/plot link that you have?
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-21 04:40 pm (UTC)Agreed. *g*
I'm with you on having all sorts of bunnies that aren't, in fact, complete bunnies. I also tend to write intros to stories - I have bunches of things saved on my computer where clearly I know the tone and I even have half an idea about the character and the setting, but no plot whatsoever. Plot is my nemesis.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-21 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-21 04:49 pm (UTC)I had a spam that I saved:
Subject line: Pork Chop Mastadons defined by 07
Text:
When recliner over demon is unruffled,
around turn signal plan an escape from asteroid over.
And pee on the dark side of her boy.
Where we can inexorably try to seduce our ribbon.
cohere shove sleigh bedside
I've kept that since 2004....trying to discern the deeper meaning...there must be one.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-21 04:45 pm (UTC)I once had this thought that when I'm rich and famous, I'm going to pay some secretary (because I'll have one then) to go through all those little tucked-away scenes, remove any that are published, organize them, and then put it out on Lulu....and because I'll be famous, people will actually pay money for it....oh, yeah...
right....I forgot....not rich and famous
no subject
Date: 2008-11-21 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-21 04:49 pm (UTC)