Idea Generation

Where do I get my ideas from?  Apparently writers get asked this question often.  No one has asked me yet, so I'm going to just be brazen and come right out with it:  I read--a lot.

I have found that I get a lot of ideas and help with difficult plot problems simply by researching stories.  The more you read and learn about a time period or a culture, the more ideas you get.  For instance, a line from a poem gave me the idea for my short story, "Strands of Grass."  Reading about the Greek custom of eating mezedes (snacks eaten while drinking ouzo), gave me the idea and setting for a short story called, "Stavros."

I have gotten ideas by reading short stories I have already written, because I see things that the characters in such a story might do in the future.  I find that I like to write series of short stories featuring the same characters--not necessarily in a seamless story arc.  A lot of these are stand-alone stories.  I sometimes don't want to stop writing about certain characters just because their first story ended.

Some stories come to me when I ask myself a question.  For instance, I was in awe of the truly impressive amount of gold that Smaug had collected in the movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  It was every fan's ultimate wild fantasy of how much gold a dragon could collect.  The dragon could have swum in it, he had so much gold.  And then I asked myself, "What would be a logical reason for dragons to hoard gold?"  So I came up with a reason.  My reason also came to me because of an awesomely simple and brilliant therapeutic item made for children who have autism, but the main impetus for the idea was the question.

Reading about medicine gives me ideas for stories.  I had the greatest fun reading about the actual health problems of giants, and my giant, Kiernan's, health problems in "The Witch of Braighe" figured prominently in the story I wrote about him.  He and his friend, a witch named Triona, are other characters whom I want to write more about.

Do I ever feel like I've run out of ideas, that I can't possibly come up with new ones?  Yes.  But then some idea surprises me, and I realize that, no, thank goodness, the well hasn't run dry and never will, as long as I continue to have an inquisitive mind.

So where do you get your ideas from?

Characters with Anachronistic Mindsets: Do They Have a Place in Fiction?

Parental warning:  I speak frankly about romance novels below.

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I always get nervous when I see book blurbs like this: "A 14th-century story told with a 20th-century sensibility.” 

Ugh.  I hate that!  By and large, people of the 14th century did not have the sensibility of people living in the 20th century.  Please don't give it to them!

Whether my perception is accurate or not, the above statement screams to me: "The heroine in this book will be an anachronistically modern-thinking woman, and the villains will be portrayed as period-stereotyped chauvinistic assholes!"  Granted, this is my knee-jerk reaction, and it will have to be tempered by me actually buying and reading the book in question.  I simply saw the blurb today and groaned.

The reason I am having this knee-jerk reaction is that it is, sadly, so often shown in books when the author and publisher want to make a point and care more about that than about maintaining historical accuracy and entertaining readers.  You often see this in Hollywood movies, too.  That type of movie often fails because audiences don't want to feel that they are paying to be preached to.

I fervently hope that none of the red flags popping up in my mind will be true for the above novel.  I believe that, if you're going to write a historical novel, you should be very well versed in the attitudes of the day and understanding of them, at least for the length of the book.  Yes, it is quite possible that at least a few people back in the 14th century held to more progressive beliefs than the norm.  If they had not, we would not have had the Protestant Reformation, for example.  But whether the Church was Catholic or Protestant, 14th century attitudes about morality, particularly female morality, were anything but those of the 20th century.  The same is true of ecological concerns and attitudes toward people of certain ethnicities or sexual orientations.  I hope the author of the above book kept that in mind.

I also wonder if some of my objection to finding characters with anachronistic mindsets stems from the fact that I read science fiction, in which it is not uncommon to read something from the point of view of an alien.  The more alien such a character's thought process is, the more interesting.  Frankly, exploring the point of view of a character from an earlier time period is quite similar to looking at the mind of someone who is sort of alien.   If the aliens in SF novels thought exactly the way we do, there would be little point in making them aliens, right?

All of that said, there are times when I have enjoyed slightly anachronistic character attitudes in books.  Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael novels, for instance, always intrigued me with the way Brother Cadfael would figure out ways using the technology and logic available in his time to do things that we know to do in the 21st century to find out who committed a murder.  

In the romance genre, author Eloisa James regularly deals with topics which used to be taboo in the industry when I was a teenager--but I like that she acknowledges them and has her characters deal with them--painful intercourse, oral sex, homosexuality, and so forth.  These are issues that modern people deal with, too, and it is refreshing to see that her heroines tend to be equal partners in their lovemaking.  Unfortunately, ignorance of sex, particularly among well-bred Victorian girls, was something that too many of them did experience before marriage, and I think that is tragic. 

I believe a definite and subtle balancing act is required between writing characters whom readers can relate to and making them mostly accurate examples of their time and culture.  Would most of us want to read a story about a Regency or Victorian-era girl who truly is ignorant of what goes on in a bedroom and who believes all manner of bizarre and period rumors and superstitions she's been told, or would we want to toss the book away in disgust because we can't believe any girl of eighteen could be that ignorant?  It's an interesting question to me.

On the Importance of Boyfriends in YA Fiction

Sorry for the pompous post title.  If I can think of something better, I'll change it. 

Today I came across a YA book blurb.  "X was having a rotten year at school until she met Y."

On the face of it, this doesn't seem terribly objectionable.  But I got to thinking that it is pretty much the same premise that is behind the Twilight books, at least the first one.  To me, there is something wrong when we regard our lives as awful or, even worse, meaningless, unless there's a romantic interest present.  Maybe this sort of plot device is used so often and is so profitable because it truly does reflect the way some teenagers feel.  I would rather see books being written that teach teenagers to be morre assertive and more self-sufficient.  Yes, I know there's peer pressure.  Yes, I know you feel left out if everyone you know has a romantic interest, and you don't.  I get that.  The loneliness is real. 

But I would like to see the occasional book written in which having a romantic interest doesn't magically improve the main character's life.  I'd rather see books in which the main character's own accomplishments improve his or her life.  What kind of person is going to be interested in someone who has no accomplishments or who goes around just being depressed and dependent on others for his or her happiness?

Okay, I mean aside from vampire guys named Edward Cullen.  :)

I would rather see YA books in which the main character first finds some niche to excel in and then finds a romantic interest.  I want to see more books in which a romantic interest is simply the icing on an awesome cake, rather than the cake itself.

Story Setting

I've spent some time over the last day or so reading Strange Little Girls.  I'm finding that Sirens Call seems to prefer--at least, for that anthology--stories set in the modern day but with the injection of some unique element of weirdness.  So I believe I will have to re-think what I was planning.  That's okay.  I have to be adaptable to what a particular market wants.

Story Work for Sirens Call Piece

I spent this evening doing more background work on the story I am writing for Sirens Call. I decided that I needed to understand the setting and my character's particular subculture very well before I started writing the story. I want to have a clear and vivid feel for it in my head.

But now the story is saying to me, "You could make a novel out of this." Yeah. Maybe for NaNoWriMo, not sooner.

I believe I will begin writing it tomorrow night, as I don't want to get so wrapped up in the worldbuilding and the cult my protagonist belongs to that I ignore the real point of the story.

I have also bought a copy of Strange Little Girls, which is a previous anthology that Sirens Call published recently. I want to get a feel for the kinds of stories and settings that they are looking for.

Honesty in Writing

You learn fascinating things while writing--such as that there is a distinct difference between writing that a character feels something because that is what you want him to feel, and writing a character feeling something that he truly does feel.

Always be honest. It will require more work as you dig deep into yourself to figure out why the character feels what he feels, but the understanding you gain will be very much worth it.

The Wonderfulness of Writing

"A Change of Heart" desperately needs a change of title. *sigh* But at least I finished it and submitted it.

Some things I learned about writing last night:

1. It is scary and wonderful how a story can suddenly come together so that it not only makes sense, but all the parts of it fit together in ways you never imagined they would.
2. It's good to make giants grumpy and inelegant. They are so much more fun, that way!
3. Giants and witches have a sense of humor. It's hilarious when they use it.
4. Fall in love with your setting as well as your characters.
5. One of my favorite plot points for this story was used as the result of reading about real gigantism.

Current project now is beta-reading a story for a friend.