What’s our inspiration? Writers and other creative people have many different approaches to beginning their projects. Today A Drift of Quills are talking about what inspires us to write our stories. They’re near and dear to our hearts, and writing a novel is an extraordinarily personal experience!
As I near the day I push the “publish” button for the second book in The Mage’s Gift, this seems a good time to reflect on the motivation behind the story. I think it was years in the making, and I think I will say the same about all my books and stories. What does inspire me? What prompts me to set pen to paper (I really did start out that way), and then fingers to keyboard? I’m inclined to call it “magic.”
From my childhood I have been entertained by stories and songs, movies and television, pictures, puzzles, and possibilities. I think the phrase “what if?” is intrinsic to every creative person’s character. We connect random dots—sometimes absently, sometimes
purposefully. We shape the concepts with our own experiences, our own imaginations. One of my favorite writing challenges is to be in a group in which each person is given a single phrase or picture, then told to write. How extraordinary to see the variety in theme, genre, setting, characters, descriptions! (Check out Flash! (Department of Stories) to see what A Drift of Quills did with this exercise.)
Sherakai is the main character in The Mage’s Gift. He originally came into existence in a roleplaying game many years ago. Since then, I’ve dragged him out of that fantasy world and into one of my own—and I learn a lot as I go along, from world-building to language, from themes and characterization to plots and readers—you, dear reader. It is a fantastic, complicated web, and when all the pieces come together, whether I’m writing a story or dealing with changes in my own life, it is magical.
P.S. BROADDUS
Author of A Hero’s Curse (The Unseen Chronicles Book 1)
Parker’s website
I like the question “what inspired you?” To inspire is to motivate, to encourage, to incite. It is an action that is uniquely intimate through its connection with personal desire. It touches on motivations and vocations, capturing both the mind and the heart. To be inspired is a special thing, and to inspire others an almost otherworldly, yet, perhaps, a worthy goal. Depending on the end. Depending on what you inspire your neighbor toward…
PATRICIA REDING
Author of the Oathtaker Series
Patricia’s website
Taking a short hiatus from writing my fantasy series (The Oathtaker Series) over the past few months, I’ve been working instead on a non-fantasy story entitled, So I Opened My Mouth and Screamed. It will be published in 2018.
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What inspires you, and what does it help you accomplish?
~Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash~
From a role playing game! How fun! I think that’s interesting because I’m creating a character for a role playing game we are starting tomorrow…