One of my most favourite themes has to do with family, and particularly siblings. It pops up in my writing a lot and I enjoy writing about brothers and sisters looking out for one another. I'm the eldest of four, and my sister is 7 years younger while my twin brothers are about 8 years younger. It's a pretty big responsibility to be the head sibling. This was especially the case for my family, but despite everything, having siblings is great.
Land of No Angels has a strong theme around family because the main character, Rebecca, only has her sister left. She's the eldest of the Ashford sisters and looks after Errol, who can be a trouble maker at times. In the setting of the book, there is constant danger because of the demons and the idea developed from some of my own fears.
When I was younger, and even now on rare occasions, I would have nightmares about my own siblings and about how I couldn't save them from some horrible monster. Whether it be the evil leprechaun from that terrible (but hilarious) horror movie trying to boil them alive, or a car with no driver trying to run them down in the street, the dreams were a compilation of Eldest Sibling Fears. The fear that you won't be strong enough to look out for them, or the fear that you will be helpless to stop horrible things from happening to them. It doesn't even have to be supernatural like in my books. It can be real things like "Are they making the right decisions?"
These may be more the sort of things parents should worry about for their children rather than the head sibling. However, I love my sister and brothers very much and when I hear about my sister's friends getting into deadly car accidents or my brothers' friends doing stupid things and getting into trouble, I can't help but worry about them. I know that my siblings are smarter than that, but it's still something on my mind. It must be the nature of being the big sister.
[READER RESPONSE:] Are you the "Head Sibling"? Or are you the middle or youngest child? What's it like for you? How do you feel about the theme of family in books?
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Friday, August 5, 2011
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Details, Details, Details!
I've been working on my work-in-progress YA novel, Land of No Angels, a bit over the last few days. It's been a slow process lately due to life issues and the lack of cooperation from my brain. However, during the time I stare at my manuscript vacantly and wish I could just spill my guts all over the digital page, I find myself wondering about the details.
For the most part, I can follow the "Don't think. Don't self edit. Just write." concept while working on my first draft. But sometimes, I get this idea that all of the details I add or need to add feel awkward. For example, I'm writing a scene with two sisters outside in a some-what post apocalyptic setting, who fear for their lives being out in the open and they need to hurry their conversation to get back to their safe zone. There is so much information that needs to be conveyed or even just introduced in this scene, but I find it hard to place these details and bits of information without feeling like it's too awkward. Sometimes this even happens with describing a little of the surroundings when it doesn't directly relate to the character(s) in focus.
When I try to explain things in a little more detail than "they were in a forest" and "she his under blackberry brambles" I start to get an awkward feeling. Like when you are reading a book in first person and the main character starts describing his/her own physical appearance while gazing into a mirror. Awkward! This first scene I'm working on is sort of intense and I wanted it to FEEL and READ just like the main character's breathing: short, sharp breaths that sting her lungs. Which... actually makes the scene go fast. A little too fast maybe? So the suspense isn't building properly....
Okay, so I took a break from this blog post after I had an epiphany halfway through it. I went to lunch, discussed some things with my writing partner (who also happens to be my husband) and I realised that the scene mentioned in the above paragraph wasn't working because it lacked details. While I still want it to feel like a panic attack, it can do so with some additional information to break away from the immediate action and build suspense. Not in an awkward "Hey, I thought this girl was being hunted... now we're talking about her living situation, wtf?" sort of way, but more so a "Ack! What's going to happen to her. The suspense is killing me!" sort of way. Breaking up the quick action sentences with longer description sentences will help build that tension I need.
[READER QUESTION] Do you struggle with writing details? Are you too detailed? Not detailed enough? How do you overcome these issues?
For the most part, I can follow the "Don't think. Don't self edit. Just write." concept while working on my first draft. But sometimes, I get this idea that all of the details I add or need to add feel awkward. For example, I'm writing a scene with two sisters outside in a some-what post apocalyptic setting, who fear for their lives being out in the open and they need to hurry their conversation to get back to their safe zone. There is so much information that needs to be conveyed or even just introduced in this scene, but I find it hard to place these details and bits of information without feeling like it's too awkward. Sometimes this even happens with describing a little of the surroundings when it doesn't directly relate to the character(s) in focus.
When I try to explain things in a little more detail than "they were in a forest" and "she his under blackberry brambles" I start to get an awkward feeling. Like when you are reading a book in first person and the main character starts describing his/her own physical appearance while gazing into a mirror. Awkward! This first scene I'm working on is sort of intense and I wanted it to FEEL and READ just like the main character's breathing: short, sharp breaths that sting her lungs. Which... actually makes the scene go fast. A little too fast maybe? So the suspense isn't building properly....
Okay, so I took a break from this blog post after I had an epiphany halfway through it. I went to lunch, discussed some things with my writing partner (who also happens to be my husband) and I realised that the scene mentioned in the above paragraph wasn't working because it lacked details. While I still want it to feel like a panic attack, it can do so with some additional information to break away from the immediate action and build suspense. Not in an awkward "Hey, I thought this girl was being hunted... now we're talking about her living situation, wtf?" sort of way, but more so a "Ack! What's going to happen to her. The suspense is killing me!" sort of way. Breaking up the quick action sentences with longer description sentences will help build that tension I need.
[READER QUESTION] Do you struggle with writing details? Are you too detailed? Not detailed enough? How do you overcome these issues?
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Ideas and Inspiration
[This blog was originally posted on the nrwick.com blog. It has been reposted since that blog no longer exists.]
Tonight I want to talk about ideas and inspiration. I often notice people asking where others get their ideas or where to draw inspiration from and thought it would be fun to write a small blog post about this topic. I have very little trouble coming up with ideas for stories. But this is also my downfall because I have a hard time focusing on just one idea. Coming up with the idea is usually my favorite part too. I tend to develop the thorough idea and then get stuck at the fleshing it out with thousands of details.
So, where do I get ideas from? I get my ideas from everywhere and anywhere, but many times I get them from dreams. It sounds weird, but I have pretty vivid dreams and they provide some excellent story premises. I’ve never used a whole dream for an entire story because, frankly, my dreams often make little sense. But, I will take a piece of the dream and use it as an idea for a story (or illustration). For example, one of the novels I am working on came from a scene in one of my dreams. In the dream, I girl was hiding in a secret passage in the walls of her friend’s home. There were people coming to imprison and kill magic users. The friend who’s home the girl was hiding betrayed her and lead the people to her. That image was so strong to me and it prompted my entire three book novel series.
Another place I most often get ideas from are concepts, phrases, or other random snippets. What does this mean, exactly? Well, it basically means that when something catches my attention, I will think of a way to make a story out of it. For example, there was a music video I saw once (can’t for the life of me remember what it was or who it was by) where the people in the video had timers above their heads counting down to basically show when they were going to die. This idea intrigued me to no end and I thought of an idea about keepers of hourglasses which represented how much time is left in a human’s life. If the hour glass breaks before the sand is gone, the human dies prematurely…. and if one of the guardians happen to grow compassionate for a human and continued to turn the hourglass, then it extends the human’s life indefinitely.
I’ve also gotten ideas from song lyrics. I wrote a short fantasy story based on the lyrics of a song by Phil Collins (haha, go ahead and giggle. I know I do). Or I made a character based on a snippet of song lyrics “I keep a gun in the book you gave me, hallelujah lock and load.” The character turned into a man disguising himself as a priest in a zombie book I was previously writing. The idea of someone being desperate enough to not only fake being a priest, but also hide weapons in holy books or chests was so interesting to me. The littlest thing can make me go “Hmm, that would be interesting to explore” and think that is important. I write because I am interested in exploring different things, not because I want other people to love me or what I write. (Though, I would love for people to love what I write!)
Some things to do in order to help jump start inspiration: listen to music, read a book, watch a good movie, look at some beautiful artwork, free write, play the question game with someone, rewrite an old tale in a unique and different way, sit somewhere public and watch people interact with one another, draw something and write a story about it… The list goes on.
What helps you come up with your ideas?
Tonight I want to talk about ideas and inspiration. I often notice people asking where others get their ideas or where to draw inspiration from and thought it would be fun to write a small blog post about this topic. I have very little trouble coming up with ideas for stories. But this is also my downfall because I have a hard time focusing on just one idea. Coming up with the idea is usually my favorite part too. I tend to develop the thorough idea and then get stuck at the fleshing it out with thousands of details.
So, where do I get ideas from? I get my ideas from everywhere and anywhere, but many times I get them from dreams. It sounds weird, but I have pretty vivid dreams and they provide some excellent story premises. I’ve never used a whole dream for an entire story because, frankly, my dreams often make little sense. But, I will take a piece of the dream and use it as an idea for a story (or illustration). For example, one of the novels I am working on came from a scene in one of my dreams. In the dream, I girl was hiding in a secret passage in the walls of her friend’s home. There were people coming to imprison and kill magic users. The friend who’s home the girl was hiding betrayed her and lead the people to her. That image was so strong to me and it prompted my entire three book novel series.
Another place I most often get ideas from are concepts, phrases, or other random snippets. What does this mean, exactly? Well, it basically means that when something catches my attention, I will think of a way to make a story out of it. For example, there was a music video I saw once (can’t for the life of me remember what it was or who it was by) where the people in the video had timers above their heads counting down to basically show when they were going to die. This idea intrigued me to no end and I thought of an idea about keepers of hourglasses which represented how much time is left in a human’s life. If the hour glass breaks before the sand is gone, the human dies prematurely…. and if one of the guardians happen to grow compassionate for a human and continued to turn the hourglass, then it extends the human’s life indefinitely.
I’ve also gotten ideas from song lyrics. I wrote a short fantasy story based on the lyrics of a song by Phil Collins (haha, go ahead and giggle. I know I do). Or I made a character based on a snippet of song lyrics “I keep a gun in the book you gave me, hallelujah lock and load.” The character turned into a man disguising himself as a priest in a zombie book I was previously writing. The idea of someone being desperate enough to not only fake being a priest, but also hide weapons in holy books or chests was so interesting to me. The littlest thing can make me go “Hmm, that would be interesting to explore” and think that is important. I write because I am interested in exploring different things, not because I want other people to love me or what I write. (Though, I would love for people to love what I write!)
Some things to do in order to help jump start inspiration: listen to music, read a book, watch a good movie, look at some beautiful artwork, free write, play the question game with someone, rewrite an old tale in a unique and different way, sit somewhere public and watch people interact with one another, draw something and write a story about it… The list goes on.
What helps you come up with your ideas?
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