Enchanted Inspiration

What is sometimes the most inspiring in my writing, is reading other genres. Truth be told, if I hadn't harbored a love of Agatha Christie or James Patterson, the Interstellar Intelligence Agency Series would never have been born... okay, okay, Caves of Steel also had something to do with it.

Wait, now that we're discussing this, I think Caves of Steel peaked my interest in investigatory fiction like Agatha and James' works... Okay, now we're delving deep down the Hole of Distraction.

"Pull out of that dive, AR! Pull out of the dive!"

Reading other genres, like reading in general, provide insight to a writer. Like an anonymous forum. Author So and So published this work about This or That. I've always had an idea about This or That, but in my head it went There and then There. Author Other Man published this about Gidget Widgets... I didn't know Gidget Widgets did That. I wonder, if they did That, with this other villain archetype, maybe they could do This. Doing This could then lead to There.

Get my confusing drift? That's okay, I barely hung on there myself. All I'm saying is reading, and reading outside your writing genre, can be helpful.

For example, I've been interested in attempting a SF-inspired fairy tale retelling. I know, I know, there are works out there already in the SF community that re envision a fairy tale. But, I'm still interested anyways.

Partly because of this I think, I spotted "Midsummer Night" by Freda Warrington in my local bookstore (aka AR's Crack House).

It was beautifully told. Freda's descriptions are masterful and I'm impressed by her writing. She actually made me feel the mist of the evenings and the powerful energy of the sculptures. I ached for the main characters back story. And I felt tugged and enchanted by the locale as she did.

The book itself is an urban fantasy, I guess. (I've never been good a labeling, unless it's Agatha or James or Isaac.) In the story, she explores the fairy world. It's almost SFey in the way she explains how the fairy realm and human realm are interwoven dimensions with "doorways" to each other.

This story really revved my creative juices to forge ahead with a fairy tale story. I just need to really decide which one now. I want to try and find one that hasn't been retold at nausea in novels and movies. That excludes Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella. I think I also want to take on the more grimmer Grimm telling of the story and push my grittier boundaries.

Why Space?

"Why space?" my teenage daughter asked as we sat on the couch and I talked about my latest story. "It's always space, rockets, other planets, and the search for aliens that - by the way - your characters never find."

I answered my normal spiel about H.G. Wells, possibilities, unknowns, new frontier and all the other jazz. Later in bed, though, the question really hit me on a more internal note...

Why space?

Yeah, H.G. Wells was a really groovy guy with awesome cool stories. The man certainly triggered my writing and fueled my love of reading. I was a book addict who read all kinds of genres. Thrillers, horrors, spy books, newspapers, magazines, historical, and non-fiction. Hell, why not my second favorite genre, murder mystery?

Of course, being who I am (anal-over-internalizing-nut) I fretted over the darn thing. I fell asleep thinking - or over thinking to be more accurate - about the why of it.

Then, I dreamed.

Space travelling expedition, being caught by roving pirates, fighting our way out, stealing a smaller shuttle, landing on a planet and finding a reclusive colony of hybrid humans...

When I woke up, excited about my recent space travels, I knew why it's space. Because that's where my soul is waiting to be...I'm just a few life cycles short of my true reality.

Good writing (and dreaming) all!

Feeding My Muse

I spent most of the last few days doing writing administrative work. Tonight during a pure writing session I found myself staring at the blank screen. Well, not totally blank...and not really staring. I stared for about two minutes before cruising the web, checking comments on my blogs, and overall being an unfocused slug.

Finally reaching peak aggravation, I put the laptop down and did some weird dancing in my writing space (weird is the only dancing I can do...).

That got me out of the web-surfing mode, but I still had no creative direction. My muse was out and I was at fault. I didn't keep her fed. I didn't keep her interested. I was a bad host and hadn't even realize she'd stepped out until I needed her.

"Selfish, selfish, selfish AR!"

So my well was dry, I thought walking back to my laptop. I tripped over air (it happens often) and stumbled into the bed.

I cursed and then giggled, "At least I wasn't near a well. I would've fell in."

My Muse came squealing into my head way above the speed limit and crashed into my eyeballs. She bounced backwards into the creative writing part of my brain. This is also her apartment; she'll a little messy but remembers to do the dishes.

She'd connected my earlier thoughts and came home with an idea. Let me share her formula with you:

Now I have a fantasy story outlined that involves a woman, a well, a mythical maze, and tragic love. I'm really excited to bite my teeth into it (the story...not a woman, well, or maze).

Good writing all!

A Quickie: Writers Moment

Hubby and I settle in for the night.

"You seemed a little distant today. Everything okay?" Hubby asks.

"Yeah. Characters keep building in my head and today they started talking to me," I reply.

"Ah. I thought you might be needing a writing night soon. It's been a few days," he says.

"Hmmm...you're probably right. I need to write them out of my brain."

A few seconds of silence passes before Hubby turns to me. "...Any other husband hearing their wife say they hear voices in their head..."

"I know...I know." I laugh.

Well, that's my quickie (a new post theme I'm trying out). Good writing all!