Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Little Drones

I hate when I can perfectly visualize a scene, yet when I try to put it on paper, it just doesn't come out quite as sparkly and vivid. That's where I'm at today. I'm writing a scene that is falling flat and boring me. I like plunging readers into the middle of a scene, but here I need to show some stuff before the good, better stuff. The lead up is what's boring and transitioning from one locale to another.

To add some more oomph to the scene, after I've written it, I'll go back in and insert texture, like sensory impressions and reactions, and hopefully that will work. If not, I'll scrap it and try something different.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Inspiration Jags and Nags

Sometimes inspiration can wane and other times it can rush in where and when you least expect it. It's often small things that inspire me, little ideas that grow into novel-length concepts. An overheard plot for mass murder in a dream gave me the plot concept for Kings & Queens. Another dream with a little girl psychically connected to a serial killer gave me my idea for the sequel, Sapphire Reign. In that dream, I was a different person, which never happens, who ended up being a character in my book.

Fellow blogger/writer, Dara, just had an inspirational dream set in a specific time period with multiple characters. Read about her experience here.

My book Dropping Like Flies was inspired by a sound, just an intercom type noise while I was lying in bed. And an article on foster children being pushed back into society right at eighteen gave me my idea for Decadence. I wondered what if the teen was even younger, like sixteen, and the world even more harsh and dangerous? What if this person had no family to turn to? What would this person do to survive? My character becomes a prostitute.

Pieces of dreams, emotions or things that affect me often inspire my poetry and short stories. And I'm usually compelled to at least write down my inspired thoughts before they escape me. That's the nagging part of inspiration, the voice that won't go silent.

Where do you find your inspiration?

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.