Tag Archives: dragon complex

Apr 7 2017

When Inspiration Strikes #MFRWauthor


badge-blog-challenge-updated

Welcome to week 14 of the 52-week MFRW blog challenge.  Each week I will post something about that week’s topic. Ready to play?

This week’s prompt:

“Story Inspiration”

Or as my title suggests, when Inspiration strikes.  This is definitely one that I will be reading all of the other blogger’s posts!  I find it fascinating what inspires writers to write and write the specific story they end up writing. I wonder if anyone else sometimes does like me — the initial story is not what ends up on the pages.

The myriad of things that inspire me are as diverse as the many things that our world offer! Stop laughing, I’m serious. I’ve been pondering how to best convey this and I’ve come up with a simple plan, to list some of the ideas and where they came from.

  1. An argument over the finances with my husband. Feeling a bit singed around the edges,  several hours after the argument, I was talking with my oldest daughter about something unrelated, probably something to do with a video game that she was playing. Suddenly it struck me! OH, I remember now it was a discussion of the movie The Hobbit. So, she’s going on about some of the scenes in the Hobbit, and describing the scene whenBilbo Baggins enters the dragon’s lair to find the stone amongst the hoard of gold. Dragons – gold – Eureka! I commented about the dragon complex, certain individuals who seem to be obsessed with the HAVING of money, not using the money to enjoy life. Not to name names or anything but being the spendthrift in this marriage I’m sure you can see which of us has the dragon complex. Hmmm, . . . dragon complex. . . gold . . .  shapeshifter dragons. . . attracted to gold. . . I’ll bet they can smell it! I got what my kids call my scary inspiration face and was off and running.  Just a short time later I shoved fourteen pages of handwritten story stat into my daughter’s clutches demanding – READ IT! From that start, Kiss of the Dragon was birthed. I used that story for my very first Nanowrimo story. It still sits in the file drawer because I will admit, it has so many rabbits popping up in it that it’s like a game of whack a rabbit! It needs a lot of rewrites. Don’t fret though, it isn’t forgotten.
  2. While reading the fourth book in a series by an author that I absolutely loved at the time, I didn’t like the way this particular book was playing out.  I kind of felt cheated, to be honest. I had paid good money preordering my first edition hardback copies of these books, and it seemed that it had become more about getting the books published to make money than caring about constructing a quality story. I didn’t like the turn this story was taking.  There was a lot of gratuitous sex in this book, to the point that I was frustrated with the author. To be honest, after finishing this series I’ve not bought another of their books. So the inspiration part: during this “Ugh, this is awful! Way to sell out just to get the books out there. If I were writing this story I would have character X do . . . And the relationship between X and B would end and the heroine would see that character D is the right one for her. As Gru says – Lightbulb! I guess this is the premise of why some people write fanfiction. Not me though,  I  was inspired by the world that this author built, but could see the cracks from the stage so much that it just seemed like stage props. I would take that stage prop, rebuild it, add a dash of humor here, a bit of danger there, oh yes, throw in some dark magic and terror. . . .whala – Faere Warrior and Faere Guardian were born. Yes, these are in my files as well becuase again   – over run with rabbits!
  3. Story prompts! I used to be the managing editor for a group blog, where each of the authors including myself had an assigned day of the week to write a short or serial. The idea was to generate traffic for the up and coming authors and gain them a following.  I’d like to take credit for it,  but I can’t. I  kind of took over for an amazing friend whose brainchild it was when she became overwhelmed with dealing with it. Cathy Brockman was the genius behind it and I owe her a debt of gratitude for helping me in so many ways. My initial debut story was inspired by an online friend that lies in the UK. I only knew them via Facebook. At that time,  the big thing was catfish stories. For those who don’t know what that is,  it was meeting someone online, talking to them, then finding out they weren’t who they said they were. There was a show on tv about it even! So my brain started working on the “What if?”. Love Notes came out of that. No that isn’t published because of some other issues. My first published book, Red Wine & Roses also came out of this group blog. It actually came from a photo prompt. Our family had taken a vacation to the Smoky mountains and we hiked up to Grotto Falls. The scenery inspired me to think while hiking. I was in free think mode, where the sky is the limit and laws of nature can be discarded while thinking in the whatif. I had learned a lot during my tenure at the group blog, one of the lessons being to focus on and finish a project. Thanks to an amazing lady – Vicki Locey – she is helping me to not only focus on one project at  a time but managing revisions of my previous stories.
  4. While driving my daughter to work a few years ago before she had her license, we passed a field that was flooded.  There were many places flooded and in fact, that was the last day we were able to travel that road for a week and a half due to flooding. This field had been planted with corn and the tender young plants were either completely under water or partially underwater. Once the road was reopened,  you could see the high water marks,  the pitiful looking plants that you knew were going to die, and a vast field of mud. It was obviously too muddy for the farmer to get out there yet and replant the field but the thought stuck me – If a person were to try to walk through that field, they would sink up to their hips. Hmm, . . . whala! Another story idea. I haven’t developed this one very far, but it’s on my todo list.

Inspiration is all around us. I have never had a shortage of ideas. If I ever do,  I always have a plethora of projects in my unfinished files. By the time I finish that, maybe I’ll have more ideas.

What inspires you? What prompts a story idea for you? do you ever wonder where an author gets an idea for the story?

How are you liking these posts? YOU may want to check out these other authors views as well:

Til next time!

Write on my friends, write on!

Ellie

 

 

 

 

Jul 20 2012

Inspiration: One Brilliant Flash of Lightning


What inspires a writer?  The simple answer is it depends.  A more complete answer is everything.  Anything and everything can prompt a writer, but not everything inspires.  Prompted writing can be good, but inspired writing has passion.  Passion produces the WOW factor.  It’s that passion that ignites the inner fires and allows the writer to create his or her masterpiece.

An off-hand remark about a person having a “dragon complex” sparked my current work Kiss of the Dragon.   A “dragon complex” refers to the belief that dragons hoard gold. Smaug, the dragon in The Hobbit is an example of this belief.  The person that was being referred to has a tendency to be quite stingy and hoard their money.  What do you suppose would happen if a person who has the “dragon complex” had the tendency to attract gold, is attracted to the gold themselves like a drug and was a dragon able to shift into human form?  In a span of ten seconds I had my concept, my basic plot, and a cast of characters for my book.  I went immediately to pen and paper and wrote 17 pages of handwritten notes on scratch paper.  Granted, it was mostly illegible to anyone who didn’t know what the words were.  My daughter looked at it, then looked at me as if I were crazy to think she could read it.  Yeah, my handwriting at blazing speed is illegible. Deciphering my scribblings are iffy on a good day, much less when it is scrawled out during a brain gush.

Have you ever observed an artist when they are in this mode?  Driven would be the best word to describe it. The creative burst must be carried out to completion.  Sleeping, eating, and human interaction are all but forgotten. The story unfolding inside my mind overwhelmed my senses.  My characters carried on conversations in my dreams, during waking hours, pushing me deeper into their world. I was vaguely aware of movements around me, an occasional voice directed towards me that momentarily pulled me from my fantasy world.

One ‘what if’ led to more ‘what ifs’, which led to an idea that almost made me giddy.  The headiness of inspiration is addictive stuff.  It penetrates the cerebral cortex stimulating the synapses to fire into the right-brained creativity which then leads to an intoxicating level of neurotransmitters releasing endorphins surging through the creative’s body.  It is indeed a rush!  After the initial brain gush, I had a little time to think things through and discover the complete story, subplots, and character quirks.  During NaNoWriMo, I wrote a sum total of 98,000 words.  I kept a good 70,000, and put the rest in a different folder.  As it played out over a month, eventually I managed to get in some sleep and interaction with my family.

Instead of feeling drained and exhausted, I was exhilarated, charged for more and ready to undertake anything.  Shortly thereafter though the bottom fell out and the doubts took over.  Doubting that any of it was worth the digital paper where it was written, doubting that anyone would ever want to read it, and doubting that my sanity could weave a tale that actually made sense.  Was I after all just a ‘pie in the sky’ dreamer?  Was I chemically unbalanced, destined to end up in a psych ward somewhere talking to my dragons?

You may laugh, but when the let down happened those fears were more real than the sofa I found myself sitting on or the Haagen Das container I had emptied.

Eventually, the rollercoaster leveled off and I began editing.  As I am working through it, I find myself surprised at the cohesiveness within the story.  There are complex subplots working simultaneously, and fantasy elements thrown in. Well, of course there are! I’m talking about shape shifting dragons that walk amongst us appearing as regular humans.

I feel I am the toughest critic on my own work, which is why it’s usually filed.  Saved on my laptop, safely buried in three layers of folders so that no one can accidentally read it and tell me what a hack I am.  There are multiple spiral notebooks with partially completed projects stuffed in a file cabinet in the depths of my basement for the same reason.

The fear of rejection is an issue that every writer must eventually face.  I made the decision to complete my project during NaNoWriMo.  I attained that goal, but it was crude like mined ore sitting in a railroad car.  I’ve been working on it since then reviewing, editing, refining, tweaking. This baby is full term, and it’s time to cut the umbilical cord.  I think it’s good.  I’m hard to impress, especially when it’s my own.

Have you ever had a similar inspirational spark?  Something that stirred your passion and caused the creativity to flow in a way that pushed you forward, drove you to completion?  There’s nothing quite like being in the zone.  The creative spark is intoxicating and highly addictive. I need it, crave it, I spend numerous hours pursuing it. Spark juice, I wish it could be bottled!

Write On my friends, write on!