Finding Inspiration (& Brainstorming a New Book Idea)
Sometimes it hits you right out of the blue.
I’ve always had an interesting relationship with inspiration. Like many writers and fellow creatives, sometimes finding inspiration is hard. And then, sometimes, it’s remarkably easy—it comes up right out of the blue and practically knocks you over. Sometimes knocking the wind out of you over and over again.
That’s what I’m experiencing right now.
First, to backtrack—the last time I felt inspired in this way was a year ago. I was inspired to write a book about the rodeo (random as it may seem) for Harlequin’s Love Inspired line. If you’ve been a subscriber for a while, you’ve seen me mention this book before. What I don’t think I’ve mentioned previously, however, is how the inspiration for the plot, the characters, and the setting sort of hit me like a ton of bricks.
I saw the open call for submission, and I ran with it. The inspiration came easily, and the entire plot for the story materialized practically overnight. Then I just had to do the hard part of actually writing.
I’m feeling similarly inspired now.
It started with three separate stories that I’ve encountered over the course of the past month. First, it was Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. I started reading this book about a complex family, and complex sibling relationships, and I understood some of the feelings the characters felt on the page. In fact, when I met with my book club to discuss the book, some of the things others didn’t understand were things that I (unfortunately, in some instances) could relate to.
Next, it was a show on Hulu, Tiny Beautiful Things. A story about a complex woman who led a complex life and is still feeling the repercussions of a troubled childhood/early adulthood. And she’s a writer. I’ll always be inspired by depictions of writers—especially if they’re a bit more realistic, which I thought was the case in Tiny Beautiful Things.
And then I finally got around to watching a movie I had been wanting to watch for quite a while now—As They Made Us (written and directed by Mayim Bialik, who I adore!)—which similarly deals with messy family and sibling dynamics. And it was also about a writer, although that was much less of a focus in As They Made Us compared to Tiny Beautiful Things.
All of these stories are perfectly in line with the types of media I like to consume. Each was thought-provoking, relatable, made me cry, made me smile, and was beautifully done.
And after the first couple of episodes of Tiny Beautiful Things, I started to realize I wanted to create something similar.
Sometimes I don’t realize what I’m being inspired to write, I’m simply inspired.
While this inspiration did hit me in the face going 75 MPH, I still don’t know the details. Unlike my Love Inspired book, I don’t know the plot and the characters. But I do know that the story I want to tell will draw from truth—as all the best fictional stories do.
I know that Black Cake, Tiny Beautiful Things, and As They Made Us resonated with me because I saw myself and my family in each story. Different circumstances, different people, different lifetimes, but similar threads. Threads that, when pulled from each of these stories, can be woven together into something new if I start from what I know.
Black Cake, in particular, left me feeling raw only a few chapters into the book because I recognized myself and my relationships in Byron and Benny. It left me feeling understood, as I saw that others have complicated family dynamics just like me.
And I want to write my own version of a family saga that identifies and names the same things I’ve gone through so that hopefully someone else can feel the same.
So now I need to figure out the actual plot and plan. Because even though I’m a pantser at heart when it comes to writing, I need to have at least a general sense of direction before I set off into this new writing world.
More on the journey to come…
Here are the places my words have ended up since I last wrote:
My Experience Receiving a Revise and Resubmit from a Big 5 Publisher published in The Writing Cooperative
The Ins and Outs of Book Pitch Events republished on my blog
How to Handle a Dwindling Friendship republished on my blog
I just finished the newest book by my favorite author, Laura Frantz. The novel is called The Rose and the Thistle and is based in Scotland during the Jacobite uprising of 1715. I really enjoyed the book (although that’s pretty much a given with anything Frantz writes.) The characters and setting were very reminiscent of my favorite series, Outlander, so it was a slam dunk of a book!