Sunday, June 24, 2012

The Elusive Muse


Eight Places to Find Inspiration When Your Mind Goes Blank

The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602) by Caravaggio
More often than not, you start writing a novel because you’ve had an idea brewing for a long time. For months or years, strangers full of problems and interesting situations visit you at all hours of the day and night. Putting them down on paper is the next logical step. At this point “writer’s block” is not a part of your lexicon. But once you’ve completed your first novel (or several drafts of it) and maybe penned down a second one (with its own tail of drafts) you may start running out of ink. Particularly if you’ve been unsuccessful at finding representation or a contract. Perhaps you’ve been lucky enough to sell your work and must produce something new—quickly. How do you go about finding a fresh new idea that engages you enough to invest the time and effort a novel demands? Where is your muse when you need her?

Here are the eight places where I’ve found inspiration when confronted with this dilemma (and some of them are currently helping with my third novel):

1. Family stories

I have yet to meet a family where there are no secrets or conflict. I wrote an entire novel inspired by my mom’s stories growing up in South America in the fifties/early sixties. The perfect setting for my novel came from my dad’s hometown and the music and traditions he loved. Like Stephanie said recently in her Bradbury Chronicles post, writers are natural observers and have an innate curiosity in others people’s lives (please don’t call me a gossiper! I’m just doing research!) I think this curiosity translates to others because, very often, people confide in me their problems with their families and spouses. I happily lend an ear and store this information for future use in my fiction.

2. Talk shows

I know. You’re smirking and rolling your eyes as you read this. But don’t be so quick to brand all TV shows as trash. That apparently trivial and sensationalistic venue sometimes offers hidden jewels for writers. Just recently, the solution for a writing dilemma came to me through my favorite Spanish talk show Quien Tiene la Razon (Who is Right?), a show hosted by Dr. Nancy Alvarez, a charming Dominican psychologist and sexologist who helps people fix their marriages and family feuds with well thought-out advice and humor.

3. Cop stories

Being married to a cop, I have a fresh supply of dramatic stories and conflict. I also have a free advisor when it comes to realistic action scenes, police procedures and trials. My advice? Befriend a cop or detective and invite him for dinner and drinks!

4. Dreams

We are fascinated by our dreams. Surely everyone has been intrigued by a dream at some point and even wished it were real. The opposite is true, too. Sometimes waking up from a nightmare is a relief. I don’t know about the rest of you, but many times I’ve dreamt of strangers in intriguing situations (or myself in an alternative life) and I’m frustrated when I wake up. I want to know what happens next! Sometimes it’s just a scene or an image. Other times it’s a sequence of scenes. Ever experienced this? Well, I recommend you write them down as quickly as possible (dreams are more elusive than muses and fade away pretty quickly!) Don’t be surprised, though, if when reading these ideas years later, you don’t remember what was so compelling about that dream in the first place. However, you never know when a seed may germinate.

5. Other works of fiction

Your favorite works of literature can inspire you. (“I’d love to write a story like that!”) The fiction that you despise can also help you. (“That book sucked. If it was up to me, I would change this and that.”) The more you think about ways to fix a book, the more it becomes independent from its original source and before you know it, voila! You’ve created a new story. Song lyrics (especially the ones that tell a story) can also be stimulating. When uninspired, look for books and films of genres you enjoy for inspiration. How would you make that story better?

6. Earlier ideas

Recycling is not limited to plastic and paper. All the darlings you’ve killed on previous novels, all the images and bits of information (ok, you can call it gossip) you’ve collected throughout the years can come in handy when you need an idea. Perhaps you had a great concept years ago, but you hadn’t developed the skills to execute it properly. Maybe the time has come to tell that story and it’s just waiting for you to find it.

7. History

History is filled with extraordinary people and dramatic events. If you’re fond of historical fiction, I recommend you to pick a favorite setting and/or time in history and read about it as much as you can. You may be able to find an obscure yet fascinating fact that may get your idea started. This is exactly how I found inspiration for my second novel. I knew I wanted to set it on the Galapagos Islands (I’m from Ecuador and have always been fascinated with the mysteries surrounding the islands). I read as much as I could about the place until I came across a little-known historical fact (or fabrication?) From that tiny bit of information (one paragraph to be precise), an entire plot was born.

8. Fantasies

Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you had studied at a different university, accepted another job or never broken up with your high school sweetheart? What if you had gathered the courage to study abroad? Or what if, like Stephanie proposed in her post, a rash action or failure in your past had produced terrible consequences? Fantasies don’t necessary mean that you must be unhappy with your current life. They can just be mental exercises to get you started, so don’t feel guilty or bad about exploring the “what ifs” in your own life.

What do you do when you run out of steam? Can you share your favorite sources of inspiration?

26 comments:

  1. I really like to read when I need inspiration or go out of the house, do something different than I normally would which gets my brain thinking in different ways.

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  2. Sister Lorena, I love your post and love the Caravaggio portrait. Unlike St. Mathew, I tend to get inspiration from less angelic, more chthonic creatures who love to play head games.

    Since I write Fantasy, I seldom rely on personal experience (barring sex and love) for my writing, but since I write historical fantasies, history books and websites are a tremendous help. Family history, especially the experiences of those who lived in “The Old Country”, is important too.

    Fantasies and dreams do have their place as inspiration sources. Fadika came to me in a dream.

    I keep close watch on how other authors and movie producers and directors handle fantasy. I may lack money and time, but inspiration comes from all sorts of places.

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  3. Doing something different is a great idea, Summer Ross. And yes, leaving the house is a must! Thanks for stopping by and come see us again. :)

    Sister Violante, I hope nobody sues me for cropping Caravaggio's painting, ha ha. I just love the Baroque. Good point about fantasy: the sources of inspiration are more limited (especially when creating alternate worlds and characters). Inspiration must come from dreams and other works of fiction (or maybe drugs and alcohol? ;) Ha!) The influence of other works of fiction is so clear in fantasy. So much of the fantasy that has emerged recently is based on other people's ideas (ex: vampires, remakes of fairy tales, etc). But after so many years of storytelling and such a flood of information coming our way, it's hard to be 'original'.

    I didn't know Fadika came from a dream :-)

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  4. I think my favorite source of inspiration is fantasy -- though what I mean by that is fantasizing about contemporary situations and the 'reality' at the edge of our experience, as opposed to fantastical kingdoms and creatures. (Though it sometimes feels like the two are blurring, bit by bit.)

    Recently, though, the situation of one relative in particular -- my grandmother with her deteriorating memory and capacity to reason -- has really influenced my ideas for something down the road.

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  5. I once read that Raymond Chandler could only write hen he was drunk. I took advantage of my Dad’s birthday (plenty of booze about) and downed tree bottles of champagne. At the time I had my office up in the attic and had to climb the stairs on my fours! Mind you, I didn´t get any inspiration, just a massive headache!

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  6. Dear Suze, I'm curious to know what you've come up with. You know I love your grandmother's stories. It seems like you've found the perfect complement to your interest in the brain.

    Sister Violante, when I've had too much to drink, I can only focus on not falling and breaking a tooth! The last thing on my mind are plots, ha ha.

    You know what? I forgot to mention places and old photographs as other sources of inspiration. Sometimes a town, a house or a picture can be very evocative and get my imagination going.

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  7. When my family tells me some crazy story about so and so, all I tell them is that they're fodder for my mill. Honestly, I could write story after story based on family alone (I've actually had one brewing based on my mother's upbringing). But, the truth is, I love history and it's usually a time period, or more precisely, an event that gets my creative juices going. Currently, I'm researching my fourth novel and it's all about forest fires (how fitting considering what's going on out west!) and I've thought a lot about my characters. It's a break from the norm for me, because I won't be using a female POV in the story, just the POV of two brothers. I think that's one thing that's helpful, too, to get the muse going. Choose a different angle or POV perspective to write your story from. It certainly makes it more challenging!

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    1. "It's a break from the norm for me, because I won't be using a female POV in the story, just the POV of two brothers."

      This may work very well for you. My favorite characters in your novels have always been men. ;)

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  8. I've gotten some of my best ideas from my dreams. Surely some of my most outrageous. Also from watching film and knowing I could have done it better.

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    1. Wow, a lot of people seem to get inspiration from dreams! (More than I thought).

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  9. I get ideas from EVERYWHERE. I don't have enough time to write them.

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    1. That's great, Teresa. You'll never run out of ideas ;)

      Thanks for stopping by!

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    3. I agree completely with Teresa. When I was younger I envisaged a host of different sci-fi settings and a grand galactic order of solar empires. I have yet to get down to writing about them (I knew I needed to give them years to age and mature), but what I'm working on now is fantasy that I began with only a limited idea of who the main character was, and where he was. From that has evolved a rather complex world with a few very different characters. In either case I find debating, or reading/watching documentaries on, history and politics combine to offer so many examples of humanity that ideas spew forth. There's a natural explosion of: "amg what if?...but that's surely the logical solution!...don't they see the obvious conclusions?!" etc, etc, etc.

      I'm reading: "The Writer's and Artist's Guide: How to Write" as I pause from editing/writing. But I find the way the author of that book, and this post, talk about inspiration and starting to forge a story is completely alien to how I do it. In my own experience ideas are a natural consequence of learning and playing with knowledge. From that knowledge; characters, plot, and setting emerge, and then personal emotions and passions begin to inject into the writing to give it heart. It's an organic process, is what I'm saying. So when writers discuss organising things so mechanically I react in bewilderment, I can't relate. I guess that makes me lucky; but only if the ideas are commercially successful!

      ... oh, and yes; and in addition, nothing works better to get me thinking than isolation, and playing a song I like over and over. The repetition for some reason allows my mind to detach from the moment, and begin to think more deeply. Of course, it's a very fragile state. Can't happen with people about or interruptions to the cycle. Then it's like my mental house of cards has been blown over and I'm left grumbling, irksome, and trying to pick up the pieces.

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    4. "So when writers discuss organising things so mechanically I react in bewilderment, I can't relate."

      I'm really not as organized as it seems here. :-) I had to dig deep to figure out where my inspiration was coming from. But I guess I'm organized in some ways (outlines, for example). I'm surprised when I hear that writers don't know where they're going when they start writing a novel (the times when I've tried this organic approach, I've become paralyzed with indecision and can't finish the project.)

      Thanks for sharing your experience with us, nodgene!

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  10. My most recent story idea came from a powerful dream. I woke up and rushed downstairs to write it down: the process left me in a fugue state for the rest of the day. Surreal.

    I've noticed an influx of autobiographical fiction lately, which makes me think this is a good time to mine ideas from one's own past. Junot Diaz (the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) and Justin Torres (We the Animals) are two shining examples. Both men took their own unusual childhoods and fictionalized them gloriously. Hemingway is famous for this, too: in fact, Diaz's title is a nod to his short story, "The Brief Happy Life of Francis Macomber." Most people probably think their own lives are too boring (I've thought this) but everyone's got some experience that can be amped up. My grandparents lived next door to this crazy huge Irish-Catholic family in Philly, headed by a rather terrifying alcoholic; I've long wanted to write about that family. It's not really my story, but it is mined from my experience.

    Great post, Lorena -- lots of fabulous ideas here! Thanks for the nods to my last post, too. :)

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    1. "My grandparents lived next door to this crazy huge Irish-Catholic family in Philly, headed by a rather terrifying alcoholic; I've long wanted to write about that family. It's not really my story, but it is mined from my experience."

      I think this is fair since you'll just use their situation as inspiration but you'll probably end up changing their names and some events (I assume?) In fiction, anything is possible. I heard this once at a conference: "If we don't tell our stories, someone else will."

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  11. I enjoyed your post Lore. I can assure you that all of your cop friends would be more than happy to exchange lies for a good meal and free drinks. By the way Lorena, did you ever consider the possibility that your cop husband may be telling you all of those stories just to impress you and maybe gain your affection?

    Major H

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    1. I've suspected that from time to time, Major H. ;)

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  12. Wonderful ideas! I particularly enjoyed the one about families. Families are kooky--providing much material. ;)

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    1. Thank you, Jennifer. Family secrets/feuds are my favorite source of inspiration! :-)

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    2. Dear me, all those degrees, all those books written? All those awards won? And NOTHING published. So easy to criticize, isn't it?

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    3. Yes, it´s called literary criticism and you don´t need to be a published author to do it.

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    4. Funny you should say that, Malena. I took that exact same class in grad school because it was a required course for anyone studying foreign language novels. If we didn't know how to look for good writing, what would be the point of even reading?

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  13. Andrew,

    Your post is callous, un-fair and un-gentlemanly. I would like to meet with you in person to discuss our differences. Or do you prefer to attack ladies from the anonymity of the internet?

    Major H

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