Inspirations

Readers often wonder what inspires an author. I certainly do. For example, I wonder what inspired an author to write about a ghostly gunslinger dead for over 100 years, or another author to write about traveling in time using a map.

For those of you wondering what inspired me, here are some things that inspired the first novel of my series:

Living in Hammil Valley and dealing with its issues as well as seeing its unfulfilled potential
Reading fiction and non-fiction by Ayn Rand and wanting a way to express her ideas through my own view in a fictional setting
Thinking “heck, others can do it, so why don’t I give it a go?”

Ideas are more easily thought than put into concrete form. I mulled over the basic idea of this novel – a traditional romance – for about a decade before attempting to write it. By then, I had polished my already well-honed writing skills as writer and editor for several online sites. But they weren’t fiction. Even so, my imagination was flying, and events in my past were coming to mind as I sat to begin.

Before long I had a fairly good idea where things were going and in conversations with my husband some fuzzy parts became more clear. Days of sitting at the desk and typing on my laptop computer turned into weeks and months. As my husband read it, I was nervous, but his overall reaction was positive. He added in some great parts, including two whole chapters, and enhanced others.

For both of us, that time living in Hammil Valley was a seed that blossomed. And that kind of life experience can be an inspiration to you. You may not think your life experiences are exciting. Some may even be bad ones, tough to relive as you write about them. Just remember that you have some distance from those events and can reshape them as you want. Our lives in Hammil Valley were nothing like I portray in the series, but that’s what makes the novels works of fiction.

Make use of your experiences. Let them inspire you and set your imagination on fire. Even those bad ones can be useful. Think it all through and begin typing.

Please check out my WIPs. And thanks for reading.