How are writers inspired?
The question is always the same. Every time I tell a non-writer that I am a published author the question is bound to come up.
Where do you get your ideas? Where does your inspiration come from?
Funny, other writers never ask me this question because we all know the answer…everywhere. But saying “everywhere” to a non-writer isn’t really a great answer. So today I thought I would share a recent inspirational or “ah ha” moment that sprouted a book idea.
Everyone’s writing process is different. For me it all starts with one scene, and then like a seed from a flower, grows from there. For example, I just watched the move, Friends With Kids. Now the movie wasn’t my all-time favorite, not even one that I’d watch again, but as a writer I had to give, Jennifer Westfeldt, the writer of Friends With Kids, props. She wrote a traditional romantic comedy, but without falling into all the romantic comedy clichés.
The last scene in particularly got me. This is the typical scene where boy tells girl he really does love her, and that she has been the one all along. But instead of saying some trite dialogue the male lead says, “I’m going to f*&k the s*#t out of you. Please, let me f&^k the s#*t out of you.”
Not the typical romantic dialogue, to say the least.
Reading this without seeing the movie we might rightly assume the male lead is a dick. (Well, he is mainly.) But in the whole context of the movie it actually worked for me. So this got me thinking. How do I get an unsympathetic hero to move through his character arc so well that by the end of the story my hero can say, “I want to f*#k the s#*t out of you,” to the heroine and we the reader would still rooting for him?
Hence, the story idea is born.
I love a challenge. I love flawed and tortured characters. I love seeing heroes and heroines move toward better versions of themselves. These are the stories I like to read. These are the stories I love to create.
What about you? What books are you currently reading? What type of characters do you root for?
Happy Writing! Here’s a video to inspire you.
Leave a Reply