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February 4, 2005
Friday Writer’s Corner
Alesia, from her writing computer...
I recently read a statistic that said another new blog goes live every 4.7 seconds. That’s a LOT of WORDS. Seriously, it feels like an awful lot of ‘Hey, look at me’ to me sometimes to even DO a blog (but of course I get over that quickly, or I’d never have become a writer!). So to switch off from any hint toward obsessive navel-gazing, I’m going to dedicate my Friday blogs as a Writer’s Corner. Any questions you may have about the writing life, or process, or anything else, just pop me an e-mail at alesia@alesiaholliday.com, or post them as a comment here, and I’ll answer as many of them on Fridays as I can reasonably make up answers for. (Just kidding! I can make up answers for WAY more than I’ll post . . .)
To kick things off, and in honor of the SuperBowl frenzy that has consumed my current hometown of Jacksonville, I’ll answer the Super Bowl of questions – the one I hear at least once at every conference I ever attend: WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?
I usually give a flippant answer, like ‘At Target, where I buy everything. Usually they’re on sale 3 for 10 bucks.’
Or: ‘There’s a catalog, but the subscription is invitation-only.’
The lame jokes are to cover up the truth, which is far more uncomfortable: I have no earthly idea. I am one of those who truly believes that normal people’s brains are in one place, let’s say Earth, and writers’ brains are in way another place, like, oh, Mars. (HUMOR writers’ brains are way the heck out in Jupiter, but that’s a whole ‘nuther story, as they say down here in Florida.)
We look at the world differently. I went through a health scare this summer that had me pretty sure I was looking at writing THE END in a whole different context, and all throughout the scary, painful, and embarrassing health procedures and surgery, I kept thinking, “Now THIS would be funny in a book.”
This is just twisted and wrong.
Writers go though life observing everything; processing it all to find a way to make sense of it – to make it a STORY. At the heart of it all, I’m a storyteller. Tell me you hated my book, but darned if it didn’t keep you up till 2 a.m. to finish it just so you could write and tell me about it, and I’ll be happier than if you liked it well enough, but were able to put it down.
Anything that happens to me or anyone I know; anything I read in the news or see on TV, it all goes into the room in the attic where my muse sits, turning random bits of information into story ideas. “What if?” begins all ideas for me, and turns a simple thought into an idea that could jumpstart a story.
A caveat: people are ALWAYS telling me that ‘boy, do I have an idea for you’ – as if one single idea makes a book. Well, it would be great for me if it did, but bore the heck out of my readers! My friend (and terrific writer) Jacey Ford would kill me if I didn’t let you know that it takes hundreds of ideas for a book. Because every plot twist, every turn, and every surprise has its own idea behind it.
The scary part about there not being an Idea Aisle at Target, or a special catalog, is that when you don’t know where ideas come from, you don’t know if they’ll stop coming. This is what makes writers neurotic people who wake up at 4 a.m. in a cold sweat sometimes.
But I’m pretty hopeful. Because just this morning when I went out to breakfast, I saw a table filled with really great-looking people. Exactly half of them had Eagles shirts on, and the other half wore Patriots shirts. Yet they were really friendly with each other! WHAT IF somebody has started a Sports Fanatic dating service? WHAT IF you got matched up by appearance and favorite football team? WHAT IF they were part of a reality TV show called SUPER BOWL BACHELORETTE? WHAT IF . . .
You get the idea.
Hugs and happy weekending,
Alesia
Posted by Alesia at 11:06 AM | Comments (2)
Comments
You are so right about ideas. I'm always amazed when someone asks where they come from because, to me, they seem to be everywhere. Of course, I suppose it takes the writer-brain to turn everyday things into story ideas.
It made me smile when you talked about seeing people in a restaurant and having them spark ideas. I was picking up Chinese takeout one evening, and the guy ahead of me put down a fistful of bills that were literally crumpled into a wad. I, too, was just coming out of a major health scare and getting back on my feet. If I hadn't been so zoned out, I'd probably have been more subtle. But I just stood there, gaping at the money, this scene unreeling in my head, until he reached out and picked it back up. I looked up at him, and he was blushing. \;+) Then he stood there carefully smoothing each bill out and stacking them neatly.
Now, if they'd been like that in the first place, I'd never have gotten that great "bit" of characterization I needed. ;+) It was too cute, and I felt kind of bad, but I figured telling him I was a writer, and he'd given me a great idea, would probably have made him more embarrassed, not less.
Posted by: Anonymous at February 6, 2005 12:25 AM
Yes, the wad of cash would have caught my eye, too, definitely! Somebody on the run from the mob, maybe . . .
Clearly, the moral of the story is that writers need to eat out more. :)
Alesia
Posted by: Alesia at February 6, 2005 1:11 PM
