Inspiration
My students often tell me when given a writing assignment that they have no idea what to write and very often that inspiration is one of the most difficult parts of writing. For my trilogy, Valaraii Rising, my inspiration was Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings as I have said many times. I discovered the series thanks to an English teacher who assigned independent reading—we had to read 1200 pages a semester—and was convinced I would like the trilogy. With much reluctance, I started The Fellowship of the Ring on a Friday after school and finished the series by Sunday night. My English teacher was right.
I can still remember how mad I was when I reached the final page. Tolkien had created such a magnificent world, Middle Earth, and amazing characters that I didn’t want to leave his realm. I wanted the stories to continue and my immersion in that world to never stop. So, I started writing exceptionally bad fan fiction (for myself, of course). In this way, I could continue to live in Middle Earth as my own character—the character that his world was missing—a strong warrior woman. His stories fueled my imagination and I channeled that creativity to create a world and characters all my own that revolved around me—or an idealized version of me. Frankly, the only characteristics that Sylle and I share are the fact that we both have blue eyes and curly brown hair and an intensity about the importance of family. I wouldn’t know the first thing about sword fighting or hand-to-hand combat or destroying orc. I can shoot an arrow decently. I wouldn’t say amazingly, but I can hit a target. It might be the outer edge, but I can hit it.
The point is that Tolkien inspired my world, but it was truly my deep desire to be seen, to be powerful and not a pushover, to have control and not be bullied that inspired my character. She has evolved over the MANY years since school, as have all my characters and the worlds of my story; but Sylle remains at her core the person I always dreamed of being: strong, independent, intelligent, loved and admired, a leader.
That’s the thing about inspiration. It can come from so many different places, and it’s never just one thing that sparks our fire. Most often, it’s a combination of ourselves, our desires and hopes and dreams, and our experiences. Shakespeare created his famous play Romeo and Juliet from an extremely long poem that itself had been inspired by earlier Italian novellas and even ancient Roman tales. That’s the point. Inspiration is everywhere you look and in everything you see, read, feel, and do. It’s why I have so many journals filled with so many ideas. Maybe one day I’ll get to them all, but there are many, all the poems for starters, that are probably best left in those journals.