Inspiration at the Oddest Times and Something About the Story Itself

The book is fiction - fantasy fiction to be exact. Well, in the sense that there's magic. What it doesn't have are vampires (I have standards), zombies, unicorns, dragons and other mythical creatures. I say vampires because they are currently the most overused characters in teen fiction (yes, I'm writing a young adult novel) and it's getting really old and annoying. Mainly because of a certain story that starts with a "T" and ends with an "wilight." But that's neither here nor there.

My friend, Jonathan, who actually appears in my book as the character "Joe Shepard," asked me while I was at a broomball tournament for young single adults in my church, how the book was coming and I realized that my friend, Matt (Steven Carter in the book), is a seriously evil guy. It took me by surprise but also gave me something more in depth about him. Cool cool. Who knew that running on ice in sneakers, chasing a rubber ball with "brooms" could bring inspiration. That brings me to the other thing I wanted to talk about.

I've found that carrying a pen and paper with me wherever I go is quite beneficial, in that you never really know when something will hit you. In my case today, it was four hockey sticks and the wall during the game today and then inspiration came while I was nursing my bruised hand. But in all seriousness, you never really know when an idea may come to you and you want to be prepared if and when it does. Take JK Rowling for example. She was stuck on a train ride when Harry Potter suddenly appeared in her head and she didn't have anything to write with. No bueno. I've lost crucial ideas because I wasn't prepared and it's nerve-wracking, wondering if that would be the idea that brought you a best-selling novel. So I make it a habit to have a composition book or a "creativity log" that I bought for a few dollars - it has parts for quotes, sketches and ideas so when inspiration hits, I'm completely prepared for whatever it may be.

So all I have to say really is to be prepared. There may be more to come in terms of my book - I have to write more first.

Until then,

Ashley