Write Up North 2024 Seeking Inspiration

 

Finding Inspiration for a Story

Before we look at the writing process itself, we need to understand where we can find inspiration for our story.

As authors we want our stories to connect to readers through our characters and what happens to them.

We are all unique but, at the same time, we can share similar attributes with others.

There is saying that we should write what we know about (which is probably only partly true).

As an example, Ian Fleming’s most famous character, James Bond, works for MI6 and was previously in the Royal Navy.  Fleming himself worked in Naval Intelligence during World War Two and used that experience to create the character of 007 and some of the stories in the books.

Inspiration can come from your own life or from what you see in the world today and in its past. Reading factual and fiction books can also help a great deal. Below are examples of how writers find ideas for a story.

Help from the Classics

Some of these stories could have been written thousands of years ago, some only decades ago. But writers do take ideas and inspiration (and try to be careful and not take liberties) with older stories. The very reason these classical stories are still around after all these years is because they work, they are good. It also helps that there are only a handful of basic plots in all stories. Some of these stories are also short and simple to understand which is also handy.

Examples:

·      Classical Greek myths

·      Fairy Tales

·      Shakespeare

·      Classic crime stories

Many modern books, plays, and films have been influenced by them and reading these stories / plays can help with ideas for what happens in yours. Writers may borrow ideas and set their own story in the modern age or use the same theme. Sometimes they add more to their story – such as a little romance or a twist at the end – it is absolutely fine to be inspired in this way.

Examples:

·      The Percy Jackson fantasy adventures by Rick Riordan

·      Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

·    Trading Places (the film) is a modern retelling of the Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

·   Shakespeare’s plays: The Lion King taken from Hamlet; West Side Story from Romeo and Juliet.

·      The Knives Out film series is heavily inspired by Agatha Christie novels.

Classics are classics because they have aged well. Their tales are still relevant today. Pride and Prejudice was written over 200 years ago but the story, its characters and themes are relevant today (as Helen Fielding realised when she wrote about Bridget Jones).

Historical Fiction and using the past as an inspiration

Historical fiction is massive and there is a huge pot of true life stories to take inspiration from. As an example how about the Wolf Hall series of books by Hilary Mantell. They are written in the perspective of a real life statesman, Thomas Cromwell, and his dealing and demise with Henry VIII. In particular he helps Henry divorce Catherine of Aragon so that Henry can marry Anne Boleyn. He then helps Henry prosecute Anne so that she can be executed.

Getting Ideas from the news or what is around you

At the start of 2016 I was preparing a new adult beginner course and checked the newspapers for something to possibly seek inspiration from. In that week, the following occurred:

·      David Bowie (sadly) died

·      One of the Hatton Garden diamond robbers was sent to prison

·      Someone tried to defraud the UK Lottery of £33 million

From that I came up with the following:

·  A story called the Gene Genie who could design people’s genes for certain reasons.  Perhaps the darker the reason the better!

·    A story about an undercover police officer who befriends one of the diamond robbers as part of the criminal investigation but then they both win the lottery.  What do they do?

Setting a story in a time of a momentous event

Having a major event in the foreground or background of your story is nothing new. There have been lots of stories set during World War Two for instance, some all about the war for example, “Where Eagles Dare” by Alistair McLean but some merely have the war as a backdrop to how the characters end up in the situation they find themselves in.

Examples:

·      Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden

·      Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

As another example, the 1997 film Titanic is all about love between classes. In the background is the fact that the two lovers are on board a ship which, as we all know, sinks bringing the famous disaster of 1912 into the forefront of the story. 

Having a Theme or an issue you want to write about

On the surface some books can just be a story about the main character, the protagonist, and what happens to them. However, looking at a story in a wider perspective and there could be a message or a discussion which the writer wants their readers to think about. Popular themes include: coming of age; good versus evil; power and corruption; prejudice, race, gender, love, and death. Having an issue you want to talk about can help you get inspired to write a story.

Next week we will look at why and how we set scenes in stories.

Keep writing!!