The Runaway Bunny

The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown is one of my favorite children's books. I read it to my children constantly and still get a little choked up when the baby bunny becomes a bird and the mama bunny becomes a tree.

I love the idea of the book: the baby bunny is loved, and mama bunny wants him to come home so much, that she will go after him and bring him home to her, no matter how far he goes. Puck and Tink, too, will know that they are so loved that they can always come home to me, no matter where they've been, what they've done, or who they are.

But the cheesy in me wants to take something from it for myself, too, and I've come to associate the book--and its message--with my writing life, and (specifically) the collection.

The correlation being that no matter what path my life takes, no matter what else I have going on, I can always "come home" to writing.

Here's the thing.

Writing doesn't care what else you've got going on. It doesn't care that things are tough (or easy), that you're struggling or succeeding, that you're dealing with drama or creating it. All that matters is that you show up at the page and put words on it. That you tell the story. Anything else is an excuse.

Regardless of what's going on in my life, I still manage to write. I may take a break for a while, but I always come back to writing. And, like coming home, it rejuvenates me, re-centers me and keeps me pushing through to the next lap.

Seeing characters everywhere

I love to watch people. It's something I've enjoyed for most of my life.

I was very shy as a child, so I often found myself in the enviable position of being overlooked when others were having private conversations. I heard things others didn't. I saw things others didn't. I enjoyed getting to see these private sides of people, so as I got older, I continued to keep my mouth shut, and my eyes and ears open.

Now that I'm older, being this kind of observer has been beneficial to my writing. I still see these private sides of people, and when I do, they are somehow transformed into characters begging to be included in stories. I know it's a writer thing to see characters and stories everywhere, and I'm thankful for that. After all, it's because of my observation I have the coffee house book characters that I do. Most of them are inspired by people I have seen, talked to, or known in my adult life.

Like visual artists, writers see things others don't, and in ways that others don't. And just because you don't write realism doesn't mean you can't use the people and relationships you see every day as inspiration for your stories. Even invented worlds need an element of truth in order to for readers to relate to them, so even non-realism stories can draw on that quirky cashier you chatted with last week, or the always-on-his-phone guy that drops by your neighbor's house sometimes.

If you want your characters to seem real, using real people as an inspiration is a good start!

Of course, you'll want to change the character enough that he or she is unrecognizable, and hat he or she fits into the world of your story. Usually it involves changing more than just a name. But you have to do what's true to your story. Look at the character sketches you've created from your observations and flesh them out. Lots of writers have great advice on how to create characters. Robert Atkinson also has an amazing life story interview in his book The Gift of Stories that I frequently use as a character biography interview.

Regardless of how you create your characters, it all starts with someone you see, or some character trait or quirk that caught your eye (or ear) and just screams, "Put me in your story!" So just keep your eyes and ears open, and your story world will be populated before you know it!

Sometimes inspiration strikes inconveniently

Writers across the globe are scribbling furiously this month as they participate in NaNoWriMo. It's a fun adventure, and shows writers that regardless of your schedule or situation, you can make time to write about 2,000 words a day, and focus on a novel to get it done.

I'm not officially participating in NaNo this year, but I am working on the coffee house book. Focusing on one story is good. It lets me get into the characters and story. But, as can happen with writers, focusing on one story leads to a new, shiny idea begging to be written. It's happening to me right now, in fact. I have an idea for a story I think would be fun to write--much more fun than slogging through character biographies and background information for the coffee house book.

What do you do when this happens to you? Do you take a little time to jot ideas down? Do you use the shiny, new idea as a way to break from the WIP when you feel stuck? Do you ignore the new idea until you're ready to write it?

Why I watch TV

I have to admit something to you.

I watch too much TV.

My office space is currently in our living/dining room area*, and I can see the TV from my desk. So when I'm working, I usually have something on for background noise. Law & Order reruns on TNT, Storage Wars on A&E, or whatever horrible B movie happens to be on the Lifetime Movie Network. (I know. Don't judge.) Most of time I'm not paying attention to what's on, but sometimes I get drawn in to a show or movie, and find myself writing a bit slower than I should in favor of seeing Six from Blossom as a college student rushing a sorority.

Photo source

But I've learned to use my too-much-TV-watching to my advantage. If I'm drawn in to a show, obviously there's something good about the dialogue and story, right? So when I find myself watching more TV than writing, I try to listen to the dialogue and dissect it. What is it about these lines that's made me want to watch? What does the dialogue tell me about the characters? About the story?

When I was in college, my husband (then boyfriend) and friend would try to get me to play video games with them instead of writing. Once my friend said that I should play video games because it was "for my craft." It was research...or something. After a while, we jokingly justified anything by declaring it "for the craft."

One of the good things about being a writer is that you get inspiration from anywhere, and since you draw from life for stories, all things in life can be source material. Anything can be "for the craft." Sure, the college coffee-stained writer used it as an excuse to play video games and go for a coffee run instead of writing, but there's a lot in life that can be used to help strengthen your writing.

Including TV.

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*This fall my office space will be moving to the closet in the master bedroom. It will give me a door I can close, shelves for my files, and privacy when I need it for a deadline (or call with a client). I'm super excited to have an official office, even if I have to share it with my clothes and shoes!

Way back in the beginning of February, I started working through The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I didn't know what to expect other than becoming "unblocked" (which I didn't think I was) and cultivating a link between my creativity and my spirituality (which I thought I already had).

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Music (and lyrics) to write by

In yesterday's article about writing to music, Stephanie commented:

I don't know about anybody else, but I can't listen to music with words when I'm writing. The words distract me from what I'm trying to write. That's the reason I listen to classical music or movie soundtracks or something like that.

This is an issue that often comes up as writers try to find the perfect writing music, and there are pros and cons for both scenarios.

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Music to write by

Music is inspirational to people. Regardless of what your favorite music is, or the role it plays in your life, chances are there is at least a song or two that "speaks" to you. Fortunately for writers, the creativity and emotion in music can be used to benefit your writing!

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Writing motivation

Many on-writers see the writer's life as one full of art, inspiration and beauty.  They see writers' minds as fountains of stories just waiting to be written down.  It's a glamorous vision of writers' lives, but writers know it isn't always like that.  In fact, there are many times that writing feels much less a dream job and much more work.  And when it's work, it's hard to find the motivation to keep at it.


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It's Still There

Since this is to be a musing upon writing, and since my dear heart sister told me to utilize my guest-blogger privileges while she's (mostly) on maternity leave, I'm afraid you'll be suffering my early-morning musings. I have a head cold. If the following makes little sense, blame it on the cold medicine.

First, I have to admit a fear. You see, I'm a speculative fiction writer with a pronounced lean toward fantasy who discovered last year she's an atheist. That's a bit discombobulating. Then I discovered a deep-rooted joy in unvarnished reality, warts, uncertainty and all. That's really disconcerting for a person who wants to tell stories about mythical creatures for a living. For a bit there, I thought about giving up on the fantasy side of things altogether. But my characters don't seem amenable to being recast in a science fiction mileau, and while I love reading and writing about science, I'm not scientist enough to really feel it's my calling. But things have changed, and the story shall have to change with it. We'll get to that over the winter.

At least I didn't have to question whether it's possible for an atheist to write fantasy. Neil Gaiman writes stories hugely influenced by myth, and he's an atheist. Terry Pratchett's even got dwarves, elves, witches, trolls and all manner of other fantastic beings on a flat world swimming through space on the backs of four elephants standing on a turtle, and he's an atheist, too. So one can obviously be an atheist and write wonderful fantasy. No worries on that front.

My real fear, silly as it sounds, was that I wouldn't love Lord of the Rings anymore.

A great many fantasy writers have been inspired by Tolkien. I'm no different. Just because you won't find any elves or dwarves running about in my books doesn't mean I haven't been deeply, profoundly influenced by Tolkien's work. I have shelves full of his writings, other writers' writings about his writings, and stories inspired by his writings. The walls of my bedroom are hung with Tolkien artifacts, including a Two Towers promotional photograph signed by many of the actors. Various Tolkien paraphernalia is carefully arranged atop one of the shelves. And I wear the One Ring around my neck every day, without fail, because I made a promise. But here I was, coming off nearly a year binging on science and atheist literature, facing the fact that in order to be a fiction author I'd have to get back to writing the bloody stuff, and knowing where a good part of my inspiration lies. Did it still?

Or was I going to pop that first DVD in the player and discover the magic was gone?

I'm happy to report it's not. I've been enthralled for two films now. Everything's just the way I remember it. I'm as moved as ever by those characters and that world. And I'm starting to realize it never was about magic. It was about friendship, and fear, and fidelity, and failings. It may have elves and dwarves and hobbits and wizards, but it's still a very human story. It has quite a lot to suggest about how to live a meaningful life. And that's what stories do. They distill things. They make a model of the world. They teach without preaching. They enlighten as they entertain.

This is why Neil Gaiman says we owe it to each other to tell stories. One of the reasons, anyway. There are others, some of them hugely meaningful and some of them not as much, but all of them important.

And it's just what humans do. We walk upright, we build things, and we like stories.

So with that worry gone, I'll be crafting some hugely meaningful (I hope) speculative fiction inspired by Tolkien and all manner of science, by myth and legend but also by messy reality. I'll be building worlds, and telling stories that aren't factually true but (I hope) say something true about what it is to be human, and perhaps a little about what should be, as all good stories do. I'll be writing knowing dear Professor Tolkien's magic is still there as my guide.

After I've finished Return of the King, that is.

What about you? What inspires you no matter how much you change?

Fiction Thursday: Inspiration

Kell over at The Fang Marked Writer has a post about music as inspiration up today. Music is a common source of writerly inspiration, but other things can be inspirational, too. Many writers like to be out in nature or to wander in art galleries and museums.

However, writers can be an odd bunch, and seek inspiration in "unusual" places sometimes. Dana of En Tequila Es Verdad has been known to go outside for a smoke, for example. Another writer friend of mine dusts her living room. Still another takes a long shower.

Sometimes when I need inspiration, I make myself a cup of hot tea. (Earl Grey is best for me!) The tea is relaxing and lets my mind wander a bit, and usually by the time I'm rinsing out my cup, I'm ready to get back to whatever I was working on (or trying to, at least).

So I'm curious as to what inspires you that others might find "odd." Is it a particular food or drink? Watching a television show? Doig a handstand? What is that gets your creative flow going?

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Photo source

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Hubby and I watched Girl with a Pearl Earring last night.  Well...I watched.  Hubby slept.  I read the book on which it was based earlier this year and enjoyed it quite a bit.  (If you haven't read or seen it, I recommend reading first, as there are a few things left out of the movie that make the story a little richer.)

As I watched, I was struck by the way the movie portrayed  Vermeer's (played by Colin Firth) inspiration for paintings.  In one scene, he walks into his studio and Griet (played by Scarlet Johansson) is washing the windows.  He sees her with one hand on the glass and the other on the table, and sees a scene he wants to capture on canvas.

It reminds me of the writing process.  I have had moments like that.  I see someone standing at a bus stop or in the mall and a character unfolds.  Or I walk through a park and suddenly see a setting for an intimate conversation between two characters.  Sometimes writing is like that.  You're walking along, living your life, and the inspiration materializes before you.

It's not always like that, of course.  Sometimes writing is a bitch, and you have to pull characters from your fingertips.  But it's those quiet moments when you suddenly see what you've been missing or hear a bit of dialogue that fits seamlessly into a scene that are the moments that are immortalized.  After all, it's much more glamorous to get the inspiration that way because, as Kay Eiffel says in her immortalization (see previous link), "...like anything worth writing, it [comes] inexplicably and without method."

As writers, I think we want to believe that the best written moments are revealed to us when we're gazing out windows or walking in the mall or coming home from buying cigarettes and seeing an apple roll onto the street.  (You didn't get that one, either?  Seriously, watch this movie.)  We want the craft to be wrapped in mysterious inspiration.  We want our art to be the product of whispers from the muse.  We want the craft to be glamorous.

Not every writing moment is standing on a desk, thinking about leaping off buildings.  Enjoy those moments, but don't discount the words that are pulled from us, sculpted, painted, glazed.  Because whether we walk into a room and see the maid standing in the perfect pose, waiting to be painted, or we spend hours tapping away until the right words appear, we still write.

Writing from Art, Part Two: My Inspiration

I am writing a reflection on Van Gogh's Sunflowers, and I would love to read your own reflections on the painting. Using the picture below, follow the steps in yesterday's exercise, then email the result to me.

Writing from Art, Part One: an Exercise

Years ago I took a directed study with my academic advisor called Personal Mythmaking. One of the earliest assignments I was given in the course was to write about my favorite work of art. It started as a description of the painting, Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers, and developed into my reflection on the painting, which developed into a sort of emotional catharsis.



Art can be very powerful, so there have been many times I use art to help me give words to particular emotions. I didn't realize how helpful visual art was to me until the exercise my academic advisor gave me, and it's something I haven't stopped since. In fact, I have several Van Gogh prints on the wall in my office space to remind me of the importance of visual art in my craft, and there have been a few times I've stopped what I was writing to just look at the prints before I pick back up where I was in the writing. Believe me: it helps!

If you haven't written to art before, I highly recommend it. Here is your process:
Choose your favorite work of art (it can be a painting, a sculpture, found art, whatever).

1. Put the work in a place you can see it clearly (on you computer screen, or sit in front of it at the gallery or museum or whatever you have to do short of stealing it).
2. Begin writing, letting the piece, how you feel about it, what you see, etc., guide your writing.
3. When you feel you've said what you need to say, stop.
4. Email the result to me at nicolepalmby (at) gmail (dot) com to be posted, if you wish. (Be sure to include the title and artist and a picture, if possible, as well as your name.)
5. Repeat as needed to inspire you!

Write every day vs. write productively

It's a debate that has filled pages of books, scores of message boards, and time after time, it's left unresolved. The question:

Is it better to write every day, or to write when you know you can write productively?

When I began writing, I was a "write productively" writer. I would go days without writing, but when I did sit in front of my laptop to write, I was able to get a great deal amount of work done. In college, due mostly to assignments and deadlines, I began to write more frequently even if I wasn't totally inspired to write so I could work more steadily toward deadlines and completing assignments. Now, as a full time freelance writer, I write every day for a minimum amount of time, regardless of my level of inspiration and whether or not I have a looming deadline. At the beginning of my day I look at my task list and create a list of goals for the day, and I don't leave my office until my goals for the day are accomplished. Writing a certain amount (or for a certain amount of time) is always on my goal list. Personally, I see writing as something that needs to be practiced to maintain (or improve) skill, so even if I'm not completing a project, I find something to write to help hone my skills.

I know this is a very personal choice akin to faith and political affiliation, so rather than try to convince you of one side or the other, I'd like to present both sides to you, and let you decide for yourself which you prefer.

Write every day

There are some who think the best way to write is to sit at their desks for a minimum amount of time each day and scribble. They are great at meeting their daily word count goals, and though sometimes they sit for a good deal of time staring at a blank page, they're certainly persistent.

One of the advantages of writing every day is that it creates a sense of routine for writers. You know that from this time to this time every day, you'll be writing. Ideas that come between writing times can be used at the time, or they can be saved until the next writing time.

One of the disadvantages of writing every day is that there may be times you sit and stare for the whole writing time without writing a word. This is not only unproductive, but can be very frustrating.

Write productively

There are some who think the best way to write is when inspiration strikes. They are the ones who keep notepads on their nightstand in case they wake from a dream with a great character, and though they may need to scramble to meet goals or deadlines at times, when they write, they write furiously.

One of the advantages of writing productively is that when you sit down to write, you'll have something to write. You won't feel like you're wasting time sitting at your desk with no inspiration.

However, a disadvantage of writing productively is that it can be sporadic, which can make it more difficult to make deadlines and word count goals since you're at the mercy of the muse.

There are certainly other considerations when deciding whether to write every day or to write productively. A large part of that decision is to examine your writing style, and figure out what works best for you. As I said, when I began writing seriously, I only wrote when I felt compelled to write, but as my writing life has changed, I've changed my writing schedule. Remember: if what you're doing isn't working, don't keep doing it because that will just be counter-productive.

The important thing is that whether you decide to write every day or write when inspiration strikes (or a combination of the two), keep writing! Figure out how to write and just keep filling pages!

And happy scribbling!

Seeking Inspiration: Writing from the Scraps of Life

For those who are not aware, I'm also a scrapbooker. I've always collected bits and scraps of my life as memories, and now that I've begun scrapbooking, I have a way to put them all together in an attractive way instead of keeping them in a shoebox in my closet.

I recently finished my wedding scrapbook, and as I was putting together the pages over the past couple of weeks, I had to stop every so often, open my jotting journal (a journal I use to jot notes and ideas), and make a few notes about story ideas that kept coming to mind. I filled half a dozen pages of story ideas, characters, and relationships from the memories of my wedding day as I used acid-free adhesive to paste down embellishments and matting. (Once I finish this freelance gig I'll be starting a couple of character sketches based on my recent notes.)

I know I would've gotten through the scrapbook sooner if I'd saved my notes until I was finished with the whole thing and gone through it as a whole, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. So I scribbled while I waited for glue to dry or while I was thinking about how to cut certain matting or what color cardstock to use.

It was strange, really, that I got more ideas putting together my wedding scrapbook than I did at Anderson Gardens when I was there a few years ago, and I usually take lots of notes at Anderson Gardens.

Life is the stuff of stories.

So when your muse is out to lunch and you're on a deadline, why wouldn't you turn to the scraps of your own life for inspiration? It's close at hand, it's something about which you can write with true emotion based on first-hand experience. How better can you write to touch lives than by writing about the people and events that touched yours?

In my post "So You Think You're a Poet? Part One: Imagery," I talked about poetry being an experience. Prose is similar in that it should be an experience, and it's created by drawing a connection between reader and writer. And writing to create an experience can be done by drawing on your own experiences to create vivid moments and characters that touch readers because they, too, have experienced what you have, or met a character you use as an inspiration.

If you find you're struggling to come up with something to type (or write), I recommend going through your journals, looking back through photo albums, scrapbooks, or going through that memento box that is home to the ticket stubs from your first movie date, the love letter your significant other wrote that made you cry, and the broken piece of sand dollar you found during your first trip to the beach. You never know what might come out of it.

Happy scribbling!

Summer Inspiration

Sometimes when the weather is gorgeous, the temperature is perfect, and the sun is shining brightly, it's hard to stay inside at a computer to work. Even worse is trying to come up with ideas for stories or articles when the garden or beach or forest is calling to you.


I used to try and fight my urge to go outside and be in nature during the summer months, and while I spent a lot of time at my computer, my writing suffered. My mind was elsewhere, and no matter what I did, I couldn't come up with a writing topic.


Now I don't fight these urges. Instead I let myself take a bit of time to be in nature, and I've gotten great ideas as a result. But on the days I simply must sit and work, I've even come up with writing prompts to keep my mind from fighting the summer weather without sacrificing my writing and writing time. Some have to do with weather, others with animals, a couple deal with vacations, but all get me in the summer mindset.


I find that when I embrace the weather instead of fighting it, the summer becomes an ally in my writing life instead of a distraction. I don't feel guilty for thinking about what's waiting outside my window. And then, when I've been writing about the family of ducks that lives in our pond all morning, my break is all the sweeter at lunch time when I go feed them from my stale bread bag.


Happy scribbling!
NP