If you're a dreamer, a wisher, a liar
A hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean buyer
If you're a pretender come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin
Come in...come in...
~Shel Silverstein

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Thursdays Child

Hey guys,

Before I even start this post let me say that I'm having major problems with my blog. I can see your comments, but can't reply to them--so it looks like I'm just ignoring everyone. Very sorry about that. If anyone knows how to fix it, I'd really appreciate the heads up. Until then, I'm trying to figure it out...

Now that's out of the way, I'll move onto my Thursdays Child post, which is hosted by the very awesome Rhiann-Wynn Nolet and Kristina Perez. Make sure you stop by their pages to say hi. It would be awesome if more people joined in the bloghop!! The link is on both their sites.

I'd say one of the things that inspires my writing the most is reading. I've learned more from that than anything else. There are some amazing books on writing. I love Stephen King on Writing, The Breakout Workbook, and The First Five Pages. All excellent guides.

But, beyond that, just regular books are excellent sources, both of inspiration and the mechanics of writing.  Like, when I was a kid, (about ten) I read a MG book about a boy who falls through a forgotten door on his planet and lands on our world. It was one of my favorite books and I probably read it five or six times.

It's NOTHING like the book I wrote--except for the very basic idea of it. My book being about a girl who falls through a rip in a parallel world and ends up on Earth with no memory of her life before the fall. For the longest time I didn't make the connection, until I was going through some old books for Goodwill and came across The Forgotten Door. Then I just kind of smacked my head and went, "Holy crap. I totally took that idea." haha...What do they say though? There's no such thing as an original idea, right? I think its really neat that something I'd read at such a young age would come back to me and have a huge impact on my own work and, therefore, my life.

Then, of course, there's those books that have such beautiful writing that I can't help but aspire to be like them. Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovannoff, Cassandra Clare, Laini Taylor. I know some people accuse them of "purple prose" but I have to disagree. I think they're amazing and I can only hope someday I'll be able to write half as well as any one of them. Cassandra Clare was pretty much single-handedly responsible for teaching me how to use metaphors successfully. haha. And Maggie Stiefvater is the first writer I ever read whose books reminded me of reading poetry. Very cool.

How about you guys? Are there any books out there that have inspired your writing? What are they?

9 comments:

  1. Hi Tamara .. I hope you can sort your commenting out - perhaps recheck your own settings .. other than that I have no idea ... and if you change a setting remember to save - it's usually lower down the page - probably teaching you to suck eggs .. but it's the little things that catch us out.

    Good luck -cheers Hilary

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    1. Yay!! I can comment again. Blogger fixed itself. Apparently it was just a problem with the system. Thanks for stopping by!!

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  2. Hey! Thanks for joining Thursday's Children and sharing this.

    I think it's hilarious that you realized the connection to The Forgotten Door after the fact — that's happened to me, and it really does feel like a smack in the face! Haha. You feel cheap for a few seconds... but it quickly wears off, haha.

    It sounds cheesy, but when I was a kid, I was in love with a series of MG/YA Star Wars books called the Young Jedi Knights. I just loved the idea of these kids, just like me, going on adventures and growing up together, learning how to fight and survive. Plus the fact that there were maybe 10+ books in the series, it made me feel like there was always another adventure to come.

    I'm sure a lot of that has inspired my stories as well!

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    1. Weird. The comment section works on my computer half the time but then breaks again. Now it's working on my husband's but not mine.

      Series books are the best. I just read a book that left a hole in me when it ended. I am SO glad it's part of a series so I can spend more time with the characters-I just wish the writer would write faster. haha

      Thanks for stopping by. :)

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  3. I'm really getting a bit worried. I sent you an email two whole days ago--I'm so patient, right?--but I thought, given the subject matter, that you'd have jumped on it, or at least gotten back to me to tell me why you wouldn't be jumping on it. This is the last place I can think to get to you...hope it works.

    Anyway, since I don't want to ignore your lovely post for my own personal message...I have to say that Harry Potter was one of the book/series that changed the way I write. I really paid attention to how JKR wove that tale. I want to take people on a ride, even if it's not to a magical world. But it really depends on the type of story I'm telling too. When I was writing Light Bringers I listened to a lot of J.D. Robb's books. The cop talk and such helped me get into the mindset of the military-like characters in Light Bringers.

    Great post! Let me know if you got my email!!! :-)

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    1. Hey Kar,
      I emailed you back. :)

      I still need to read Light Bringers, but I suppose you want to finish revising it first. :)

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  4. I don't think you have to worry. We all get inspiration from different sources, but once it gets into our brains that input changes, evolves and becomes our own.


    http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-blazing-hot-keyboard-50000-word-novel.html

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  5. I had a similar experience to that, actually! When I was a teen, I had this weird nightmare/dream which inspired a story of mine, a story which is still dear to me today. There is a bad guy in the story, based from my mind, and my dream. But years after writing that story, I was watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and I realized out of nowhere that my monstrous-character was definitely inspired by the Child Catcher! He was creepy as a child to me, and somehow he stuck in my mind and came out through my writing! It's funny how these things make their ways into the brain, eh?

    I don't actively notice the influence of books on my writing, but I know it's there...we expand our knowledge and study of the craft, and we thus expand on our own ways of thinking and creating!

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I love to hear from everyone! Thanks for the comment. :)