Russell Kirkpatrick's Journal
Posted At : 10:25 AM
| Posted By : Russell
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Where do authors get their ideas from?
This is the most often-asked question of authors at conventions. Author answers range from the helpful, as I am about to outline below, to the annoyed and frustrated: 'I have a Random Ideas Generator at home - all authors get issued with one. Didn't your publisher send you one?' is one of the better comments I've heard.
So where doI get my ideas from? My best ideas come from putting together two or more images or thoughts that have no business being put together.
So, for my latest novel, I have a culture which expresses itself most eloquently in herb drinking ceremonies. But not the elaborate Japanese tea ceremonies, more the earthy British pub kind of drinking, only with tea, not alcohol. After reading up on it, there's not much that herbs can't do: stimulants, relaxants, aphrodisiacs, curatives, you name it, herbs can do it. Hosts assess your character when you enter the Tea House and suit a drink to you, much the same way as is done with personal horoscopes. So the idea is Ceremonial Tea Drinking + British Pub + horoscopes = the famous Ikhnos Tea Chain (which is a chain of Tea Houses a pilgrim can travel around).
This culture will appear in Dark Heart, the novel I'm currently running behind schedule on.
I also find ideas in the oddest things. About 15 years ago I was terribly ill one night, and I spent the whole night in the small room staring at the linoleum ... which, I noticed, had a strange pattern. It looked almost like a robed, faceless fanatic raising his hands above his head. And so the character of the Hermit from the Fire of Heaven trilogy was born.
Free association, that's the thing. Put unlikely ideas and images together and you make up something all your own. It's all Lego, really. We all have the same bricks, but some people can make the coolest models.
Some of us make really cool models, then there are those of us whose bricks are scattered all around the floor, with a goodly proportion lost down the back of the couch!!
Posted By Jo / Posted At 7/9/07 12:22 PM
I know it's a terrible question, but as a reader I find answers like yours really interesting. I love hearing that a character was born out of a stain on some lino! That's the sort of nugget that really floats my reading boat.
Although, I must say that the Random Ideas Generator made me laught :)
Posted By webgoddess / Posted At 7/9/07 4:24 PM
The question has never bothered me, as I seldom get asked it. Perhaps people don't think I have ideas :) I think authors hate the question because most of the time we don't know where the ideas come from. It's like asking 'where do your dreams come from?' Sometimes the answer is obvious, sometimes it's not!
Posted By russell / Posted At 7/9/07 5:59 PM
I think you don't get asked it because people see the Great Map and assume it's the source of all your inspiration.
I get asked about ideas and I also get asked if my characters are me.
Posted By
Gillian / Posted At 7/9/07 8:06 PM
lol Gillian, you mean you aren't Rose? *ducks for cover*
I can only hope people want to know about one particular story I'm writing at the moment; I got the idea from a random selection of Useless Information that was, for some totally bizarre reason, printed on the paper strip on the back of some feminine hygiene products.
I'm guessing you know how much that amuses me *g*
Posted By Sharyn / Posted At 7/9/07 8:27 PM
I can see it now, Sharyn is just dying for this story to be published so that at some time in the future she can tell some earnest young fan or journalist exactly where she got the inspiration for the story... *heh* *heh*
Posted By Jo / Posted At 7/9/07 10:10 PM
I love those anecdotes, Russ. Thanks, as they say, for sharing! I confess, I get quite pissy with people who want to do snark over that question. It's coming from a genuine place, asked in good faith,, and legitimate, and I think it's wrong for writers to diss people who ask it.
Personally, I think I fall into Jo's category of someone who has lost most of his lego bricks down the back of the couch :)
I quite often have ideas, usual in the form of a single image or scene that just seem to float up in front of my mind's eye at random times. I have notebooks and scraps of paper all over the place with these snippets on them. I couldn't really say where they come from as such, I've always just assumed that my sub-conscious mind was serving up these tidbits, while simultaneously hiding all the rest of the bricks. As a consequence I've never actually turned any of them into anything more than that single image. Perhaps I should try making a world first in the hope of giving myself a box for all the blocks to go in :)
Posted By Chris / Posted At 7/10/07 9:51 AM
lol Jo, that ... and I want to see if I can claim those things as a tax deduction *winks*
Posted By Sharyn / Posted At 7/10/07 5:05 PM
Sharyn, does that mean if I don't have ideas I can't claim anything on tax?
Posted By
Gillian / Posted At 7/11/07 2:08 PM
I don't see why we can't claim them as a cost of doing business already - I certainly wouldn't be going to work without them...(sorry boys, this conversation is a bit girly)!!
Posted By Jo / Posted At 7/11/07 6:05 PM
Well, I'm one of those who doesn't like the question. It gets asked too often, for a start. But mostly because it is silly - what idea are they talking about? Any one book has countless ideas, especially if it is a fantasy, and how can I possible tell them the origin of each? Ask me: "where did you get the idea of moving maps in Havenstar", and I can tell you, and am happy to do so. Ask me where do you get your ideas from and I am likely to treat you the same way I treat my grandson when he wants to know how many stars there are in the sky.
I think you're right, Glenda. The specific question is fine, but the general question is really akin to asking for the secret magic spell. There simply isn't one.
Posted By russell / Posted At 7/12/07 4:52 AM
I have to say that I am in such awe of people who can create, well anything really, that I just assume your ideas are either divinely inspired or that writers are slightly more evolved humans!!
(Was that too much?? It was a bit - maybe just a little - over the top, hey?)
Posted By Jo / Posted At 7/12/07 10:18 PM
I receive your worship in the spirit of humility common to all great souls :)
Posted By russell / Posted At 7/13/07 4:42 AM
Sorry Dorinda, I shoulda kept my mouth shut...I hope he doesn't become toooo difficult to live with ;-).
Posted By Jo / Posted At 7/13/07 12:24 PM
Tell you what, tell me the questions you do want to hear, and I'll enlist people to ask you them at Conflux. Any questions, except the sheep ones of course. They're mine :) Well, I've got to have something to look forward to at the con :)
Posted By Nicole / Posted At 7/14/07 6:26 PM
I happened to notice that there was a rugby game on last night, your team did rather well I hear??? Congratulations and looking forward to this Saturday night.
Posted By Jo / Posted At 7/15/07 12:22 PM
Was there?
Posted By russell / Posted At 7/15/07 12:23 PM
Hiya Russell
Greetings from UK, it is cold and wet here after 35 plus in the Greek Isles......and......guess what? They have lots of donkeys in Greek Isles. :-)
Bought Dorinda a present...you can share
linda
x
Posted By Linda / Posted At 7/18/07 2:49 AM
Sounds great, Linda. I guess I'll have to look forward to your return, then.
Posted By russell / Posted At 7/18/07 6:07 AM
Is the present something to do with Greek donkeys?
Russell, I hope Hereford is on your places to visit when you go to the UK (or is the map no longer there?)
Posted By
Gillian / Posted At 7/18/07 7:27 PM
We'll be looking at the map, don't worry. It's such a fundamental place it didn't need mentioning. Like Heathrow.
Posted By russell / Posted At 7/19/07 3:53 AM
I thought that was it and I compiled you a list of places. Then I dumped the list and just thought 'Hereford.'
Posted By
Gillian / Posted At 7/19/07 8:47 AM
You darned Kiwis...lose one match and give us false hope then jump all over us and remind we Aussies why the All-Blacks are feared throughout the world :-). Hope you watched and enjoyed the match Russell and Linda.
Posted By Jo / Posted At 7/21/07 10:00 PM
Yeah, I caught the match.
I'm a rugby fan, but boy have I been bored with it lately. The game is no longer much of a spectacle. The Northern Hemisphere has had their way years ago, stamping out rucking. This means the breakdown is dominated by cheating, as players can't use either hands or feet in a ruck. So teams put a couple of forwards in to slow the ball down, allowing the rest of the forwards to enter the defensive line. The result is backlines that can't be penetrated. The game is tedious. Twenty minutes of action separated by long stoppages, and penalties that spectators and players alike don't understand. The game is seriously injured and is about to die.
And its made worse by this focus on the World Cup. All other games outside this tournament have become irrelevant.
I read a book while the game was on, and I frankly couldn't have cared who won. And I was delighted to see Latham back - my favourite player. He's utterly magnificent.
Posted By russell / Posted At 7/22/07 8:20 AM
I love the sound of your tea-drinking culture, especially the way you're turning into a 'drinking-session' type ceremony! Totally fascinating and a wonderful concept. You should pop over for a yaqona ceremony one weekend!
Kaaron
Posted By Kaaron Warren / Posted At 7/23/07 10:12 AM
I love the sound of your tea-drinking culture, especially the way you're turning into a 'drinking-session' type ceremony! Totally fascinating and a wonderful concept. You should pop over for a yaqona ceremony one weekend!
Kaaron
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