Squeezing out Sparks: Inspiration & the Writer

[Paul Whybrow]

Whenever I kick around ideas for a plot, I take key elements and mentally rub them together, to see what sparks are produced. As Bruce Springsteen sang: “You can’t start a fire without a spark.”

For a story to be successful, there needs to be conflict, opposition, uncertainty, some struggle the protagonist faces that will engage the interest of the reader. The conflict can be caused by others or be internal or caused by forces of nature. Think how boring a book would be if everything went right for the hero.

My current WIP Kissing & Killing has a main storyline of mercenary killers hired to murder high-profile big game hunters. They leave the crime scene awash with blood, ten gallons of it brought with them. They ‘sign’ their work with the victim’s amputated hand dipped in blood, leaving a print on the door of the room where they died. The reason for the murders is political, not altruistic, paid for by an African province declaring independence and wanting to retain control of the wildlife on its land.

Subplots involve an arsonist setting fire to farm barns and a gold digger seeking a rich older man to marry. I intend to create sparks by thrusting the subplots into the main plot.

Inspiration for the principal storyline came from three sources:

1) Seeing protests by Extinction Rebellion, where fake blood was poured.

Extinction Rebellion protesters pour fake blood over New York's capitalist bull

2) Photographs of big game hunters posing with trophy animals they’d shot.

(David Attenborough hits out at hunters as 12-year-old admits to trophy hunting)

3) Coming across a photo of a slave staring at his five-year-old daughter’s amputated hand and foot, removed to punish him not meeting rubber plantation production quotas.

(View at your own risk. This Image of A Slave Father Looking At His Daughter's Severed Hand And Foot Has Haunted Generations)

What sparked your stories into life?

 

[KateESal]

"What if...?"

A whole host of what ifs, one after the other.

"What if there was a parallel world where all the toys that had ever been lossed or thrown away come to life? What if two children got stuck there? What if...?" etc. (The premise behind the Treasureland series)

"What if you found your exact double on social media, but they were more glamorous than you and living the exciting life you always dreamed of? What if you tracked them down? What if...?" (S Is For Sparkle)

 

[CageSage]

A different strategy:

Find the character who's antsy, needs to do something, find their deep inner self - and label the way they work with a verb (actually, a group of verbs) and use to denote how the internal drive is enacted upon the events of a story.
I can't do 'what if' type scenarios; it's always the character who has the need to do something to 'make it right' (according to their code).

However, I also find the flash stories on news or feeds that inspire - and I've learned to take note of when my inner mind whispers, 'oooooh, isn't that interesting.' Sometimes, that happens before I meet the character who needs this scenario. More often, I have a character who 'fits' that intrigue, and it snowballs from there.

I think it's a case of observation - be aware of the world and bring back the things that matter so they can fold into the story bake, layered like lasagne (or cake, of course!).

 

[Barbara]

For a story to be successful, there needs to be conflict, opposition, uncertainty, some struggle the protagonist faces that will engage the interest of the reader. The conflict can be caused by others or be internal or caused by forces of nature. Think how boring a book would be if everything went right for the hero.

That's SO it!! And it's the first thing I plot out when I have a new story.

What sparked your stories into life?

Generally, something that happens, or something I hear.

Book 2 was a sentence I read.

Book 3 was inspired by a photo in a Flash Fiction comp on a different site. The photo prompt was a bit obvious, and I wanted to write something different and dark. When I finished it, I though, 'This would be a great ending for a book.' I then had to figure out how the MC would arrive in this situation (a bad situ), and work backwards.

The idea for next book was inspired by watching a documentary and hearing one line.