Tag Archives: inspiration

Your Life In Six Words

17 Monday Mar 2014

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Got a couple new articles for interested readers: The Psychology of Limitations: How and Why Constraints Can Make You More Creative and Six-Word Memoirs. I found the second article through the first, but it’s the second article I find the most fascinating.

Now, I have to admit, I’ve never been a big fan of short stories. I don’t like overly long and flowery things either, but I’ve simply never cared for short stories. With a few notable exceptions, they’re either boring or too short to properly flesh out a story. (This is my opinion. If you like short stories, more power to you. You probably like “deeper” literature than I.)

However, the notion of a six-word memoir struck a chord with me. This could be fun! To borrow their graphic:
six-word memoir
Go to the articles above for more.

Here’s mine: “I’d still rather be a dragon.”

What’s yours? You can come up with something real or fanciful or humorous – odds are, I won’t know the difference. ;)

P.S. Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Editing the Beast

10 Monday Feb 2014

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So I’ve been plugging away at editing my first novel, Calling On Fire, and let me tell you: nothing can prepare you for editing: not even having gone through edits on my short story.
I did expect edits to be harder on my novel. It’s longer, for one, and it’s much nearer and dearer to my heart than the short. I poured not just time into it, but pieces of my heart and soul. And I knew – or at least, suspected – that there were some things wrong with it, and I even had an idea what those things were (although I didn’t know how to fix them.) But I still didn’t expect it to be THAT different: more the fool, I.

pencil writing editing inspiration

As such, editing is taking longer than expected. The demands of my day-life aren’t helping, but that’s no excuse. The book is still DEFINITELY going to be out this year, just not as early as I’d hoped. But as soon as I send the next round of edits to the editor, I’ll be getting the cover design underway and this thing’ll be rocking.

In short, there are two major parts of the book that need significant rewriting, with moderate and minor edits sprinkled through the rest. I’m confident the book will be even better once they’re done – it’ll be tighter, cleaner, and more polished.

And I’m excited. SO excited. You have no idea. ;)

So that’s the update on where the book’s at.

Cheers!
Stephanie Beavers

Invisibility Cloak, Here I Come

03 Monday Feb 2014

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So I ran into this brief article on the potential future of invisibility: How do you make things invisible?
stealth jet
“Metamaterial” is apparently the future of stealth: not just invisibility, but undetectability. Now, I was curious for a more in-depth look at the stuff, so I of course consulted Wikipedia. I was subsequently reminded that my degree was a BA, not a BSc. As it turns out (and it’s not really a surprise), metamaterials are pretty complicated.

What I took away from it though, was that a Harry Potter-esque invisibility cloak was unlikely. This caused the fangirl portion of my brain so lose most of its interest, although a healthy dose of academic curiosity remains. So while I failed to achieve a comprehensive translation of the entirety of the article, I learned that metamaterials actually have potential uses in many areas (including various sensors and communications). Despite my lack of a thorough understanding, I am still inspired. I love it when I can walk away from even a short article going, “That is awesome.”

So here’s to science. Keep being awesome. (And keep making awesome things.)

Top 10 List of Books That Have Stayed With Me

13 Monday Jan 2014

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The “Ten books that have stayed with you” meme found its way into my Facebook. Most people wouldn’t consider my picks great works of literature (although I obviously think they’re awesome), but they’re books that have influenced me and my writing, and they’ve made particular impressions in my mind. Not necessarily in order, but easy decisions came first.

1. Arrows of the Queen –Mercedes Lackey
2. Mossflower -Brian Jacques
3. Exile’s Honor -Mercedes Lackey
4. Birth of the Firebringer –Meredith Ann Pierce
5. Song in the Silence -Elizabeth Kerner
6. Harry Potter -J.K. Rowling
7. Wizard’s First Rule -Terry Goodkind
8. Nicomachean Ethics -Aristotle
9. The Bible
10. The Bourne Identity -Robert Ludlum

So yeah… 70% of my list is pure fantasy. Is it any wonder that I write it?

Now I long to go into detail about some of these authors, right here, right now, but I know I’ve talked about Mercedes Lackey already, and I’m actually planning a series on authors who have inspired me. So expect posts on most of these people in the future!

My Inspiration: Mercedes Lackey

02 Monday Dec 2013

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All writers are readers; it just goes with the territory. And I have been reading for as long as I can remember. When I first started learning to read, I devoured everything in site. It didn’t take long before my reading level was far beyond what my age suggested it should be. In fact, I remember reading books with sex scenes (not like erotica, but still) before I really understood what was going on. I just went flip, flip, flip- oh good, we’re back to the story. My voracious reading continued until university, when unfortunately my reading lists took over and I didn’t read much for pleasure anymore. Even so, I expanded my mind in new ways, with different kinds of reading and learning.

But for me, the most memorable author is Mercedes Lackey with her Valdemar series. I started with Arrows of the Queen and I was completely enchanted by her characters and her world. Who wouldn’t want an amazing animal companion of human intellect who loves you to the depth of your being. I have to admit, those Companions were a big draw for me, but so was her character-focused writing in those early books. Alberich is still my favorite character of… yes, I think ANY book, ever. His book, Exile’s Honor, came a little later in the series, but it has become my favorite by far. And it wasn’t just the characters – Mercedes Lackey has built an incredibly vivid, magical world for her characters to live in. Everything from the geography and the mix of cultures and races, to the carefully crafted system of magic, to the unique creatures that roam her world, all work to draw the reader in.

I have to admit though, I am a far greater fan of her earlier works that her more recent ones. But such is life – things change, and her writing has changed. She has expanded in new directions while I remain curled up, snuggling her old books, much beloved. Of all the authors that I’ve read, she has probably had the greatest impact on my own writing. She has an immersive, straight-forward style that discards fluff in favor of moving things along. Her imagery is vivid without taking 6 pages to describe something (I’m looking at you, Tolkien). She has her flaws, sure, but I recommend her books to anyone who loves fantasy. Start with Arrows of the Queen, like I did – it was her first book and one of her best, in my mind. Maybe you’ll fall in love with her characters and her world like I did.

The Frightening Truth About Where Inspiration Comes From.

07 Thursday Nov 2013

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Bees Underwent Massive Extinctions When Dinosaurs Did. Articles like these are one place where I find inspiration. The title inspires questions – most notably “why?” and “what if…?” It’s just a simple statement, a single fact, but it holds an immense amount of potential. Someone could write an entire book based on that one sentence – fiction OR non-fiction (although that doesn’t mean anyone will). Me, I write fantasy, so I immediately start thinking of supernatural.

Even just putting bees and dinosaurs in the same sentence can inspire something (albeit something B-movie): Beezilla! Half bee, half dinosaur! Tokyo is doomed! Or maybe: Mutant Bees Vs Tyrannosaurus Rex, Battle for Jurassic Earth (Let’s face it, “Jurassic” is a pretty epic-sounding word and would’ve found itself in a movie title some day even if Jurassic Park had never been made.)

Angry Bee

Does he look angry to you? He looks angry to me.
Image compliments of Jon Sullivan, pdphoto.org

But even a mystery or thriller writer could do something with that idea. Maybe it’s a conspiracy! They could link that fact to something that’s happening now, something no doubt nefarious. Maybe scientists are conducting experiments. Maybe a secret society is engineering the downfall of our countries so they can take over the world – or at least control it.

I’m not saying any of this would be award-winning material (although it could happen), but it would definitely be fun.

So there you have it, folks. For every writer who has ever been asked where their inspiration came from, the answer is going to look something like this. They saw an image. They read a single sentence (or an entire book) on some random subject. They heard a song. Heck, they tasted a particular flavor or felt a particular texture. And when they did, it evoked an emotion. It evoked an idea. It evoked inspiration.

Fortunately, it’s also often better stuff than bees and dinosaurs. Then again, not every bit of inspiration gets written down, and even less of it gets published. So be afraid. Be very afraid. A writer’s mind is a scary place. As Colin Nissan said,

A writer’s brain is full of little gifts, like a piñata at a birthday party. It’s also full of demons, like a piñata at a birthday party in a mental hospital.

So when someone says inspiration just happens, it’s true. It’s wonderful and inexplicable. That’s why it’s inspirational.