So, I'm laying in bed next to my baby boy in the wee hours of the morning, listening to his soft breathing, feeling frustrated because the blog I've been trying to post with his cute newborn picture will not post, no matter what I try. When all of a sudden, the backstory for both my main character in Ghost Girl and the 'super-evil bad guy' pops into my head. At 4:30am. When I am supposed to be sleeping because husband dearest and I have a fun day of letterboxing with the kidlets planned. What's a writer to do, but get up and quickly jot down some notes before the stroke of inspiration fades like the misty webs of dreams that vanish with first light? And, of course, write a quick emergency blog post to replace the one I really want to post.
I recently discovered the History International channel. Love it, love it, love it. There are so many good, educational shows. As a writer, it has been fueling the creative juices for several weeks. There's been an idea I've had for several weeks that I got from a couple of the shows, and I've been trying to figure out how to weave it into Ghost Girl without completely changing the course of the book. Lack of sleep and frustration completed the weaving this morning. At the moment (5:25am), I am so hyped because this idea feels right. It rings true, like other plot ideas I've had and then later seen in print in newly released books. I haven't seen this idea in any other book anywhere, which gets me really excited. It opens up entirely new dimensions for my characters, new motivations and conflicts that I haven't seen anywhere else (not that I've read every book in the known universe, but I've never heard of this idea used elsewhere).
So, having jotted down the new inspiration and plot points, I'm going to attempt to grab another sixty minutes of shut-eye before it's time to get up and make breakfast for the family. And tonight, bwa-ha-ha, I'm going to have so much fun torturing my characters with my newfound knowledge.
Where do you get inspiration for your charcters? Is it from real-life people? Another book? Movie? Educational materials? And how do you take that inspiration and mold it into a living, breathing person that connects with your readers?
