Sources of Inspiration!

The topic this week for me was: what books or magazines do you turn to for inspiration and or writing help?

I'd say I turn to books for inspiration. When I started to write my novel, The House on Blackstone Moor I re-read all the Daphne DuMaurier  books I loved. The House on the Strand, My Cousin Rachel, Rebecca, Frenchmen's Creek and Jamaicia Inn.

YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! I said to myself as I read that sweeping, beautiful and haunting narrative.

'Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again...'  (Rebecca)
'They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days...' (My Cousin Rachel)
'The first thing I noticed was the clarity of the air and the sharp green color of the land...' (The House on the Strand)
'When the east wind blows up Helford River the shining waters become troubled and disturbed and the little waves beat angrily on the sandy shores.' (Frenchmen's Creek)
It was a cold, grey day in late November (Jamaica Inn)

and:

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights:
1801: I have just returned from a visit to my landlord. The solitary neighbor I shall be troubled with.'

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre
'There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.'

Why those lines, you may ask!
They set the mood. They pull me right into the story. I have questions I want answered! What dream and why? Hanged men? Where is this going? The clarity of the air, what does that mean? Is everything different? And what about taking that seemingly much longed for walk--what was that about?!

The most haunting of them is the opening line from Rebecca. For what is more haunting than a dream? And why did this person dream she went there again...what happened there?

The other lines not only set the mood they intrigue us about the story. In short, they touch my soul. I feel those words, I really do. And because I do they inspire me to write the best fiction I can possibly write. Hopefully I succeed.

I think also that inspiration to write comes from everything around us. I am inspired by the walks I take with my dogs, the walks on farmland and moorland. The wind, the stormy skies, the sound of angry gusts blowing in the chimney are all inspiring.

Further, people are inspiring, a conversation I overhear--an accent. I am greatly inspired to create characters based on people I have seen and heard.

Television and film can also be inspiring. I see something remarkable in a film. Perhaps it's the story or the general atmosphere. One thought leads to another and another and another!

Inspiration can indeed come from the printed word. But it can come from the world around me, the world I am apart of. Stand back writers--take a look and you will open many doors! The road to inspiration lies just ahead!

Genre Writing: I AM My Genre!

Remember that fantastic line from 'Wuthering Heights' when Cathy said: "I AM Heathcliff?!"
She says it suddenly with such drama because she has realized something irrefutable; they are so much alike as to be one! There is no denying it. It is quite a moment.

Now, I am not going to discuss 'Wuthering Heights' here. I am referring to this line purely to make a point. This weeks' topic asks: 'within the genre you write, do you know who you are writing for? Do they call to you?' I have to say I couldn't wait to get going with this one!

Gothic fiction with its sweeping and dramatic narrative knows my name. I hear its voice every time I sit down to write. I am writing the sequel now to my gothic novel, 'The House on Blackstone Moor.'
And boy do I ever hear its voice. It is all around me.

As it happens, I live in Yorkshire and have been to the Bronte Parsonage many times as well as the moors around Haworth, the very moors the Brontes walked upon. Anyone with any sort of affinity for gothic romance should visit these places. These dramatic, wind-swept settings shape my writing and always will.

As for the genre in general, those great writers of the past left us a legacy to carry on with: whoever they were and wherever they lived. And by the way, the drama in gothic can be transposed to various settings and times. It is merely up to the writer.

I feel there is a genuine interest in this genre. In fact I don't think it ever went away. Read some of the discussions on Amazon between gothic romance readers and you'll see what I mean.

As for me, I often hear from those readers who wish to read that sort of fiction again. Not re-packaged, but freshly written for today's reader. All the feedback I am getting is confirming this to be true.

I read that gothic romance was no longer popular. That motivated me to write my book.
What better inspiration is there then to be on a mission to help to reinvent gothic romance?
I think we all write within the genre that appeals to us, the one we enjoy reading the most. It is a natural thing.

We watch what's being sold, what's popular, but we should also be unafraid to trail-blaze or to seek to bring new readers over to our genre fold. And then again, we may re-interpret what's gone before or indeed go onto invent some entirely new subgenre!

I believe whatever genre we write in, we must love that genre. It must be part of us, because our writing is really our vision of everything told subjectively. There's a very interesting line in the film, 'Leave Her To Heaven,' when the beautiful but homicidal Ellen says about her father: 'my father said every book was a confession...'

I think it is. I think we are what we write!