Inspiration

Your Question – Justin Knabe asks: Do you write what you are passionate about or what is selling?  I have a lot of great ideas, but that is as far as it goes.

Sue’s reply:   I am currently trying to jump-start my career after a hiatus due to family caregiving needs and also after the bottom fell out of the market for books set in prehistoric times.  Six of my seven published books were of this “prehistoric” genre, so it has been a matter of testing the waters and regenerating my passion for other genres.   I am currently writing in a genre that is selling (mystery).  I weave each novel around characters that I care passionately about.  That passion is  the often overlooked secret to a successful book.

Concerning your own ideas for books or stories, Justin, my advice would be to center a character within the framework of an idea that really sparks your enthusiasm.  Before you write even a page, get to know that character like a best friend.  Not just what the person looks like, sounds like, walks like, but what makes him or her tick.  What is the most important thing in that character’s life?  What gives him or her self-esteem, a feeling of self-worth?  Then within the framework of your idea (which should be something that is currently marketable), take that inner joy away from your character.  It’s gone; it’s kaput; it’s lost.  The rest of your story or novel will be about how your character, through toughness and ingenuity, reinvents his or her life, or wins back what is lost or (often in the case of a literary novel – which usually isn’t quite as marketable) gives up and self-destructs.

A couple days ago, I received a great email from a reader, Ada Jarvis, who beautifully summed up what reading books and stories is all about.  With Ada’s permission, I append her quote.  “I want my children to love and appreciate the things in life that I feel should not be taken for granted.  Reading is one of those gifts I value most of all.  I want them to grow up understanding that just because this is the age of technology, that doesn’t mean that every adventure should be watched on a television screen.  I want them to have the same excitement as I did growing up, living adventures through books.  To me, imagination is everything.”

There you have it.  Imagination.  Excitement.  Passion.  In readers and in writers.  And that’s what books are all about.  Using imagination to feed the passion, and then sharing our excitement with others!

Blessings,

Sue Harrison