"Where do you get your ideas from?" Part One

A question I often get asked is 'Where do you get your ideas from?'

And it's a difficult question to answer on the spot. I tend to give a vague answer like 'oh, you know, they just come to me.'

Which - technically - that's true.

But it is a little more complicated and convoluted than that, and it does tend to take time for a story to mature to the point of being 'readable'.

I thought I might talk about the novel my amazing editor and I are currently working on 'Rusted Hearts' but then I was - hm - I don't want to spoil the book because I am really excited about it! I want people to go into the novel with no preconceived notions.

However, I have plenty of other universes and worlds to pull from and share the experience of creativity with you all.

So, usually my ideas start with either characters or 'sets of characters', sometimes a notion like 'bells', 'tea magic', 'what if stars were sentient?' (That one you'll see crop up in a lot of my stories) 'ancient aliens' or 'what if you stepped on a crack and got teleported to another world?' or 'what if ships had souls? what form would they take? Cats, probably cats, let's make them cats, everything is cats...all the cats!!'

See...I just sort of, go a bit crazy and start thinking and my thinking leads me down pathways, and those pathways go down other pathways, which open other pathways and then before I know it, I have formed entire settings.

And then I have an issue that I have no plots to go inside those awesome settings.

Sometimes, this can last for ages, years even, that I will sit on universes and characters inside those universes without a plot and I will just mull about, writing bits and pieces here and there...

And then, it will usually happen in the most ordinary moment - while I'm washing the dishes, or taking a shower, or at the gym.

The plot will all fall into place like domino pieces.

Recently I had this happen on a world that has been sitting around for years and years.

The Bellringer.

This was a story that was, weirdly...inspired by my love of the Redwall Books. It literally has nothing to do with cute animals, but there was a story in that series about the Bell Maker, the mouse who made the bell for Redwall Abbey - and it's that tiny little flame that caught me.

The Bellringer is a story about the last Bellringer, an immortal who is tasked with ringing the bells positioned throughout the lands; otherwise, calamity will come upon the world. The Bellringers have performed this task since time began, but they started to be hunted for sport (sort of like our concept of dragons were hunted.)

Still they continued their important task.

Natel is the last, and he accidentally gets himself caught in a trap set up by some foolish young lads, which keeps him stuck in a cave for a thousand years, during which he cannot ring the bells. By then, time has passed, and people of the world believe the idea of the calamity is a myth.

Until it isn't.

And that was the beginning of my plot, in which I could insert all my awesome array of characters into this world of fey and ley-lines and bell-magic.

Unfortunately, due to the 'Great Hard Drive Catastrophe of 2009' in which I lost much of my old art, I don't have a lot of the adorable art that I remember when I was first designing the characters for this world. However, two pieces have survived because I printed my work out and coloured it with pencil back then, and scribbled notes by hand.

Something I am thinking of doing again - I just need to save up for a printer - after I have saved up for an air-con, and saved up for a new computer, and saved up for a clothes-dryer...and...well...you get the picture. XD Life never stops.

This is 'Joshy' - one of the Mire People of the Swamps of Iso.

Most of my stories tend to feature a young child of some sort that tags along and gets adopted by the adult protagonists.

Malsufer or 'Mal' is Natel's fey companion and is a fire-sprite who lives inside his lantern. He is basically one of the reasons why I really want to pick up this story again, as I love his character. He is the sarcasm, spite and venom to Natel's cool and gentle demeanour.

And so - truly - stories can begin anywhere, and bloom from anything. It is the marvellous wonder of being creative and enjoying the fun of world-building.

Next week though, I will talk about what happens when world-building gets sort of out of hand, and a universe gets really, really big and I get stuck with a great world, and fantastic characters but no plot...

And how annoying that can be. ^_^;;