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Stories about the Stories: Introduction

InspiredOne of the most com­mon ques­tions I, as a writer, am asked, is; “What inspired you to write such and such a sto­ry?” I know many writ­ers get asked that.

To my ears, the use of the word “inspire” in that con­text has a mag­i­cal or mys­tic ring to it, as if God, as per the Sis­tine Chapel, had reached down, and with a divine spark, gave Adam life, and to an author, his or her book.

In fact, the true mean­ing of the word “inspire” is actu­al­ly clos­er to the mark of what real­ly hap­pens. That is, the writer breathes life into an idea. Crude­ly put, think of an idea as a bal­loon, with­out air. One blows into it and a shape is formed. That to me is what inspire is all about.

That said, it’s rather dif­fi­cult to pin-point the exact moment when an idea comes into life. At the moment I am work­ing on a book for which I had (or was giv­en) the idea per­haps some forty years ago. Some­body told me a sto­ry about some­thing they did, and it stayed with me. For a very long time. What took you so long to write it, you might ask? To that ques­tion I have no good answer.

In any case, I am going to com­mence a series here which will be sto­ries about my sto­ries, that is, what I remem­ber as to how I came to write each of my books. The sto­ries as to what inspired me vary huge­ly from that above, to some­one telling me about an event, to a dream, or see­ing or read­ing some­thing. One book was inspired because I passed by an his­tor­i­cal road mark­er, which vir­tu­al­ly gave me a sto­ry. Anoth­er book came about (one of my favorites) because some­one, a per­fect stranger, made a casu­al remark to me about a build­ing. In some cas­es one idea inspired me to have a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent idea, and book. Inspi­ra­tion can evolve.

I can only admit that some of these sto­ries will be quite mun­dane. Oth­ers, I hope, you will find tru­ly interesting.

So there you are. Sure­ly there must be some of my books you have missed. Per­haps, with these sto­ries about my sto­ries, I can inspire you to reach for them. Mind, to be inspired only means that I desire to breathe life into an idea so that it becomes a book.

Only you, the read­er, can decide if I have giv­en the idea life.

5 thoughts on “Stories about the Stories: Introduction”

  1. This series sounds real­ly interesting.I’m look­ing for­ward to hear­ing how each of your books came about. Also, how do you keep track of all the pos­si­ble ideas? Good mem­o­ry? Sticky notes? Fil­ing sys­tem or com­put­er? Inquir­ing minds want to know!

    Reply
  2. I have almost no notes, and I dis­card old man­u­scripts. So I am remem­ber­ing how these books came about–at least the orig­i­nal idea. But of course, books always evolve. For some books I can be pre­cise as to begin­nings. In oth­er books it takes hard think­ing and spec­u­la­tion. Instance: I have just fin­ished a first draft of new nov­el. It is based on a true tale my father-in-law (long since passed on) told me per­haps forty-five years ago. It caught my atten­tion then, but why it took so long to be writ­ten, I have no idea.

    Reply
  3. You said back in may that there was talk of adding anoth­er book to the dim­wood for­est series is there any update on that?

    Reply
  4. I look for­ward to learn­ing more about the gen­e­sis of your cre­ations. It piques my inter­est. Per­haps you will inspire me to fill a bal­loon or two. Thank you in advance for the posts.

    Reply

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