Weekly Questions from the Question-Maker: Where do I get my Ideas? And more!

Good Monday, yo.

It's a cold, rainy day today, and the mountain right outside my house is covered in snow.

Perfect day to curl up with a good book. Too bad I'll be working on revisions.

ON TO THE POST:

Anytime I get asked the same questions over and over, I like to include them on the blog. So, maybe this will be a Monday feature or something. 

BAM! Just like that, I have a weekly feature. Blogs are magical! I say it at home, in my kitchen, and it becomes so. 

Time for our first weekly...

MONDAY, AT HOME, WITH THE QUESTION-MAKER:

QM: Where do you get your ideas?

This is, probably, by far the most common question I've gotten, and I know other authors get asked it a billion times, a billion different ways.

My favorite way the question has been asked comes from my mother-in-law right after she finished reading my book:

"I had no idea what's been going on in that head of yours!"

Okay, so it's not a question, but anywho... I thought I'd answer it here.

My book is partially based on a few myths, namely Persephone and then Orpheus and Eurydice. It's okay if you don't know anything about these myths, because I didn't set out to write a book based on myths.

I started my book because I had a scene in my head: A girl, who has just returned to her high school after a 4 month absence. She's completely changed, barely recognizable, a shell of her former self. Nobody knows where she's been, not even the boy she left behind.

So, what is that first day back like? Is there someone at the school she's dying to see again? And most importantly, where had she been that would completely destroy her like that?

I'll admit, I wrote a good portion of the book before I had any of the answers, especially about where she'd been.  It was only then that I knew this story was based on the myth of Persephone. 

This might be a backward way to approach a book, but I can't sit down at the computer and go, "Okay, so I like the Persephone myth... How can I apply that to a contemporary high school setting?" Because then there'd be no element of surprise, no passion behind the book.

QM: Are all the answers going to be that long?

No. 

QM: You're in the middle of revisions. What if your editor wants you to change something that you don't want to change? Can she make you?

She can't make me. But the guys with the guns she sends to my house can make me. 

The way I view editorial suggestions/changes is this: Even if I don't agree with the suggestion, it's still a sign that there is a problem there that needs to be addressed. 

It will never go like this:

Editor: "I'm not sure the father, who is the mayor of the town, would really sign up for a pole-dancing class... It seems a little out of character."

Me: "But I know a guy who did that! That part of the story is integral to the entire plot!!! It has to stay! Plus, it came to me in a dream, and my dreams are always prophetic!!!!!!!"

* Side note: just because something happened in real life doesn't mean it will sound authentic in a book. Real life is always stranger than fiction.

If I didn't agree, my response would be more something like this:

"It's important that the father pole-dance. What if I add something about how his own mother was a world-famous pole-dance instructor? And he promised her on her death bed he would carry on the tradition?"

My editor says her revision notes are just jumping off points to get the discussion going. I love my editor.

QM: I thought you promised no more long answers?

Then ask simpler questions.

QM: Okay, time to dumb it down for the lady of the house. Where in your house do you write?

My kitchen. Unless I'm deep in revisions, then I take it to the bedroom. (Sorry, TMI). 

QM: Have you ever seen The $20,000 Pyramid?

Yes.

QM: The Shuttle launch.

Midnight on New Year's Eve.

An egg timer.

Things you count down!!! Things you count down!!!!

QM: Congratulations?

Thanks! What do I win? What do I win?

---

Question-Maker? Are you there?

Question-Maker?

Okay, so the QM has gone home. (In case you're wondering, the QM lives in the space between Rainbows and Comets. Third house on the left.)

So, what did all y'all do over the weekend?