Welcome one and all, ladies and gentlemen, avians and bovine stock alike, to this next segment on the subject of 'inspiration'.
In the last entry we looked at my general overview and ramblings of exactly what such a strange concept is, and how it can be applied by budding Creative Writers and AARtists on TWC and beyond, that inspiration can be dredged up from the most mundane every-day things and warped into something altogether more exciting.
This part of the series focuses on an aspect of inspiration that many people may inadvertently include, but commonly do it in such a way that they rarely realise that they are- I am of course speaking about the self, and its inclusion in writings.
Much like the cameos in cinema, except hardly as blatant, there are many writers that transplant themselves- or at least an aspect of themselves -onto either their stories or one or more of their characters. I myself have done this on more than one occasion, whether adding a bodily attribute or aligning the mindset of a particular character with my own. What with writing sometimes referred to as 'escapism', whether for the reader or the author or both, it need not come as a shock that you can find deep wells of inspiration simply by taking a seat and looking inward once in a while.
Personal beliefs, personal morals, personal traumas and jubilations can all have a profound influence on the writing of the creator, just take a look at C.S.Lewis' Narnia books, or Tolkien's Middle-Earth novels; in both we can see shades of the writer, Lewis' Christian beliefs and symbolism, or Tolkien's experiences with industrial technology- as well as his love for Old English and Norse mythologies. If it were not for their personal paths in life, then their may have been no Aslan, or no Isengard to terrorise the people of Rohan and burn the forests down, in short there would have been large chunks missing, if the novels had even been completed at all.
One example from my own writing, as horrible as it may be for people to read, is that of male rape by another male. Now, please bear with me; most people today would clearly be horrified to find this in a novel of historical-fiction, or indeed in any novel/story/etc, but why is this? Aside from rape being an unforgivable act in the first place, that is. I would argue that it is because of the way we have been shaped, personally, whether by parents or the society around us, to flinch away from even reading such things; things that no doubt happened and have happened in warfare and out of it to this very day.
Why use this as an example, why even bring it up at all?
A lecturer once told me to suspend all my modern beliefs, all my ethics and morals or right and wrong, when going 'back in time', so to speak. The Ancient World, she rightly said, is nothing like our own and is as alien to us today as Martians probably would be should they ever land on Earth. Aspects like stuprum, or slavery, should not be glossed over simply because of modern feelings. It happened.
This, in a round about way, is an example of my writing taken from personal experience. Settings aside, what I think I know, and what I believe as a modern-day person, is just something I do, but there is so much more.
There are a few more examples of my own which I can give, to show you what I mean. In many of my stories a lot of the characters, mainly the protagonist, will have one or more of my bodily features- whether it is my height, build, hair colour or some other one. This is obviously a superficial example, and probably the easiest one to do, but can add something of yourself to either your main character(s) or supporting characters in a very subtle way.
Perhaps an example closer to the point would be in my characters reactions to events and the world around them. In one of my Roman AARs, for example, the protagonist had to face the deaths of both his Germanic wife and his Grandfather who had been acting as his mentor. Now, my Grandfather had recently died, and it was not a huge leap for me to imagine how I would feel if I lost my girlfriend, and so I was able to use those emotions to try to see through my characters eyes and react accordingly.
I must say that my girlfriend has helped me to measure many of my emotional scenes between husbands and wives, lovers and so forth, in how exactly I would feel or react if I were that character and in that situation.
Apart from that many of the situations where I have inserted a little of myself have been during dialogue between characters. I am a rather sarcastic person, and sometimes I cannot help injecting that in to a few lines of dialogue! If you are anything like me, then I'm sure you've done it too.
Lastly are the situational examples - looking through the characters eyes, or changing skin, if you will, for example what would I do if I burnt my hand on a candle? If I received a wound? If it was my first time in battle - and, yes, many of my characters reactions where they have soiled themselves have been what I would likely do - or if I was surrounded by an overwhelming enemy force.
It takes a good amount of imagination, but not really as much as you might think.
So, how about yourself? What could you take from your own mentality, life, or body that you might infuse into a story of your own creation?
A child that seems oddly familiar to you? A sibling that is picked on by another sibling in a story-book imitation of something you know very well?
I would call these 'lighter' examples, because there are 'darker' moments in life to delve into as well.
Your protagonist has just lost his parents, or perhaps a relative or close friend - what would you feel in this situation? How would you react? Perhaps he goes into a deep depression, but would you become depressed? Would you become violent or enraged or vengeful? Why would you react in that way?
Your antagonist needs a little bit of 'umph' to them; a time to let out some of your thoughts that you may have conjured up but would never say out loud? For example, a prisoner has been taken and needs to be interrogated, what do you do? What would this scene say about you, if anything?
You could simply gloss over the scene, write an aftermath dialogue or some such. On the other extreme you could describe an overly detailed yet very removed description of torture and imprisonment. Yet, as I believe, the best way would be to take a look inside yourself and figure out what you would do.
Clearly if your antagonist is a psychotic killer, and you are not, then there is little to connect the two of you and there would truly be no point. On the other hand you can ask things of yourself in respect to this situation; how would you respond again? Does the idea of hurting another person influence you greatly? Would your antagonist react in the same way as you would, or would they take a different route? How does the prisoner react?
A much shorter way of putting this would be to make a suggestion, and that suggestion is to focus. To focus very hard, to get inside the heads of your characters (though maybe not all of them!) and see for yourself what they might see. Of course, do not veer wildly off track just because you think or believe something, but if there are parts or pieces of you that could click with the parts and pieces of them, then taking a moment of time to breath and ponder will do both you and the story a world of good.
Much like my last article, it is all about questioning- although this time it is far more about questioning yourself, rather than things around you.
While I may well not have provided any great guidance here, I do hope it has helped to provoke thought, and that it will make those that wish to try their hands (or keyboards) at writing do so.
That is all for this article and I hope you enjoyed reading my ramblings as much as I enjoyed writing them.
In next month's article on inspiration I shall be speaking about a facet of inspiration that comes from looking backward, from history and from the great figures within it.
Until then, get writing!